A children’s hospital in Kiev was hit by a missile a few days ago, and the collective Western media sphere decided in about 30 minutes that it was a Russian missile, and that it was deliberate, and part of an evil plan. Many commentators on X believed it was the work of orcs.
We saw this activist journalism even at the beginning of the war, where a lot of weirdness was pumped out without really knowing what really happened, and not even having time to do a proper investigation of the events. In short, the media companies decided who was good and who was evil, using the same obvious and simplistic language as in Star Wars or Tolkien.
The Russians, of course, claimed that they had never attempted to bomb hospitals, that their target was arms depots around Kiev, and that the missile that hit the hospital was in fact a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile that missed its target, as the explosion would prove, as it was fairly limited.
This kind of reporting, highlighting both sides’ versions, is rare these days. It can be interesting, regardless of who we are rooting for in the war.
In addition, it is worth asking why we even choose sides in conflicts that do not affect us? Much like they are football matches? It is so easy to throw up a Ukrainian or Israeli flag next to your profile picture on social media, as if the vast majority of people had the deep understanding required to take sides in complicated and often decades-long conflicts with many parties involved.
It is not only a lack of humility, but also a lack of realisation that reporting is often laced with propaganda, from both sides, and that sometimes there is even outright censorship, as when Russian RT is blocked in Europe. It is not easy to get a sense of what is happening under these conditions, perhaps we will not get the full picture until the war is over and the dust has settled? And it is not certain that we will like what we see.
