Climb Down From the Summit of Hostile Propaganda
U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet each
other ahead of their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki,
Finland. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP)
Throughout the day before the summit in Helsinki, the lead story on the New
York Times home page stayed the same: "Just by Meeting With Trump, Putin
Comes Out Ahead." The Sunday headline was in harmony with the tone of U.S.
news coverage overall. As for media commentary, the Washington Post was in
the dominant groove as it editorialized that Russia's President Vladimir
Putin is "an implacably hostile foreign adversary."
Contempt for diplomacy with Russia is now extreme. Mainline U.S. journalists
and top Democrats often bait President Donald Trump in zero-sum terms. No
doubt Hillary Clinton thought she was sending out an applause line in her
tweet Sunday night: "Question for President Trump as he meets Putin: Do you
know which team you play for?"
A bellicose stance toward Russia has become so routine and widespread that
we might not give it a second thought-and that makes it all the more
hazardous. After President George W. Bush declared "You're either with us or
against us," many Americans gradually realized what was wrong with a
Manichean view of the world. Such an outlook is even more dangerous today.
Since early 2017, the U.S. mass media have laid it on thick with the rough
political equivalent of a painting technique known as chiaroscuro-"the use
of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting
a whole composition," in the words of Wikipedia. The Russiagate frenzy is
largely about punching up contrasts between the United States (angelic and
victimized) and Russia (sinister and victimizer).
Countless stories with selective facts are being told that way. But other
selectively fact-based stories could also be told to portray the United
States as a sinister victimizer and Russia as an angelic victim. Those
governments and their conformist media outlets are relentless in telling it
either way. As the great journalist I.F. Stone observed long ago, "All
governments lie, and nothing they say should be believed." In other words:
don't trust, verify.
Often the biggest lies involve what remains unsaid. For instance, U.S. media
rarely mention such key matters as the promise-breaking huge expansion of
NATO to Russia's borders since the fall of the Berlin Wall, or the brazen
U.S. intervention in Russia's pivotal 1996 presidential election, or the
U.S. government's 2002 withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, or
the more than 800 U.S. military bases overseas-in contrast to Russia's nine.
For human survival on this planet, an overarching truth appears in an open
letter published last week by The Nation magazine: "No political advantage,
real or imagined, could possibly compensate for the consequences if even a
fraction of U.S. and Russian arsenals were to be utilized in a thermonuclear
exchange. The tacit pretense that the worsening of U.S.-Russian relations
does not worsen the odds of survival for the next generations is profoundly
false."
The initial 26 signers of the open letter "Common Ground: For Secure
Elections and True National Security" included Pentagon Papers whistleblower
Daniel Ellsberg, writer and feminist organizer Gloria Steinem, former UN
ambassador Gov. Bill Richardson, political analyst Noam Chomsky, former
covert CIA operations officer Valerie Plame, activist leader Rev. Dr.
William Barber II, filmmaker Michael Moore, former Nixon White House counsel
John Dean, Russia scholar Stephen F. Cohen, former U.S. ambassador to the
USSR Jack F. Matlock Jr., Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Alice Walker and
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Nation editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, former senator
Adlai Stevenson III, and former longtime House Armed Services Committee
member Patricia Schroeder. (I was also one of the initial signers.)
Since its release five days ago, the open letter has gained support from a
petition already signed by 30,000 people. The petition campaign aims to
amplify the call for protecting the digital infrastructure of the electoral
process that is now "vulnerable to would-be hackers based anywhere"-and for
taking "concrete steps. to ease tensions between the nuclear superpowers."
We need a major shift in the U.S. approach toward Russia. Clearly the needed
shift won't be initiated by the Republican or Democratic leaders in
Congress; it must come from Americans who make their voices heard. The
lives-and even existence-of future generations are at stake in the
relationship between Washington and Moscow.
Many of the petition's grassroots signers have posted comments along with
their names. Here are a few of my favorites:
* From Nevada: "We all share the same planet! We better learn how to do it
safely or face the consequences of blowing ourselves up!"
* From New Mexico: "The earth will not survive a nuclear war. The weapons
we have today are able to cause much more destruction than those of previous
eras. We must find a way to common ground."
* From Massachusetts: "It is imperative that we take steps to protect the
sanctity of our elections and to prevent nuclear war anywhere on the earth."
* From Kentucky: "Secure elections are a fundamental part of a democratic
system. But this could become meaningless in the event of thermonuclear
war."
* From California: "There is only madness and hubris in talk of
belligerence toward others, especially when we have such dangerous weapons
and human error has almost led to our annihilation already more than once in
the past half-century."
Yet a wide array of media outlets, notably the "Russiagate"-obsessed network
MSNBC, keeps egging on progressives to climb toward peaks of anti-Russian
jingoism. The line of march is often in virtual lockstep with GOP
hyper-hawks like Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The incessant
drumbeat is in sync with what Martin Luther King Jr. called "the madness of
militarism."
Meanwhile, as Dr. King said, "We still have a choice today: nonviolent
coexistence or violent coannihilation."
Norman Solomon