Evidence to counter the western media onslaught was supplied by analysts like The Saker, RT contributors like Mark Sleboda, a handful of journalists like Graham Phillips and normal citizens like my colleagues Holger Eekhof and Paul Payer, and notable independent media like Consortium News, Global Research, Zero Hedge, and even at Katrina vanden Heuvel’s The Nation. That information combined with the spurious media events coming out of Britain and America motivated me to become proactive and political too. The airline tragedy was the deep line in the sand in between the globalists and nationalists. Syria and later conflagrations notwithstanding, many began to see Russia under attack by western powers at this time. It was at this moment that I began investigating and relating what information I could glean, along with some thought provoking theories via our Everything PR News and some other independent media.
Then on July 21st RT’s producers called me to do another interview on the MH17 airline catastrophe. During the interview, I was asked about the very early accusations against the separatists in Ukraine, and against Russia proper. I was also quizzed on what media’s role should have been in reporting these events. Things like verified sources and double-checking facts came up, as they should have. As we see now “Fake News” ended up in a fever pitch after the Donald Trump won the US presidential election, but it’s interesting to note that RT, the network accused most of being a “propaganda bullhorn”, is the network that sought a modicum of journalistic appropriateness during this key crisis. In the interview, I condemned western leaders and media for replacing ironclad facts with “flimsy speculation”. This criticism later proved prophetic when President Trump counterattacked what he termed “quasi-journalists” for reporting “Fake News”. So, the reader gets a better picture of my “conversion” to the pro-Russia side of things, and my own litmus test for Russian media’s legitimacy.
When I arrived at the Trier, Germany TV studio for this first interview I asked the technicians wiring me up, whether the interview was being recorded or not. “No, this is live”, I remember him answering. This moment in my journey brings me to an interesting point I’ve expressed many times since. At such a significant moment for Russia why would the alleged propaganda ministry of the autocrat Vladimir Putin trust a good ol’ boy from America to go live before its English-speaking audience? Each time I reflect on the interview I wonder what alternative reality I might have been part of. What if I decided to start bashing Sochi for some unseen environmental catastrophe? What if some western oligarch had paid me off to trash Mr. Putin’s party? Innocence, honesty, straightforwardness by the RT people convinced me early on, that the narrative from the opposition was the message in the red.
Moving forward, it was after the MH17 provocation things began to change very quickly, both in my personal and business world and the world of geopolitics. As my writings and social media presence uncovered or mirrored the moderate view on Russia more and more, relationships and even business opportunities began drying up for our PR company.
At first, I thought lost opportunities were a function of my own diverted focus from PR or from my technical columns onto more politically motivated topics. Then a preponderance of negative feedback from my social and business network, and especially my media colleagues in the west, it convinced me of the obvious. Editors began to turn down news and editorial in any way supportive of Russia.
It was at this juncture RT’s Op-Edge editors asked me to contribute a piece about the tragedy. “Death & lies: The only truth of flight MH17” had some stunning elements, and was eventually republished by many independent media outlets. The detail in this report that had the most impact was the stunning revelation former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was playing the financial markets on Rubles the instant MH17 disintegrated over Ukraine. Her interview with Charley Rose just hours after the crash got lost in the media frenzy that followed.
Whether I was “recruited” as a Kremlin agent by RT or not will probably always be a contentious point. For me, however, my association with the Russian TV and media network is a point of great pride for several reasons. First and foremost, when RT editors offered to pay me like any other journalist, I turned down any compensation so that my credibility and objectivity might stay intact. I saved the correspondence on this so that any such accusation could easily be addressed. Secondly, my role with RT has always hinged on pristine professional relations with everyone at the network. While I have never made any secret of my admiration or even friendship toward Margarita Simonyan and others there, I also refrained from such things as name dropping or even undue direct correspondence. As far as most RT employees or editors know, I’m just an analyst on their lists of sources to contact. This is the way I want it, in order that my efforts are as genuine and honest as possible.
Whatever readers choose to believe, subsequent events reveal the clear bias against anyone taking the moderate line on Russia. This bias reached a feverish pitch very early on in this new media war. As an example, a story on the Epoch Times I managed to get my colleagues there to publish, pretty much spelled the end of my blogging career at the popular site. In a cool bit of irony, it was me who was instrumental in helping the Senior Editor Jan Jekielek to launch Epoch Times’ blogging community. So, when the leadership of the newspaper created and supported by Falun Gong[7] decided to do away with dozens of blogs overnight, you can imagine my chagrin. Conversations I had with both Jan Jekielek and his wife, Digital Chief Editor Cindy Drukier Jekielek never served to satisfy me as to the real reasons for all those blogs being shut down without prior notice. I must stress here, I still consider both people my friends, for they’ve time and again exhibited uncommon professionalism and kindness. This is another reason I am convinced something out of the ordinary took place behind closed doors. To this day Epoch Times editorial and news stories are few and far between where Russia and Putin are concerned, and what there is inside the pages is basically parroting the mainstream. Given the nature of Epoch Times and the seeming independent voice it once was, I find this to be as telling as any Washington Post or Daily Beast anti-Putin tirade.
As far as I know, “Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Investigation: Trail of Guarded Secrets” is the most Russia neutral or positive article on any of the print or digital pages of Epoch Times since 2014. In the story, I cite a communication I had with the OSCE’s spokesperson at the time, Cathie Burton that included her response to my frustration at the difficulty obtaining clear information from sources on either side of the MH17 situation:
“I understand your frustration: this is a difficult time to find the facts, and I have personally never seen so much misinformation spread, either mischievously or innocently.”
Epoch Times curiosities notwithstanding, other media really shied away from the heated controversy (or business) of even a moderate view on Russia. A post at Japan Today, followed by an email from my kind editor friend there, revealed the “unpopularity” of Russia sympathy. “Flight MH17: Will the world ever know the truth?” put an end to my political scribbling to the Japan Today audience. Other media batten down their hatches, so to speak, and a lot of visibility vanished for me and other authors. The point is, the reader here can more clearly see how Putin fans became the most notable — or notorious — media combatants for Russia. Ostracized for speaking any dissenting view on an array of crises and news, almost every so-called Kremlin Troll I know has experienced a similar situation. This is where the media battle lines were drawn. Late in 2014 those who initially questioned US State Department policy and propaganda lines became determined to fight the false narrative. It was during this time that “truth seekers” encountered the mass of vested media interests and the political and bureaucratic behemoth stacked up behind them. What we would later identify as a concrete mainstream media monstrosity encompassed all languages, continents, media and social strata.
7
Noakes, Stephen (June 2010). “Falun Gong, Ten Years On”.