The war in Ukraine and 1984

The mainstream media's coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine is reminiscent of the "memory hole" in Orwell's 1984.

In the classic political novel “1984” by George Orwell the “memory hole” was a hole where documents that went against big brothers’ narrative were sent in never to be seen again. This was a clear metaphor for political censorship of information that went against the government’s narratives. This is a perfect analogy for the current political climate surrounding the war in Ukraine. From journalists’ entire body of work being disappeared to facts that were universally recognized now being dismissed as conspiracy theories Orwell’s memory hole is more prescient now than ever.

Political censorship

Russia of course has cracked down heavily on media and activists critical of their invasion of Ukraine which has been widely reported in Western media. What has been ignored is the West’s more subtle but dangerous crackdown on free speech. Take for example censorship of the Russian-funded network RT. RT America has been forced to shut down because of U.S. sanctions. This is ridiculous for two reasons, the first being that if pushing pro-war propaganda was cause for shutting down a network, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC would not be allowed to air. MSNBC host Brian William’s once said he was “guided by the beauty of our weapons” when talking about Trump’s bombing of Syria. Fox New’s Tucker Carlson interviewed a pundit who said the United States military should want to “sit on a throne of Chinese skulls”. No doubt much of RT America’s coverage of the war in Ukraine would have been supportive of Putin’s invasion, but the American cable networks routinely engage in the same pro-war propaganda and are not censored for it. The second reason this ban is dangerous is several shows on RT Americans were independent and rarely focused on Russia namely Lee camp, Chris Hedges and Jesse Ventura. All three hosts opposed Russia’s intervention in Ukraine. This censorship has recently gone further. Leftist journalist Abby Martin had her entire archive of Breaking the Set deleted. Breaking the Set was an RT show hosted by Martin that rarely covered Russia and when it did was done in a critical way such as when she opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The same treatment was given to Chris Hedge's “On Contact”, an RT show hosted by the Pultizer Prize-winning journalist that featured interviews with academics and authors. Similar to Martin’s show, Hedges rarely talked about Russia and when it did it was critical (Hedges called Putin’s invasion a “criminal act of aggression”). This had nothing to do with countering “Russian propaganda” but was done to erase the work of two journalists who pushed back against American capitalism and imperialism. Spotify also took down the podcasts of Tara Reade and Lee Camp because they were produced by RT. Twitter has also taken to labeling anyone even vaguely associated with RT with a “Russia state-affiliated media”. label. Journalists such as Sputnik’s Wyatt Reed and RT’s Caleb Maupin now have the labels on everything they tweet despite their twitter’s being independent of RT. Twitter was so far as to give this label to the Twitter account of Ed Schultz , an RT host who passed away in 2018. Just like the memory hole big tech is dissapearing the work of joiurnalist who refused to tow the mainstream line.

Information memory-holed

The most Orwellian development as of late has not been the censorship but the willingness to forget what was previously accepted as fact. Take for example the influence of the far-right and neo-nazis in Ukraine. If you mention this today you will be accused of spreading “Russian propaganda” but this was a well-established fact prior to Russia’s invasion. In 2018 the mainstream outlet Reuters ran an article titled “Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Problem” that went into detail about the neo-nazi groups attacking leftist and progressives groups in the country. In 2014 NBC news reported that Nazi symbols were found on the helmets of Ukraine’s soldiers. Haaretz in 2014 reported that Ukraine designated a national holiday to commemorate a Nazi collaborator. BBC News ran a segment in 2014 called “Neo-Nazi threat in Ukraine”. Even the NATO propaganda think tank “Atlantic Council” published an article in 2018 titled “Ukraine’s Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence”. The N.E.D.-funded western propaganda outlet Bellingcat published an article in 2019 on the Ukrainian government’s mainstreaming of neo-nazis. This is also true of the Maidan coup which is now portrayed as an organic democratic uprising by the mainstream and anyone who questions this is dubbed a Russian propagandist. Previously the fact that the maidan coup was led by far-right forces was widely reported in mainstream media. In a now-deleted article, Foreign Policy magazine said "The uncomfortable truth is that a sizeable portion of Kyiv’s current government — and the protesters who brought it to power — are, indeed, fascists." BBC’s channel 4 news ran a headline in 2014 that read “Ukraine: far-right extremists at core of ‘democracy’ protest”. The outlet also reported in 2014 that “far-right took top posts in Ukraine’s power vacuum”. In 2014 BBC news profiled right sector, a far-right group that played a huge role of the Maidan coup. American involvement in the Maidan coup was also widely reported and recognized at the time. BBC News published the transcript of the infamous leaked Victoria Nuland call that showed her handpicking the new leaders of Ukraine’s government. The Guardian has an article in 2014 titled “In Ukraine, fascists, oligarchs and western expansion are at the heart of the crisis”. The Koch-funded libertarian institute “CATO institute” ran an article in 2017 that acknowledged western involvement in the Maidan coup. None of this information in any way excuses or justifies Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but it is true and was once acknowledged by the mainstream media and is now dismissed as “Russian propaganda”.

Just like the memory hole journalist’s entire body of work has been disappeared and what was widely reported is now a conspiracy theory. As journalist Matt Taibbi pointed out in his piece “Orwell was Right” the media’s obsessive coverage of Covid-19 and the unvaccinated ended once Putin invaded Ukraine. As Taibbi put it.

We just did this, with a pandemic that had the country steaming with indignation until it was quietly declared over the moment Putin rolled over Ukraine’s borders. We switched from “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” to “Putin’s price hikes”

Writer Esha K has pointed out that part of the inspiration for Orwell’s 1984 was his experience working at the BBC. There is nothing that better represents 1984 than the current mainstream media climate.