Brian Stelter here with Oliver Darcy and Clare Duffy at 10:24pm ET on Thursday, February 24...
A global crisis
"The whole world is watching" has become an activism cliche – but right now it is true. The whole world is able to watch Russia's invasion of Ukraine through news crews from outlets like CNN; intensely personal posts from Ukrainians; live streams from across the region; and other new and old sources of information.
At a moment like this, the "media story" is a sidebar, at most. For up to the minute coverage of Vladimir Putin unleashing hell on Ukrainians, turn on the TV or check the CNN homepage. The CNN.com live updates page is especially valuable. Now, here are our observations about the news coverage:
Unmatched coverage
The past 24 hours have been a huge reminder that consumers in an era of YouTube and TikTok still gravitate to trusted, established news outlets during emergencies. They "know where to go," so to speak. And television coverage is essential.
Oliver Darcy writes: "All the American TV networks have correspondents in the region – but Thursday made clear that none quite have resources in Russia and Ukraine like CNN. While other networks showed stand-up live shots from hotel balconies, CNN had many boots on the ground: Matthew Chance traveled to an airfield where a firefight broke out right in front of his crew's cameras; Clarissa Ward broadcast from a subway station turned bomb shelter where frightened citizens sought refuge; and Frederick Pleitgen was on the Russian side of the border as tanks headed into Ukraine and rockets flew overhead. And that's just to name a few examples. Vanity Fair wrote about CNN reporters getting 'back doing what they do best' after weeks of internal drama."
It was incredible to witness Pleitgen's crew showing Russian forces firing artillery rockets toward Kharkiv, Ukraine live on CNN during "New Day," and then read on Twitter that WaPo correspondent Isabelle Khurshudyan in downtown Kharkiv was seeing the same thing on her TV set – and hearing strikes in the distance "a few seconds later."
Darcy adds: "CNN was also the only American TV network to have hours of anchored coverage from inside Ukraine, with Erin Burnett, Jim Sciutto and Michael Holmes anchoring newscasts and providing reporting throughout the day. As I wrote for my CNN.com story, the coverage on display harkened back to images seen on the network during the Gulf War and Iraq War, when CNN bested its competitors and offered an exclusive window into the scenes playing out on the ground..."
Dozens of staffers and multiple backup comms systems
The NYT's Michael Grynbaum and Katie Robertson spoke with Mike McCarthy, the head of CNN International, who said that the network has 75 people in Ukraine right now, including local interpreters and drivers. Key details: "The network is using the city of Lviv in western Ukraine as its base, in part to ensure that broadcasts were not interrupted by cyberattacks that may affect Kyiv. He said CNN had 'six or seven' backup communications systems in case any failed."
Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who is in line to oversee CNN once the WarnerMedia-Discovery deal takes effect this spring, praised the network's coverage during a call with investors on Thursday morning. "I've been watching a lot of CNN," he said. While other news channels have people "sitting behind desks and giving their opinion about what's going on," CNN is "on the ground with journalists in bulletproof vests and helmets that are doing what journalists do best, which is fight to tell the truth in dangerous places. So that we all can be safe and we can assess what's going on." Zaslav called it a "proud moment."
Marcus Yam of the Los Angeles Times took this photo of Ward's live shot from inside the subway bunker:
The New Yorker's Susan Glasser channeled the emotions of those evacuees in her New Yorker column, describing "thousands of men, women, and children cowering in subway stations and makeshift shelters, clutching their iPhones and wondering how their twenty-first-century lives had turned overnight into a replay of twentieth-century horrors..."
Continuing coverage
The major cable news networks will remain live for the foreseeable future. On CNN, Anderson Cooper will anchor a special edition of "AC360" at midnight ET Friday...
CNN: The network's latest count includes correspondents in at least five Ukrainian cities, plus others in Russia and Poland...
MSNBC: Rachel Maddow has returned from her hiatus to cover the war. She led MSNBC's prime time coverage on Thursday night and will be a presence on the network through SOTU coverage next week...
Fox: The network has continued to emphasize talking-about-the-news over pure news from the region, but does have four correspondents in Ukraine...
Sites like the NYT and WaPo will continue with 24/7 live updates on digital...
FOR THE RECORD, PART ONE
-- Ukrainian journalists deserve all the credit in the world. Illia Ponomarenko of the Kyiv Independent tweeted just now about going "50 hours without sleep." Check out Kyiv Post as well...
-- Most memorable line from President Biden's Thursday address: "America stands up to bullies. We stand up for freedom. This is who we are..."
-- CNN's Kaitlan Collins asked a key followup question to Biden: Why not sanction Putin personally? Biden moved to another question rather than responding...
-- US secretary of state Antony Blinken appeared on the NBC, CBS and ABC nightly newscasts and signaled that the worst is yet to come for Kyiv and the rest of Ukraine...
-- Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky vowed to remain at his post. The NYT said Zelensky, "a former actor, gave the performance of his life" earlier this week...
