On December 4, the Russian people went to the polls and as widely expected, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party won the elections. Soon after, there were protests against Putin as he was accused of vote-fixing.
Putin then accused the West of interfering in Russian political affairs and of encouraging the protests. Unfortunately, it seems that there is some true in what he says.
The problem I have is the way the Western media is reporting the protests in Russia. To be more exact, it’s the way they are numbering the protestors.
In the Russian capital of Moscow, the Western media announced that 50,000 people came out to protest against Putin. How the hell did they came up with that number?
When the protest first started, the organizers of the protests announced that 15,000 to 20,000 people had come out. That number was disputed by the Russian police who said that the number of protesters was much lower than that.
Next thing we know, Western media citing “people on the ground” said that 50,000 people were protesting against Putin. Yes, Western media gave that number even before the protest organizers! In fact, they ignored the numbers given by the protest organizers! Seeing 50,000 in the media, protest organizers then started to say there were 100,000 protesters! It’s a comedy where no one knows how to count!
No wonder Putin is accusing the West of interfering in Russian internal affairs! It sure seems that way when the Western press is more interested in making news than in reporting it.
No comments:
Post a Comment