SATISH SHARMA - not just Rotigraphy.: European media need to understand the critical role they played in the terrible situation Europe finds itself in.

https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1892199204963139883

Arnaud Bertrand

European media need to understand the critical role they played in the terrible situation Europe finds itself in. This is an excellent illustration, just published by The Guardian (theguardian.com/us-news/2025/f), which claims to "fact check" Trump's "disinformation" but which is itself a litany of lies about the war in Ukraine (as are most "fact checks" these days it seems). How can you still write that "Russia's invasion of Ukraine was unprovoked" today, after everything we know? You can make the argument that it was illegal under international law, but it's the height of intellectual dishonesty to claim that it was "unprovoked". Similarly, how can you write that Ukraine couldn't have made a deal to end the war earlier than today, and especially write that the Istanbul negotiations failed because "Russia’s demands were maximalist"? At least half a dozen people present during these negotiations, including one of the top Ukraine negotiators (Davyd Arakhamia) and the former Israeli PM, are on the record saying the negotiations failed because the West - the US and the UK in particular - told Ukraine to keep fighting. And the deal that was on the table back then is unequivocally far better than what Ukraine will get today, just to put the "it was maximalist" rational in context... And then you wonder why Europeans are getting completely blindsided, and acting in ways that doesn't accord with reality? Look no further than the narrative bubble they live in... The role of media, normally, is to tell the - often inconvenient - truth. As well as, to some extent, shape a narrative that's in the interests of the country they operate in. European media do neither: they lie, often egregiously, and shape a narrative that cheerleads a war that's led Europe (and Ukraine) to complete strategic disaster.