My fiction writing creativity needs a rest sometimes, so! We interrupt our epic tale of the First Minnesota’s charge to bring you Tim’s Media Consumption Regarding Potential World War 3. Regular readers know we took some deep dives into NATO’s prime responsibility for the current war in Ukraine, plus an interview with a Holocaust expert on just how straight a line exists between today’s Ukraine and (literal) Nazis. So, I thought I would share a few places I get my Ukraine news from.
It’s not easy. The information war is very real, and currently being won by Ukraine, spectacularly. Your average American only ever sees western media oligarchy Standing With Ukraine™, so any reporting the slightest bit off message gets censored so quickly, often I find a source that disappears as soon as I find it.
Rules of thumb - None of the MSM is reliable, not a single source, from NYT, to WaPo, to Fox, to The Guardian, NPR (lol) even The Moscow Times. Decade after decade of Iraq (lies), Russiagate (lies), covid (lies) have made every single utterance from these snakes suspect. Don’t waste your time with television. Cable news is a thicket of lies so deep it seeps into local evening news here in Cleveland. Mostly, I read Twitter through a browser without logging in (because I’ve been banned from Twitter for years). Telegram has been very useful, as most people who get banned from other platforms end up there.
So, here are some English language sources, as I do not speak Russian or Ukrainian, and neither do you (probs). From the sources I list below you can find many others.
Russians With Attitude (Twitter @RWApodcast)
I found RWA via the Red Scare Podcast’s Armenian host, Anna Khachiyan’s Twitter feed. Anna retweeted RWA one time, I caught it, and now RWA is my go to spot for the hardest news from the front lines. RWA is two Russian guys who have clearly spent time in the Russian military, speak fluent English, thus have excellent sources across the spectrum. Twitter banned RWA briefly once (here’s their Telegram if that happens again). Be prepared - you will learn very quickly what you hear in American media is precisely the opposite of what’s going on in reality. As an aggregator, the RWA guys regularly share other sources.
The Grayzone (YouTube here)
Max Blumenthal’s coverage to date has been by far the best American journalism in this war. In fact, I expect Max and The Grayzone will soon be disappeared, so get it while you can. Nothing comes close; news from the ground, analysis from the widest spectrum of voices, the whole enchilada. Max introduced me to my favorite voice of this entire debacle, who is…
Russell “Texas” Bentley (on Telegram)
This guy is a star in the making, but also proof the Russians forgot how to do propaganda. A 61 year old American Communist (from Texas) who moved to Donbas in 2014 to defend Donetsk, Russell’s a bit of a caricature, complete with southern drawl. His knowledge of the context and the facts on the ground are hard to beat. If Russia were still good at propaganda, Russell would be elevated by Russia Today (RT) into an international phenomenon. Western media oligarchy sure as hell knows what a powerful voice Russell can be, as they’ve banned every social media account Russell once had. Russell claims (in this interview) the only person more censored than him is Alex Jones. (neither Russell nor Alex has met me yet ;). No voice covering this war is clearer to the western ear.
If the list seems short, well, it is. I have never seen a propaganda fog so thick since, well, since a vaccine that was never gonna work. And people still think it works! Time heals all wounds, eventually.