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Ukraine news lost in the fog of war

Ukraine news lost in the fog of war

I cannot think of a time since 9/11 that American newscasts have been so myopically focused on one story.  Granted, the Hamas attack on Israel is a BIG story with ramifications in all directions.  But the virtual 24/7 coverage is blocking out most other news – even big news. 

The worst part is that there is little change in the facts from minute to minute.  The talking heads of telly-world are merely repeating … repeating … repeating.  Occasionally, there is something new to report – but not often.

There is also the same politicization by the newsies.  Even as they say that the war in Israel should not be politicized, they (mostly the leftwing folks) grossly politicize it along the lines of their partisan narratives.  The only apparent reason they cover the House Speaker election at all is to demonize Republicans.

We see the same stories … the same images … the same words … from different people.  Normally schedule programs on cable news are pre-empted for more … nothing new news.

Nothing about the crime problem in our major cities.  It has not abated – just not reported.  Nothing about the thousands of people – including a few criminals, drug dealers and terrorists – that are crossing the America’s southern border.  Nothing about inflation. 

Most notably … there is nothing being reported about the war in Ukraine.  Is that still going on?  And that brings up another subject.  If I were President Zelenskyy, I would be very upset and worried.

Not only is nothing being reported of the Russian invasions of Ukraine but compare the past coverage of that war with what we see today.  Contrast the official American response to the attack on Israel and the response to the attack on Ukraine – two American allies attacked by brutal and merciless – and evil — forces.

President Biden did not call for all out victory over Putin.  He did not – in the strongest terms – call Putin evil.  The media was not flooded with heartbreaking stories of dead Ukrainian men, women and children.  There were no serial interviews with fearful and tearful survivors of Russian war crimes.  There were no strong statements that America had the back of Ukraine – and an immediate flow of money and every type of military equipment and weapons in support of the Ukraine defense.  There were no 24/7 videos of the atrocities committed by the barbaric Russian military.  There was no sending American war ships into the Black Sea.

What Ukraine got from the Biden Administration was a weak commitment carried out with at too little/too late support policy.  Biden did not even deliver all the sanctions he promised at the onset of the war.  Biden is clearly standing behind Israel – and waaaay behind Ukraine.

I wonder who is winning the War in Ukraine?  From the White House and the media, it is … crickets.

So, there ‘tis.

About The Author

Larry Horist

So, there ‘tis… The opinions, perspectives and analyses of businessman, conservative writer and political strategist Larry Horist. Larry has an extensive background in economics and public policy. For more than 40 years, he ran his own Chicago based consulting firm. His clients included such conservative icons as Steve Forbes and Milton Friedman. He has served as a consultant to the Nixon White House and travelled the country as a spokesman for President Reagan’s economic reforms. Larry professional emphasis has been on civil rights and education. He was consultant to both the Chicago and the Detroit boards of education, the Educational Choice Foundation, the Chicago Teachers Academy and the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts. Larry has testified as an expert witness before numerous legislative bodies, including the U. S. Congress, and has lectured at colleges and universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and DePaul. He served as Executive Director of the City Club of Chicago, where he led a successful two-year campaign to save the historic Chicago Theatre from the wrecking ball. Larry has been a guest on hundreds of public affairs talk shows, and hosted his own program, “Chicago In Sight,” on WIND radio. An award-winning debater, his insightful and sometimes controversial commentaries have appeared on the editorial pages of newspapers across the nation. He is praised by audiences for his style, substance and sense of humor. Larry retired from his consulting business to devote his time to writing. His books include a humorous look at collecting, “The Acrapulators’ Guide”, and a more serious history of the Democratic Party’s role in de facto institutional racism, “Who Put Blacks in That PLACE? -- The Long Sad History of the Democratic Party’s Oppression of Black Americans ... to This Day”. Larry currently lives in Boca Raton, Florida.

16 Comments

  1. frank stetson

    I think we all know who holds the purse strings on Ukraine and what they are doing about it.

