I received an email from a friend who grew up in Russia, but has been living in  the USA for at least the 20 years that I have known him.  I am always curious about what he thinks of the Russian/Ukrainian situation, but I try not to pester him with too many questions.

Today, he sent me this unsolicited email.

Hi Steve,

I hope you will publish this on your blog.

First of all the disclaimer, I do not support either Russian or Ukrainian side in this conflict – I just do not know enough to have an educated opinion.
Hence I do not  side with either.

However, I am very disappointing with the NPR coverage of the conflict – I find it not only biased but explicitly misleading.

This Sunday, while listening to NPR report from the eastern Ukraine, on the the NPR correspondents
(I think this was  Silvia Poggioli, but I am not 100% sure) interviewed a couple of local residents.

One of them said the following, literally, in Russian: “I am a machine operator working for a factory. I think that this conflict is blown out of proportion by politicians on both sides, who are trying to pursue their own political goals. I am interested in my job and feeding and providing for my family …”.

The NPR translation:

“My Russian Supervisors receive orders from Moscow and force me to cut all my ties and boycott any Ukrainian authorities, …”.
Later. the corresponded has elaborated on how the unrest is sponsored and promoted by Russia.

The second interview was among the same lines.

The local people sounded completely apolitical, “live me alone”.
The NPR coverage tone was that Russia is stirring an unrest in this region. Even if it is so, it was not evident from the interviews.

I really was expecting much more honest coverage from especially the NPR.

Regards,

-Leon

Ever since public broadcasting became fearful of the right-wingers in Congress about continued funding of public broadcasting, I have noticed a profound rightward tilt to PBS and NPR reporting. That they would actually lie is not a surprise. With the number of multi-lingual native Russian speakers in this country, I do wonder how NPR thought they could get away with this.

For example Pando has the article More PBS conflict woes as activists move to eject David Koch from board of “NOVA” station.

Last month, Pando’s “Wolf of Sesame Street” investigation broke the news that one of PBS’s flagship outlets had inked a secret deal with anti-pension billionaire John Arnold. That deal, which was not explicitly disclosed to viewers, was designed to broadcast anti-pension programming on public television stations throughout the country.

The story spotlighted how ideological billionaires and powerful corporations are increasingly – and stealthily – attempting to launder their political agendas through the trusted public-television brand, potentially in violation of PBS’s own rules.