Here is a good example. The caption for this Reuters photo reads, "A protester throws a petrol bomb at the trade union building in Odessa May 2, 2014," when it should read, "Fascist thug hired by Kiev Junta throws a petrol bomb..."
A politically conformist media has long been considered a characteristic of dictatorships. Not any more. One can also speak of such a conformist press in the coverage of Ukraine in the German media.
Last Friday, over 40 opponents of the Kiev regime fell victim to a fascist massacre. Although German television stations and newspapers have many correspondents on the ground, you will not find a serious report concerning the background to this terrible crime. Instead, the events are falsified, downplayed or simply ignored.
From the outset it was clear that the victims who lost their lives, burning to death in the Odessa trade union hall, suffocating or jumping out the window, were opponents of the government in Kiev. Despite this, the media has deliberately left the origins of the victims and the culprits in the dark.
On the day of the events,
Spiegel Online reported untruthfully that dozens of people had "died in clashes between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russian activists."
Two days following the massacre, the
Frankfurter Rundschau reported: "Violence escalated in the port city on Friday between hundreds of supporters of the government in Kiev and Moscow. In street battles, both sides threw Molotov cocktails, a trade union building was set alight. Four people died in the fighting, a further 38 lost their lives in the probably deliberate fire."
Comment: Ah, the passive voice. The best way to avoid assigning responsibility: "...a trade union building was set alight."