    Cat got your tongue, no able to speakee without a Speaker?

    The only relevant news on Ukraine, from a US standpoint, is ‘where’s the beef,” and then follow the money to see where it stops. And that’s right at the feet of the Republican Party —- for now. Hell, you guys are even questioning should we fund it. In big numbers of non-support. 117 Republican House members voted down the last support package. They cut it from the debt ceiling CR.

    The Ukraine problem, and all the news, is in your House. You can’t even get a vote with this pro-tem Speaker.

    • larry Horist

      Frank Stetson … What do your comments have to do with the commentary — which is about lack of news coverage on Ukraine war. You just love to use this platform to rant and rave about spew whatever you want to rant an rave about. You are like those dolls that give a scripted message when you pull the string. And you seem to be the only one interested in pulling your string…lol.

      • frank stetson

        Because the Republicans are once again blocking the news-sun with their current shenanigans to pick a speaker while delaying any additional funding for Israel or Ukraine creating that tidbit as the most important news story to either the Ukrainians or us.

        Even Trump is being blocked by this and that’s a big block.

        FYI: great story on Ukraine firing their first long-range missile into Russia thanks to us, the US, as told by the news, today..

        • Tom

          Good point! I haven’t heard much about Trump. Last thing I heard was that he said, “Hamas is pretty smart.” I have not missed all that Trump coverage. I do think Andy has a good point. IF we are feeling any info lacking then we have an obligation to search out more news on the topic ourselves. Maybe Larry needs to program a few more channels into his tv controller and perhaps add ” Bloomberg What You Need to Know Today” and other world news, financial news, etc. This is a market driven economy and companies have the right to produce the products they can make money on. Larry is very pro-market, and the news suppliers right now seem to feel the market wants to overdose on the Middle East and on the US House Speaker GOP civil war.

    • Joe lucas

      Liar

      • frank stetson

        You can’t prove it. Last time you just ended up looking really stupid and childish.

        You sure you want some more?

        Go for it. Where’s the lie? Prove it.

      • Tom

        I can’t find Franks lie. Maybe I am Stetson biased? So can you help me and tell me what the lie is that Frank said in his text?

        • Joe lucas

          Frank is only blabbing what his comrades tell him. And he spreads the lies for the purpose of destroying a man who loves his country and the people. But according to the left, non communist need not apply

          • Frank stetson

            The “man” destroyed himself years ago with his lies and cheating. It’s just the mob that needs to figure it out. He’s a sexual abuser digital rapist. He loves his country as a great businessman by cheating all Americans with his business cheating and frauds. He ran up the largest deficits ever and owns 30% of our total debt. Soon, he will be even more terrible things as the indictments become convictions.

            He loves his country by escaping the draft with fake bone spurs.

            He loves his country by stealing classified to keep in his bathroom at mar a loser where even spies can be members.

            He loves his country and his people as he waited over three hours to tell them to stand down on 1.6.2021 after telling them to stand up. Babbit died in those three hours.

            I am not attempting to destroy the man, he is doing that on his own.

          • Tom

            Nobody has done more to destroy Trump than Trump. So again, what specifically is he lying about?

    • Tom

      I agree Frank. And one of the things Larry did not mention is that there has not been any Hunter Biden coverage nor any Biden Crime Family coverage! Nor is there any coverage of the crappy US economy. So the Bidens are big benefactors of the Middle East crisis and the GOP manufactured speaker crisis.

  2. andy

    I watch the news on TV every evening. FOXNEWS at 6, NBC at 6:30, MSNBC and CNN at other times. I see stories on most of the above in the mainstream news shows, just not with the focus FOX does. I notice FOX excludes many news stories the others show, and vice versa. Which is why I watch all of them.

    Then I get more news online during the day on left, right and center sites.

    So if you want to know what is going on in the world, you can.

