Sciutto Salutes Ukraine. Carlson Disappoints, Yet Again. A Cuomo Comeback? | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room
MEDIA WINNER: Jim Sciutto
CNN’s chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto signed off from Lviv, Ukraine on Friday, ending his month-long stay in the country while covering the brutal Russian invasion.
“Tomorrow, I’m leaving Ukraine after a month here,” Sciutto began, striking a somber tone.
“This country is now more than two weeks into a bloody devastating war. The biggest and perhaps most dangerous in Europe since World War II,” he continued.
During his time in Ukraine, Sciutto has been an integral part of CNN’s on-the-ground team, bringing the world a close-up view of the devastation wrought by Putin’s obsession with rebuilding the Soviet Empire. Perhaps most importantly, he’s conducted many interviews with Ukrainians over the past month that showed their “admiral resolve” and put a human face to this war.
Sciutto wrapped his remarks by noting that the Ukrainian people “share our dreams and our hopes and fears and they are being tested now in the most horrible ways,” and “we are being tested as well.”
“This is a 1939 moment for Europe and the world. We at CNN will continue to cover this war as only CNN can and I will be back here with my team soon as well,” he concluded. “Thanks so much to all of you for joining us this hour, I’m Jim Sciutto signing off from Lviv, Ukraine.”
It goes without saying that reporting from a war zone carries personal safety risks, and Sciutto should be proud of the work he and his team have done over the past month to tell these important stories.
MEDIA LOSER: Tucker Carlson, Yet Again
Your friendly neighborhood Mediaite newsletter correspondent would like to state for the record that we do not enjoy naming Tucker Carlson the Media Loser of the Day so frequently. We would much rather have the top-rated Fox News host remember that with great power comes great responsibility, and the combination of his massive audience and the seriousness of the topics he discusses (Covid-19, the 2020 election, Ukraine, etc.) means the farrago of festering misinformation he spews can have real world consequences.
Just within the past 24 hours, Carlson poured gasoline on a Russian propaganda fire and made cheap shots at reporters who dare to actually report on the news.
As part of their ongoing false flag campaign to justify their brutal assault on Ukrainian civilians, Russia has made a number of easily debunked claims, such as accusing their neighbor with a democratically-elected Jewish president of needing to be “de-Nazified.” The latest Russian propaganda claims that Ukraine is making biological weapons, in facilities supported and financed by the U.S. government.
Carlson breathed oxygen into this conspiracy by selectively quoting an interview with a Pentagon official who actually said the exact opposite of what the Fox News host told his audience he had said. Mediaite’s Michael Luciano wrote a detailed analysis of Carlson’s “stunning mendacity.”
Carlson also complained about reporters who he said were promoting “Pentagon talking points.” Besides being a oh-so-thinly-veiled swipe at Jennifer Griffin, Carlson might have more credibility if he hadn’t spent the past few months sounding like a PR flack for the Kremlin.
Links We Like:
We Need to Relearn What We’d Hoped to Forget
– Tom Nichols, The Atlantic
“The alarmists were right all along”: A Moscow journalist on Putin and the new Russian reality
– Sean Illing, Vox
The Distortions of the Putin Apologists
– Tim Miller, The Bulwark
Male State: The Russian Online Hate Group Backing Putin’s War
– Michael Colborne, Bellingcat
Read the full Mediaite Green Room Newsletter here, including the latest updates on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a possible Cuomo comeback. Sign up for your free subscription here.
