Bold Move, Bad Look | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

A news editor with Russian state media outlet Channel One Marina Ovsyannikova garnered international attention when she boldly crashed a live report on the propaganda channel carrying an anti-war sign and declaring “they are lying to you here!”

After seeming to be missing for several hours, Ovsyannikova appeared in court Tuesday.

Ovsyannikova walked into her studio in the middle of a broadcast and unfolded a poster saying “No war, stop the war, don’t believe the propaganda, they are lying to you here.” Before the televised protest, Ovsyannikova released a video on social media saying she was “ashamed” of “promoting Kremlin propaganda” throughout her career with Channel One.

It was an incredible moment.

The journalist was quickly detained by the Russian police after her protest, and TASS — another Russian state-owned news agency — reported on how she could be charged for “discrediting the use of Russian troops.”

Russia has been cracking down hard on journalists and political dissidents throughout the invasion of Ukraine, and Human Rights Watch warns that protesting the Kremlin’s narrative can get people sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Following Ovsyannikova’s arrest, multiple reports stated that her lawyers were trying to get in contact with her, but were unable to find her. This prompted fears Ovsyannikova had already gone missing, but Julia Davis, a columnist who has been tracking the story for The Daily Beast, tweeted that “Ovsyannikova is in court with her lawyer Anton Gashinsky. She is facing administrative charges to begin with.”

It is not just her opposition to the illegal and inhumane attack on Ukraine that makes this a win. It is that she stood against propaganda, against lying to the people, and spoke the truth – and spoke for truth – in a place where doing so is severely punished.

It’s not just a media win, it’s a journalism win. And a human one.

Mediaite’s Michael Luciano makes the case:

Last Monday, MSNBC’s Joy Reid ended her show with a monologue about American news media priorities when covering international conflicts. She juxtaposed the media’s extensive coverage of Russia’s war on Ukraine with the scant coverage of strife in largely non-White parts of the world.

Reid specifically homed in on the ongoing civil war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen. She noted that “we haven’t witnessed the same type of solidarity for the Yemenis as we do for the Ukrainians. We don’t see historic sanctions or global campaigns, corporations like Airbnb and Netflix taking a stand.”

She added, “The coverage of Ukraine has revealed a pretty radical disparity in how human Ukrainians look and feel to Western media compared to their browner and blacker counterparts.”

Her comments, though valid to an extent, landed oddly given that until that time, The ReidOut had extensively covered Ukraine at the expense of other conflicts. Moreover, a search of transcripts indicated that prior to Monday, Reid hadn’t mentioned the war in Yemen since at least September of last year, and maybe longer. Like many primetime cable news hosts, Reid has shied away from covering international conflicts unless the U.S. is directly involved, Ukraine notwithstanding.

Last week I made the obvious point that as a cable news host, Reid would seem to be in a position to cover the sorts of conflicts she says deserve more coverage. Yet, she has declined to do so. That’s why I noted that unless The ReidOut starts covering the kinds of crises she’s talking about, her critique will continue to ring hollow.

Since that monologue, The ReidOut has aired five new episodes. A review of transcripts indicates that not only did the show not cover Yemen or some other war-torn “browner” country as Reid put it, the show has….

Read the rest of the column from Michael Luciano here.