-- CNN.com's top headline right now is "Blasts rock Ukrainian capital..."
-- TIME mag's new cover, titled "THE RETURN OF HISTORY," shows a tank rolling down a road...
A new "fog of war"
From a media POV, what stands out in this conflict is the sheer amount of information. The staggering amount of data. Some of it is reliable, some is misinfo, some is disinfo, and so on. Slate's Daniel Johnson wrote that Ukraine "could be the most documented war in human history."
If you’re interested, he wrote, "you can find footage of airstrikes, ground battles, Russian helicopters getting shot down, civilians being targeted. Most of it isn't coming from traditional sources. The amount of information flowing in live is so great that there are whole social media accounts devoted to analyzing Russian and Ukrainian combat strength, the front lines, and the losses of equipment down to the vehicle. This sheer amount of information being widely available is unheard-of for a major conflict." Let me come back around to Johnson's column in a minute.
Craig Timberg and Drew Harwell of the Washington Post also wrote about this dynamic on Thursday. They said sites like "Twitter, Telegram and Twitch make following war faster and easier than ever, but also are vulnerable to rapid-fire disinformation." The key quote: Social media's intensity and immediacy "are creating a new kind of fog of war, in which information and disinformation are continuously entangled with each other — clarifying and confusing in almost equal measure." For example: "Accounts supportive of Russia have already been working to share old videos and photos — taken out of context and repackaged with false descriptions — at the same time and with the same hashtags as people's authentic footage from the real world." Read on...
Here's how to navigate social media right now
Clare Duffy writes: "On Thursday I compiled a few pieces of expert advice on how to navigate social media — and avoid unwittingly amplifying misinformation — during a major unfolding news event like the Russian attack on Ukraine:"
-- First and foremost: Be skeptical. Be on the lookout for propaganda. Think twice before hitting send or share. "If you're online you are a potential stooge in the information war," professor Jennifer Mercieca commented.
– David French, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a senior editor at The Dispatch, wrote: "View battlefield reports with extreme caution. The fog of war makes it difficult for even the combatants to understand what's happening in real time. As dense as the fog is on the battlefield, it's almost infinitely more opaque" on sites like Twitter.
– Professor and disinfo expert Kate Starbird said on Twitter that consumers should be "be wary of unfamiliar accounts." Check their profile, Starbird wrote: "Are they brand new? Or low follower? What were they tweeting a couple of weeks or months ago? Make sure they are who they say they are. If you're not sure, it's okay to not retweet."
– Christiaan Triebert of the NYT's visual investigations team recommended: “Do a reverse image search with Google and Yandex." That's good advice for images that seem especially striking or surprising. "If nothing shows up, mirror the image," and try again, he said. Storyful's Rob McDonagh noted that you can do the same with screenshots of videos...
– CNN's Daniel Dale said there are "old war clips going around social media and being captioned as new. There are also new clips being captioned definitively, by people not on scene, even though it's not actually clear what happened (which side fired, what was fired, etc.). Lots of caution warranted."
– As always, be wary of anyone asking for money. NBC's Kat Tenbarge and Ben Collins reported that some TikTokers were pretending to livestream from Ukraine and soliciting donations, using doctored or dubbed footage.
– Within an hour of the military action, Twitter Safety shared tips for securing accounts in English, Russian and Ukrainian. One of the intended audiences: Ukrainians who may need to erase digital evidence of past political activism.
– Facebook set it up a "Special Operations Center" to respond to war-related activity across the platform. One of the priorities: To "remove content that violates our Community Standards faster." Facebook also said it turned on "a new feature in Ukraine that allows people to lock their profile to provide an extra layer of privacy and security protection over their information."
Cybersecurity alert
Duffy adds: "This is an evergreen but currently relevant tip for journalists as well as others who may be involved in sharing information about the conflict, from Harvard Shorenstein fellow Jane Lytvynenko: "Make sure your reporters, [editors], photographers, admin staff, and anyone else involved in covering this war has strong cybersecurity hygiene. Vet sources. Check documents. Be aware of phishing attack potential. 2fa everywhere via an app. Password variation. Everything."
War through the lens of an Instagram influencer
Twenty or thirty years ago, the stories of innocent families suffering in war were told largely through the lenses of professional photographers and reporters. Now they can tell their own stories. The Information's Kaya Yurieff wrote about Instagram influencers and Twitch streamers in Ukraine who "showed how quickly life in the country went from normal to a nightmare." Tanya Parfileva, who has 1.7 million Instagram followers, "shared a selfie in an elevator wearing a fluffy beige coat and a photo of tea and chocolate" a day ago, but now Parfileva is sharing the wartime reality of Kyiv, like her to-go bag packed with "documents like passports, a first aid kit, cash, clothes, a lighter and a knife..."
How will this change the nature of conflict?
