“Quality media” in the swamp of war propaganda

How liberal flagships turn into junk ammunition freighters

by Thomas Scherr

(5 September 2022) One had to get used to the fact that many renowned newspapers – also known as “leading media” – are increasingly deteriorating. In addition to their dwingling circulation numbers and increasing tittytainment or their ivory-tower snobbish feuilletons, they have become appallingly conformist. They still manage to set focal points of discussion in the “published” debate. In a limited playground, they mime “investigative journalism” or “debate culture”, arguing about trivialities.

All this is happening while Europe is being led towards a nuclear abyss. The situation in Ukraine is worsening. The colt is being carried loosely. What is urgently needed is a diverse and controversial discussion to find ways out of the war. The conspicuous failure of the media in this regard can hardly be concealed.

In 2013, Uwe Krüger examined the transatlantic “mainstream” connection. The core message: the editors-in-chief of the “leading media” are led from the U.S. as if on a leash.¹ The journalist of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, Udo Ulfkotte, who sadly died much too early, has illustrated this mechanism, based on his own example.² He was punished for this, as was Milosz Matuschek of the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” or many others who crossed an invisible “red line”.³

It is no secret anymore: we are not being informed, but indoctrinated. Those who do not actively inform themselves via news portals from outside Europe and North America – including Russian media – become victims of the systematic NATO spin of the British East StratCom Task Force.⁴ Is this supposed to be the much-lauded media diversity and pluralism of opinion of the “free West” – the foundation of our democracy?

How deeply renowned newspapers can get caught up in totalitarian word games was evident in the coverage of the assassination attempt on Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin.

Whereas until now it was customary to condemn terrorist attacks as such, or at least to report on them in a differentiated manner, some flagships of the media world came up with titles such as: “War propagandist’ Dugina dies in attack” or ”Darya Dugina: Daughter of Russian nationalist dies in suspected assassination attempt” or with the telling headline: “Warmonger killed in assassination attempt”. Subsequent articles speculated on how it came to pass that it was not Alexander Dugin who was the victim of the attack, but his daughter, a 29-year-old journalist and political scientist.

The articles themselves made do with few facts and were, as usual, enriched with wafting background “information” about the person of Alexander Dugin and his connections to the Russian government. However, regardless of who Alexander Dugin actually is or his daughter Darya Dugina was,⁵ an uneasy feeling overcomes the reader.

Wasn’t there something?

Yes, it was an assassination. A cowardly assassination.

What would the reaction have been if, for example, the pro-war Bernard-Henri Lévy or the pro-war Wolfgang Ischinger had been blown up by a car bomb, or their children? Would the title also have been “Warmonger killed in assassination”? Very unlikely.

Those who choose such titles reveal a lot about their own attitudes and professional understanding. How close is the next step? How close is it from being a cheap propaganda paper?

No one should be under any illusions: There is a war, and the same is true of the press.⁶

1 Uwe Krüger. Mainstream. Warum wir den Medien nicht mehr trauen. Munich 2016 and ibid. Meinungsmacht. In: Reihe des Instituts für Praktische Journalismus- und Kommunikationsforschung (IPJ) volume 9. 2013.

2 Milo Matuschek. Der Journalismus schafft sich ab. In: «Weltwoche» No. 32 from 11 August 2022

3 Udo Ulfkotte. Gekaufte Journalisten. Wie Politiker, Geheimdienste und Hochfinanz Deutschlands Massenmedien lenken. 2014, ISBN 978-3-86445-143-0

4 https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_StratCom_Task_Force, update 25 August 2022

5 For extended information gathering beyond the "Western" media, see St. Petersburg-based journalist
Thomas Röper, who was personally acquainted with Darja Dugina: https://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2022/von-soros-und-kiew-unterstuetzte-gruppe-steht-hinter-dem-mord-an-darja-dugina/?doing_wp_cron=1661530357.6737780570983886718750 from 22 August 2022

6 CF also: Hannes Hofbauer. Zensur. Publikationsverbote im Spiegel der Geschichte. Vom kirchlichen Index zur YouTube-Löschung. Promedia, Wien, 2022,
ISBN 978-3-85371-497-3

Mainstream media is part of a propaganda war. In: «Zeit-Fragen» No. 16 from 2 August 2022 Christian Müller. Was ist mit den Schweizer Medien los?
https://www.infosperber.ch/medien/medienkritik/was-ist-mit-diesen-schweizer-medien-los, 14 February 2022

Thomas Scherr. Media on the “warpath“: Swiss massmedia: a transatlantic transmission belt? E_International_Scherr_The-media-on-the-warpath.pdf (577.7 KiB)

https://swiss-standpoint.ch/news-detailansicht-de-international/medien-auf-kriegskurs.html, 13 March 2022

Jens Wernike (Hrsg.). Lügen die Medien? Propaganda, Rudeljournalismus und der Kampf um die öffentliche Meinung. 2017. ISBN 978-3-86489-188-5 und

Ullrich Mies (Hg.) Megamanipulation. Ideologische Konditionierung in der Fassadendemokratie. 2020. ISBN 978-3-86489-285-1