> Sorry but no, I'm not "misstating the problem", which, from the POV of
> my starter post, had little or nothing to do with winning a 'PR war'.
> The "problem" I was referring to was a general lack of un-faith in
> American media reports re: actions abroad. A more lasting issue than
> the crisis of the moment.
>
Comrade Monroe, be reasonable. It's called "writing a *story*". It has to have narrative or people won't buy it. Either you come up with a competing narrative or you lose. People don't only understand things with their intellects, they understand with their emotions. The anti-Putin narrative is easy to expand on and, frankly, it just makes more sense.
Vladimir Putin qua humanitarian hero may work on this board, but it's just plain some weak-ass shit. My point is that the Russians are smarter than that and - if they were looking outwards, not inwards - they should have come up with something better than that.
Look at the British. Now I don't like Mugabe, but I can add and subtract as well as anybody. The British have made Mugabe out to be the worst mass killer of all time - meanwhile more people are killed in political violence in Iraq and Aghanistan in a month or two than Mugabe's murderers have killed during the whole crisis. And of course the British report Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation without ever referencing the fact that they themselves put in sanctions that started it. Now *that* is the power of narrative.
Again, I despise Mugabe, but the story is raaathah overdone. Still, couldn't happen to a nicer dictator.
But I digress. The point is that the Kremlin narrative does not and will not pass the laugh test for an American audience.
I actually did reference the problem you outlined, but let me make it more clear: it is not that Americans believe the news media. It is that the news media believes the news media and officials, etc.. The news media in this country are a species of fearful pack animal relative to other medias. They are liberal in thought, conservative in action, lazy and self-involved.
THAT is the problem.
>
> Nothing whatsoever to do with Putin or pipelines or any of the
> Keyboard Stratego stuff you've been talking about (so much!).
>
>
> Now before I go, let's focus in a bit on something you wrote:
>
>
> "As for the Grad missiles, Putin has no moral ground to stand on on that issue."
>
>
> So very odd, that. Because, when I hear about missiles launched
> against cities and towns, I don't think: 'hmmm, I wonder who has a
> moral ground to complain about those missiles raining down on
> civilians?' I imagine what life (and death) would be like under such a
> barrage.
>
>
> I also wonder what it would take to stop the assault.
>
>
> But these are practical concerns; apparently not as riveting as pipelines.
>
> Did I mention BP and pipelines?
>
>
> Pipelines!
>
>
>
>
> Boddhi, you're a funny guy (or girl...or perhaps bot).
>
>
>
>
>
>
> .d.
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>