From the way we are treated, it is obvious, that our government and mainstream media does not trust us and have a low opinion of people’s intelligence.

Did anyone read that Russia was using the Sochi Olympic Games for propaganda?

The NBC hosts were criticized for not mention Gulags or Russia’s Communist past during the opening ceremonies. Critics pointed that some journalists didn’t even have running water in their hotel rooms. How dare those Russians have a Grand Prix in 2014 or the World Cup in 2018? It may snow in the Yekaterinburg venue during a soccer match.

Is this information meant to harm Russia?

The summer of 2013 featured the Ghouta chemical weapons attack in Syria. Russia was blamed for supporting the murderous regime. The United States was very close to launching a “limited strike” against Syria. The launch was averted and President Vladimir Putin helped to negotiate a deal to have all chemical weapons from Syria brought safely to Italy. We later learned that the chemical attack was not perpetrated by Assad’s regime.

“The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), authored by former UN weapons inspector Richard Lloyd, and Professor Theodore Postol, further exposed how the US-UK-France chemical weapons case against the Assad regime in Syria last August – was a total and complete fraud,” [ http://21stcenturywire.com/2014/01/20/mit-study-further-destroys-washingtons-syria-chemical-weapons-claim/ ]

The Russians’ refusal to accuse the Assad Regime of the attacks was called “support for the regime and propaganda”. Putin’s effort did not matter for the mainstream media, and he was demonized for his support for Assad, just as he continues to be denigrated and demonized now. Again, the mainstream media or any officials never made a fair comment on the positive role of the Russian president in resolving this extremely escalated situation.

What are the results of such attitude?

One-sided and undifferentiated blaming of Russians, using unproven information, naturally undermines the trust of American viewers and readers in their own country’s mainstream media, divides people into two opposing camps, and ultimately does a very bad service for the truth.

The truth is always in-between. The Russian president is not “an angel”, but he is not “the man-eating devil” either. He is not jumping with joy for the deaths of innocent passengers of the shut-down airplane and then “for propaganda” prays on camera in a church for their souls.

From the way we are treated, it is obvious, that our government and mainstream media does not trust us and have a low opinion of people’s intelligence.

       After the downing of the Malaysian flight MH17, on July 17th 2014, the accusations of Russian support for the Donetsk and Lugansk rebels has been repeated by credible sources like William Pomeranz of the Wilson Institute on C-SPAN and by the orotund Mark Levine among many others.                                                                                                                                                          [US –Russian relations. C-SPAN July 21st 2014. William Pomeranz http://www.c-span.org/video/?320552-2/washington-journal-usrussia-relations ]

As early as Friday July 18^th, one day after the plane went down, on radio stations across the nation Levine said: “we know who did it.” Anne Applebaum at the Washington Post had “enough facts” laid down together the next day, on July 18 to suggest in her opening sentence that everyone cease discussion and accept Russia’s role as sole instigator of the conflict in the Ukraine.                                                                                                                                                         [ The Malaysia Airlines crash is the end of Russia’s fairy tale. July 18, 2014. Anne Applebaum http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/anne-applebaum-the-end-of-the-russian-fairy-tale/2014/07/18/3e42715a-0eab-11e4-b8e5-d0de80767fc2_story.html ]

According to such experts – a social media post featuring rebels “discussing their role in shooting down the airline” and their cover-up, deleting the post – is the evidence of guilt and Putin’s direct involvement. This tragedy is an opportunity to malign Russia’s president. This year a short piece on MSNBC highlighted a photo of President Ronald Reagan during a visit to the Soviet Union: circled in the background was a young Putin. The intended idea of this piece was that Putin has been a thirsty jackal, who hovered around the fountains of power for decades.

The mind numb comes not from being shown the evidence, but in being told in no uncertain terms, and by suggestion that Russia is just bad. There is some debate about the “show” versus “tell” dilemma. Good writers do both. When a writer tells, there is clarity of the intended message. To hear a writer proclaim the thesis with conviction is good. It can be read later, how the thesis is supported. That is entertainment, MH17 is a tragedy.

On the day of the tragedy our government told us where the plane went down and imposed a conclusion – the location proves that the Russian separatists did it from the ground. Official statements claim to have intelligence, that Russia backs the separatists. We should be happy, that our government has such a great and quick Intelligence sources, and just believe them on bare words, because they don’t trust us – this country’s citizens – to know the exact details and facts about how and from where this Intelligence was gathered.

Our government does not trust us, people who elected it. Why? Why they think that all we deserve as “proof and evidence” – is just a statement – “because we say so”?