The Indy Brief: The Failures of US War Coverage

The Park Center for Independent Media and the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival invite you to a book launch and discussion with Naeem Inayatullah on his new book, “Pedagogy as Encounter: Beyond the Teaching Imperative.”

Join us on Wednesday, October 19, at 7:00 p.m.

Register now on Zoom.

Scholar Aida Hozic will join Inayatullah in conversation on the book, raising questions on the role of politics in the classroom, the nature of teaching and learning, and how the teacher’s desires shape pedagogy.

Read more about these scholars and the discussion.

The continuing Russia-Ukraine War demands new ways of thinking both about media coverage that seeks to inform in real time and new strategies about how to document it in order to build alternative archives.

As Masha Shpolberg and Patricia R. Zimmermann demonstrate, coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war falls into three categories: western mainstream, Russian opposition, and Ukrainian. Now, Ukrainian filmmaking collectives are also thinking about how to create archives of the war for posterity.

These archives provide evidence of war crimes, preserve source materials for future historical accounts, and establish the agency of everyday Ukrainians.

Learn about three collectives documenting the war.

There isn’t much to South Butler, New York, these days. The village, such as it is, gathers around a crossroads, and was always in the wrong place at the wrong time, says David N. DeVries.

But, improbably, something did happen here that sets it apart: Samuel Ringgold Ward. Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Gerrit Smith. These three were major players in the social reform movements that swept the Northern states in the Antebellum years.

Now, one of the only remaining traces of their rich history is a mural unveiled late September, depicting Ward and Blackwell. What is odd, though, about the mural is the location the Butler Historical Preservation Society chose to hang it: on the side of an abandoned convenience store some four miles north of the village.

Read more on South Butler’s history on The Edge.

The Russia-Ukraine war has displaced 6.6 million people within Ukraine. It further has led to a recorded total of 6.3 million people crossing international borders from that nation to neighboring countries, including Poland and Moldova; and 13 million people are estimated to be stranded in dangerous places, or unable to leave for security reasons.

To address these intensifying humanitarian crises, the United Nations and other multilateral institutions must intervene to contain Russia and pave a path to a peaceful resolution. And it is the responsibility of media organizations across the globe to demand these institutions focus on this peace building, writes Raza Rumi.

But the mainstream Western media, especially in the U.S., are not too invested in the idea of peace. Much of their reporting entails tallying the losses on both sides and cheerleading approved shipments of materiel.

Read how reframing war coverage allows journalists to fulfill their obligation to public interest.

We need to see this newest devastating crisis of democracy in the U.S. with renewed urgency because it has too long a history. Look at what is happening to Iranian women (and Saudi, and Indian, and Afghan) and see ourselves together, in camaraderie against illiberal theocracies, says Zillah Eisenstein.

There is a deep trail that connects enforced hijabs and enforced pregnancies. Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman who was murdered by the morality police for wearing her hijab incorrectly, ignited the latent Iranian women’s movement into the streets. It is where U.S. freedom loving people belong as well.

Read more from Eisenstein on The Edge.

As the 2022 midterm elections approach in November, mainstream media have been covering the leadup to the vote with usual commitment to framing Republicans and Democrats equally, even as a subset of Republicans attack the integrity of elections to gain power.

This attempt at “balance” stands at odds with journalists’ commitment to report the truth in the face of this threat to democracy.

Journalists must make threats to democracy clear by covering Big Lie-fueled attacks on election legitimacy and voting rights and eschewing the both-sidesim that equates viable candidates with anti-democracy republicans.

Read how reporters can make electoral threats clear this November.

1. Panel to reveal new Trump evidence as police probe ‘concerning’ letter sent to chairman | The Independent

2. Biden’s Loose Lips Make the Nuclear Threat Worse | The Atlantic

3. Florida Jury Recommends Life In Prison For Parkland School Shooter | HuffPost

4. Alex Jones: ‘Moment of reckoning’ for Infowars conspiracist | BBC

5. New York attorney general seeks special monitor to oversee Trump firm | The Guardian