Western Media’s Reporting On Crimean Bridge Attack Reflects Double-Standards

When Ukraine blows up a bridge, whilst civilians are traveling on it, that’s resistance to occupation and annexation. yet if Palestinians attack Israelis, it is terrorism. Although the Western media claims to hold moral objectivity, its double-standards are once again on display.

On the 8th of October the Crimean bridge, connecting mainland Russia to Crimea, was hit by a large explosion that destroyed one of its two lanes and set alight a fuel carrying train. Video evidence from the scene of the attack appeared to show a truck detonating on the bridge, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called an act of terrorism against Russia’s civil infrastructure. Three civilians were said to have been killed in the attack.

Although there has been a debate about how the attack was carried out, the consensus has been that Ukrainian special forces were involved and that it was a truck-bombing that brought down a segment of the bridge. It is clear that Ukraine has not only celebrated the attack, but made fun of Moscow for it, and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, commented jokingly about the attack and essentially justified it by saying that it is a response to his nation’s occupier.

On Monday came a Russian reprisal in response to the attack, one that has received wide-spread coverage from Western corporate media. The Ukrainian capital Kiev was hit by long-range Russian missiles, which seemed to have targeted a range of sites throughout the city. This came after the new appointment of the well-known Russian General, Sergey Surovikin, to lead what Moscow calls the ‘Special Military Operation’ against Ukraine. Surovikin is known to be much more heavy handed in his approach.

Western media have not offered a single word of criticism when it comes to the tactic of using what appears to have been a suicide truck bombing attack to target vital Russian infrastructure. The attack came at a time when civilian cars were using the bridge and the reports of civilian deaths would mean that the attack could be argued to have been a war crime. There is a real debate to be had, as to how and if it is legal under international law to attack such vital infrastructure during times of war, however, the problem that we can see here is with double-standards applied in the Western media and from Western governments.

When Palestinians carry out acts of violence against Israeli targets, killing settlers, this is instantly called terrorism in Western media and it is routine for Western politicians, especially from the US, to offer their condolences. Armed groups based inside the Gaza Strip will also come under fire from the EU, UK, and US, with claims of terrorism and it is often said that “Israel has the right to defend itself”, if they fire rockets at their occupiers. The question then becomes, why are Western media and governments not treating Ukraine the same way. Ukrainian territory has been annexed by Russia and there are segments of it which will likely be occupied in the future again too.

Syria’s Golan Heights were illegally annexed in 1981 by Tel Aviv, a move that has not only sparked no backlash against Israel from the West, but the US government continues to recognize the territory as belonging to Israel. The UK governments special envoy on Syria was also recently reported to have lauded Israeli unprovoked airstrike campaigns inside Syrian territory. Whenever Israel goes to war with Gaza, as the illegal occupier of Palestinian territory and the power that has illegally annexed East Jerusalem, Tel Aviv is always provided with media and Western governmental support.

So why is it that, in the case of Ukraine, Western media and governments are not only against military occupation, but also work to justify, or remain silent on, acts of violence against civil infrastructure? If NATO powers were to be consistent and treat Russia as they do Israel, then Moscow should “have the right to defend itself” and also be granted billions of dollars worth of weaponry in order to carry out reprisal raids. Also, the US Government should have no problem with an occupying power murdering civilians, neither should Western corporate media, and if Moscow claims something, this should be reported and repeated at the United Nations verbatim, unquestioned by Western governments.

“A fire broke out on the Kerch Bridge that links Crimea to Russia, causing the structure to partially collapse on Saturday morning after Ukraine reported an explosion in the vicinity”, is how Twitter’s live coverage described the Crimea bridge attack. Why no talk of terrorism or discussion around whether Ukrainians have inherently violent culture or beliefs, and this being the reason for the truck suicide-attack, as done with any coverage involving Palestinians? If a Muslim would have carried out a truck bombing, or at least it appeared that way as the coverage unfolded, the incident would have undoubtably caused exactly such a discussion in the Western press. Ukraine, however, is a special case; a case in which NATO wishes to make arguments against occupation, wars of aggression, and annexation. The biggest problem with this, however, is that NATO and its best friend in the Middle East, Israel, are responsible for the same thing they are arguing against in Ukraine.

Even with writing an article like this, in the West, there is no allowable grey-area, no nuance in which to operate as a journalist attempting to point out the facts. If you do so, you are instantly attacked and blacklisted as a “Putin puppet” by the corporate media. This is of course without any evidence, the very thing these so-called journalists would otherwise claim to be paramount. You need not actually take a pro-Russia, pro-Putin, or pro-War approach, just simply pointing out double-standards and making factual observations about ‘the pot calling the kettle black’ is enough for you to be attacked by the Western mob of trend driven zombies. People who just last year couldn’t point to Ukraine on a map, and likely still struggle to do so, will be ready to shut down any form of critical thinking, backed by a Western journalist mob.

When looking at the biased Western reporting on Ukraine, this is what can be seen: Glorification of acts of violence against an invading force; ignoring and/or denying the presence of hardline extremist elements; mourning the dead as martyrs; advising civilians on how to attack occupying forces; celebrating, justifying and explaining away attacks that kill civilians; lionizing an aggressive leader that calls for overwhelming violence against his foe; and lying to present the underdog as winning and on the way to an inevitable victory. If you attempt to use the above framing for Iraqi resistance to US occupation, Syrian resistance to US occupation, Afghani resistance to US occupation, or for Palestinians fighting Israeli occupying forces, you are condemned as a propagandists, biased and/or unprofessional. Yet Western media do all of the above when reporting on the Ukraine-Russia war.

What should be understood from now on, is that there is no fully objective media in the corporate sphere (if there ever was) and that each individual should question everything they read, from all sources, then come to their own conclusions.

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