Ukraine as a worthy cause? Parsing the 'world's' reaction

The colours of the Ukrainian flag. Photo by Tina Hartung on Unsplash

The Ukraine situation is a useful moment to appraise the state of “the world’s” media. I put “the world” in quote marks because that’s how the western world refers to its reactions and actions.

How often have you heard the western media (and western capitals) say the world is united on this; or is doing something or the other, when what they actually mean is the response from Washington, D.C., London, Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Athens, Wellington, Canberra?

Tokyo also generally figures in the western media’s view of the “world” for the purposes of reporting concerted reaction and action. That’s because Japan generally goes along with the security and economic actions of western capitals.

So, if you read (and believe) only the western press, you probably don’t really appreciate the significance of a number of creeping acts that diverge from “the world’s” reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Don’t get me wrong. Almost no…