The hypocrisy of the West: How the Media (Mis)Report the Ukraine-Russia Conflict

The West’s reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine once again reveals a double standard in our moral reasoning. In my analysis of the Western ‘agenda-setting’ media, I will start from the so-called propaganda model of N. Chomsky and E. Herman. Within this framework, I analyse what and how the mass media talk about in the context of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and compare this with the ways in which conflicts in the Middle East are (not) talked about, more specifically, for example, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My conclusion is that the Western media is much more interested in the conflict in Europe than in those in the Middle East. I offer two reasons for this: (1) the lesser of the two is our unconscious racial prejudices, (2) the greater is the Western powers’ interest in not bringing their actions to light.