    The problem is that most of the people on the right do not want to know what is going on. I find most on the right exclude the leftist news sources, and consider them all suspect. I have an extreme rightwing friend who worships Trump who tells me that 100% of what is on Dailykos or Wapo is 100% lies.

    • Tom

      I agree Andy. I supplement CBS with reading online. I actually prefer to read the news.

  3. Tom

    This Independent/Unaffiliated voter feels that the GOP should be demonized as they are more focused on their little civil war than governing. And as we pay all of those salaries that are now doing nothing, someone or party needs to be held accountable. And it is the GOP that is holding things up. Can’t blame Dems for any of this! They were not holding the gavel when Gaetz filed his stupid motion to vacate! I hope the GOP deals with Gaetz! And their latest offering, Jim Jordan, is an extremist who defied a subpoena to answer questions about what he and Trump talked about on Jan 6th. Jim Jordan voted against certifying the election. Jim Jordan is not in any way a bipartisan mindset – he is authoritarian Trump mindset all the way, and is unrepentant about it! Again, as an Independent, this does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling about the GOP. Jordan only produces bipartisanship when you do what he wants.

    And it is the GOP civil war that is sucking all of the oxygen from the room not allowing for Ukraine reporting, as well as Middle East events. Ukraine is important to me and I do think it needs more air time. The only air time it seem to get right now is when funding for Ukraine is discussed. Having said this, the events in the Middle East have more impact on the world as a whole than Ukraine so reporting time should be balanced, and that will be tricky. Events in the Middle East impacts oil / energy security, pharmaceuticals, world security, world terrorism, world banking, nuclear deployments and proliferation, etc. So it is a really big deal! It is more important than the war in Ukraine, but Ukraine still deserves air time because it affects democracy and the battle between democratic and authoritarian countries. And there should be some balance included for the other topics that Larry recommends such as border control, China aggression, domestic crime, economy, etc. There seems to be plenty of time in the day, but speaker votes and Middle East drowns them out.

    I do disagree with Larry about this paragraph. I feel and have seen plenty of coverage of dead bodies in Ukraine, hospitals being bombed, heartbreaking stories of dead and homes lost, and lives destroyed, schools and children blown up, nuclear power plant attacks, executions in Ukraine by Russia, all of Zelenski’s speeches were covered, Biden did strongly condemn Russia, lots on coverage of sanctions, Russian jet releasing fuel onto American monitoring planes, Oligarch yacht confiscations, and many more aspects of the war were covered on CBS Streaming Online news. Maybe Larry is watching too much of the wrong station. The paragraph that I disagree with is this: “The media was not flooded with heartbreaking stories of dead Ukrainian men, women and children. There were no serial interviews with fearful and tearful survivors of Russian war crimes. There were no strong statements that America had the back of Ukraine – and an immediate flow of money and every type of military equipment and weapons in support of the Ukraine defense. There were no 24/7 videos of the atrocities committed by the barbaric Russian military. There was no sending American war ships into the Black Sea.”

    I do agree that what Ukraine got from the Biden Administration was a commitment less strong than with Israel, and carried out with at too little/too late support policy. We should have more strongly led without concern for Russian rhetoric. Biden did not even deliver all the sanctions he promised at the onset of the war, and in particular all of the banking sanctions – Biden only sanctioned two of five large Russian banks. Israel has more long term and short term consequences and it is right for Biden to have more focus on it – but lets not take our eye off of Ukraine!

  4. jboo7

    “Crickets”?
    But, that is good news, Mr. Horist.
    They have to go now anyway, with winter coming.
    So, you think we can forget about ETHNIC CLEANSING IN DONBASS?

  5. frank stetson

    Which Ethnic cleansing are you talking about, have you forgotten :>) You need to be specific?

    The cleansing the Russians REALLY DID after WWII?

    or the fake one the Russians CLAIM Ukraine did recently?

    Of course, that was all before the new Ukraine under the new President who seems downright democratic with equal rights for all?