WAR in Ukraine, McFaul Reminds, Ingraham Smears | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

Former ambassador Michael McFaul
absolutely destroyed a BBC anchor on air for interviewing a Russian official who he said spewed “ridiculous” propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine — and asked if the BBC would have given Nazis airtime during World War II.

On BBC World Service’s Newshour, presenter Jame Menendez interviewed Vitaly Milonov, a Russian MP who is bonkers even by that nation’s political standards. For four minutes, Milonov spouted Vladimir Putin’s talking points, which Menendez did his best to challenge.

Menendez then introduced McFaul, who was U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2014. McFaul tore into the BBC for hosting Milonov.

“I want to ask a question,” he said. “The BBC, if it was September 1st, 1939, would you put on the air a member of the Nazi Party to try to explain this ridiculous, absolute falsification of history and information that we just heard from Mr. Milonov? Because this is complete, utter nonsense what he just said, and I’m wondering if we’re doing a service to the world by giving him a voice on the BBC?”

Menendez asked whether it isn’t important to hear these justifications that Russian officials are using, and McFaul continued.

“Well, it’s utter nonsense, and I really want to ask the question,” he said. “Let’s go back and find out was the BBC putting on Nazis on September 1st, 1939? Because I think it’s an ethical question for those that are in the business. You put him on and then you put me on. It’s here’s one view. Here’s another view, and I don’t like that.”

Toward the end of their interview McFaul made his point one more time.

“First thing we need to do is we need to call things that are right and wrong, and things that are evil, and this is evil,” the former ambassador said. “And Mr. Milonov was propagating evil, and we need to call that out for what it is.”

On Twitter, he added another admonishment to the media: “Do not give false equivalency to voices of evil and voices of good.”

It’s a stark lesson and must be re-taught from time to time, that there’s a difference between impartial airing of views and recklessly permitting propaganda and misinformation. The press accuse podcasters and social media of not knowing this. Many could use a refresher themselves.

“Pathetic.”

As Russia moved troops, tanks, and missiles into Ukraine on Wednesday night, bringing their hit list of targets that includes President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top staff, Fox News host Laura Ingraham covered the story in part by describing an overture for peace as a “pathetic display.”

It was only a short time before explosions began to rock cities across Ukraine that Zelesnky appealed to Russia, urging Putin to “stop before it’s too late.”

“If the Russian leadership does not want to sit at the table with us for the sake of peace, perhaps it will sit at the table with you,” said Zelensky, addressing the Russian people directly. “Do Russians want war? I would very much like to answer this question, but the answer depends on you, the citizens of the Russian Federation.”

Ingraham, who was interviewing ex-president Donald Trump at the time, had briefly interrupted her discussion with the former president to air part of an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. That meeting featured an historic moment when the Ukrainian ambassador spoke forcefully to the Russian ambassador, who is currently serving as president of the Security Council.

“We had a, kind of a really, pathetic display from the Ukrainian president – Zelensky – earlier today, President Trump, where he – in Russian, he doesn’t like to speak Russian, but in Russian – he was essentially imploring Vladimir Putin not to invade his country,” said Ingraham. She then ridiculously described the Ukrainian ambassador as looking “looking like a defeated man” before asking an actually defeated man, Trump, for his “final reaction.”

Trump said the invasion wouldn’t have happened if he were still president. It is a strange answer considering how big a fan of the invasion Trump has become.

“We will be defending ourselves,” Zelensky said in his speech non-pathetically, telling Russia, “As you attack, it will be our faces you see, not our backs.”

There were also other preposterous moments during the show.

“Pathetic” is not wholly inappropriate a description. It just needed to be applied inward, not outward in this case.