Since I left my country of birth in the 90’s I have been
relying on English language sources of information, such as BBC World podcasts,
The New York Times, NPR’s Diane Rehm Show and the English language news in the
country in which I happen to live in (UK, Finland and now Sweden). Coming from
an ex-communist country, I thought of BBC, NYT, and NPR as the most reliable
and trustworthy sources of information. During the preparation for the Iraq
war, however, I started to have doubts, because it became clear that these “non-partisan”
and highly professional journalistic organizations were making propaganda. How
else can the efforts to justify an illegal and unjust war be called?
Iraq was the starting point, but since then there were many
issues that added to my suspicions – US political system, the growing gap
between the rich and masses, the 2008 financial crisis, etc. On all issues, my favorite
sources of information seemed to be making efforts to justify the policies of
the rich and powerful elites. Of course, you can find different opinions on the
op-ed pages of NYT, for example, but these are minority views that are easily drowned
by the editorial pages, or the majority of journalists and commentators in these
media organizations.
Since the Ukrainian crisis, I started looking for alternative
sources of information. I still keep BBC, but already gave up on NPR, NYT
(except for Paul Krugman) and here are the alternatives that I recommend.
RT
RT is
portrayed in the West as the “Russian
propaganda bullhorn”, but if we live in the Western propaganda bubble it makes sense to look at the propaganda of our opponents. This
may give us a more objective view of the World, even if we do not think of RT
as a reliable source of information. So far, I find RT to be more reliable than our MSM on many issues.
RT offers different shows, some of which I
dislike, but for Americans, I would recommend The Big Picture with Thom
Hartman. Also, you may be surprised, but the legendary Larry King is alive and
well and you can watch him on RT.
If you want a comedy, I recommend Redacted Tonight.
In my opinion, people who watch this comedy show are better informed than
majority of Americans about the problems in their society!
Democracy Now!
If RT is too much for you, or if you want an
American source, the best one I know is Democracy
Now! They do not accept advertising or corporate funding, which makes them
impartial. When the Ukrainian crisis started, it was so
refreshing to see and listen to Jack Matlock –
former US ambassador to the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1991, instead of the anti-Russian
hysteria on the MSM.
The Nation
If you prefer reading, I recommend The Nation – another independent
alternative source of information.
Consortiumnews.com
Another source for reading is Consortiumnews.com, which is run by an
old-fashioned investigative journalist Robert Parry, but you will find also
many articles by other journalists and experts.
Other
Beyond the above I would recommend following certain
knowledgeable people, experts in their fields, who we can trust because they
are not paid to promote a particular point of view. These are usually academics, or
retired experts, who write/speak without fear of being fired. Here are a few
examples:
Prof. John Mearsheimer
Prof. John J. Mearsheimer is a foreign policy academic.
Here is his analysis on the Ukraine crisis,
published in a specialized journal (Foreign Affairs), but he has tried to warn
or educate the “non-professionals” by writing this article in The New
York Times immediately after the most blatant coup in history
in February 2014, and again in 2015,
when there was a push to pass a bill for arming Ukraine, which would have led
to open Russian military intervention in Ukraine and a conflict on a much larger
scale.
Prof. Stephen Cohen
Stephen Cohen is undoubtedly the top American
expert on Russia, but he is so old-fashioned that he does not even have a
web-page. Luckily, his wife is the editor of The
Nation, and if you search their sight you will find a list of his articles and
interviews.
Here he is on
Charlie Rose in 2013, and here
is his last appearance on NPR’s Diane Rehm show in 2014, where he asked the other two
“experts” in the discussion about the vote to impeach the previous president of
Ukraine (Yanukovych) how can we accept that vote as legitimate when his party
hold the majority, but there was not a single vote against the impeachment? The
reason for the result of that vote (328:0) were the masked men standing by the
parliamentarians, which was reported by the Russian media, but was somehow missed
by the free Western media. Surely, the politicians and leaders of all Western
democracies knew this, but it did not stop them from recognizing that vote and calling
the new government “democratic and legitimate”.
So, the leading US expert on Russia, who for decades advised US
presidents and was a regular commentator on the MSM for Russia, became a
persona non grata after the Ukrainian
coup because he dared disagree with the American “consensus” that blames
Russia (and Putin) for everything wrong in the World. There are plenty of
articles in the US newspapers, written in “response” to Cohen, but they
just call him names without showing anything wrong in his analysis, or
predictions.
Cohen says that he is a personal friend of Gorbachev, not of Putin, but
he is forced to defend him because the demonization of Putin in the Western
media is beyond anything we’ve seen even during the Cold War, which creates a
wrong view of the Russian reality. For his effort to help us understand the
Russian position he is called Putin’s pal,
dupe,
apologist,
and toady.
Who would dare say something pro-Russian after such civilized treatment by the
MSM?
William Blum
In my quest for truth, I came across an author -
William Blum, who does not have
academic titles, but I find him factually impeccable.
Osama bin Laden says that if we want to understand why Al Qaeda is
fighting against the USA, we have to read the book 'Rogue State', written by W.
Blum!
Prof. Jan Oberg
Finally, someone based in Scandinavia – Prof.
Jan Oberg, who was the director of Lund University Peace Research Institute
(LUPRI). He runs TFF with his wife
and you can find his articles and interviews there.
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