This is where I want to circle back to Johnson's column for Slate. He said "the scale and impact of what’s occurring and what we’re seeing can’t be understated. We're watching a massive conflict — the scale of which hasn't been seen on the continent in almost 100 years — rock the second-largest country in Europe. From our offices, our porches, our cars, and our schools, we can watch battles as they happen. What could this possibly mean? It's too soon to tell. But it signifies a historical change in how we fight — and how the world watches those fights."
FOR THE RECORD, PART TWO
-- RTDNA: "We at the Radio Television Digital News Association extend our extreme gratitude to the journalists who are risking their lives to report from Ukraine as bombs fall and missiles fly..." (RTDNA)
-- Justin Ling recaps some of the Russian disinfo about the war... (Foreign Policy)
-- "Kremlin-backed falsehoods are spreading across the world's largest tech platforms and putting the companies' content policies to the test..." (Politico)
-- Grid News has a new and comprehensive look at how Russian state-owned media outlets are harnessing Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo's words for propaganda purposes... (Grid)
-- Jeremy Barr writes about how some right-wing media stars "ridiculed Biden's warnings" of a Russian attack" and now "say it's his fault..." (WaPo)
-- Jennifer Rubin says journalists should "ask Republicans why they are normalizing support for Putin..." (WaPo)
-- "Don't underrate the power of TV," Derek Thompson wrote Thursday. "It's one thing to downplay a war that exists in the nebulous mind-theater of headlines and arguments. But the 24/7 televised bombing of innocents is a hard thing to rhetoric your way through..." (Twitter)
Will Putin's media machine work?
"It takes a certain kind of bravery to protest in President Vladimir Putin's Russia, especially on the day he sends his country to war."
After that powerful lead, ABC's James Longman in Moscow wrote that some Russians are taking to the streets and opposing the war knowing full well that they may be arrested. Longman noted that "there is no mention of an 'invasion' on state media. No maps to show where troops are or reports about their progress and the bloody fight that is now ensuing. The Russian public is being told this is simply a 'special military operation,' at the invitation of their separatist allies." The four-letter word for this is lies. And maybe the lies will work. "But if it drags on and Russia gets bogged down in a protracted conflict that leaves many dead," he wrote, "Putin's media machine may not be enough to mask the truth from a people who share so much with their southern neighbors..."
Those who got it right
Well-sourced journalists from outlets like CNN began picking up signals about the Russian military buildup and invasion plans several months ago. Jim Sciutto, Natasha Bertrand and Katie Bo Lillis were three of the CNN journalists who were out in front. While intel assessments can never be taken as gospel, US officials were onto Putin's plans early, and the news stories about those intel assessments were a glimpse into the future. "Even going way back to November, when we first began to report it, it was the U.S. view that Russia's intentions were quite broad to take over perhaps the entire country," Sciutto said on CNN Thursday...
>> Related: WaPo's Aaron Blake writes: "The White House decided to do something unusual if not unprecedented: Predict a Russian invasion of Ukraine and detail its intelligence. Russia denied it, some doubted it ... and then it happened."
Those who got it wrong
So many media types didn't see it coming. Didn't believe Putin would actually invade or didn't want to believe it. And some of them published mea culpas on Wednesday night and Thursday. Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks tweeted, "Looks like I was wrong about Russia. I definitely underestimated Putin's likelihood to invade. But I won't apologize for being skeptical of our state department." Matt Taibbi published a very forthright blog post on Thursday evening that said "I have to admit, I didn’t see this happening." He said his mistake was like "reverse chauvinism, being so fixated on Western misbehavior that I didn’t bother to take this possibility seriously enough. To readers who trust me not to make those misjudgments, I'm sorry. Obviously, Putin's invasion will have horrific consequences for years to come and massively destabilize the world..."
Sean Penn is filming in Ukraine
Oliver Darcy writes: "Sean Penn is in Ukraine filming a documentary about the Russian invasion for Vice Studios. Penn's filming of the doc, which is being produced with Vice World News and Endeavor Content, was brought to attention when the Office of the Ukrainian President released a statement saying the country was 'grateful' to him for heading to Kyiv to 'record all the events that are currently happening in Ukraine and to tell the world the truth about Russia’s invasion of our country.' Variety's Zack Sharf has more here..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART THREE
-- CNN media analyst David Zurawik says it is critical to show audiences the crisis "through Ukrainian eyes..." (CNN)
-- "Tech companies in the U.S. and around the globe that have for years relied on Ukraine as a source of cheap and reliable tech talent are now rushing to evacuate employees and keep services online..." (The Information)
-- "Putin is teaching us a brutal lesson about history," Frank Bruni writes: Forces like "embarrassment, vanity, viciousness" never go away. "It's not just that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it; it's that the past repeats itself, not precisely but to a significant degree, because the psychologies that shaped it survive it..." (NYT)
IN OTHER NEWS...
Three big headlines
-- Biden will reveal his Supreme Court pick "as soon as Friday" and "no later than Monday..." (CNN)
-- The CDC is expected to "significantly ease pandemic mask guidelines Friday..." (AP)
-- "3 former Minneapolis police officers found guilty of violating George Floyd’s civil rights..." (CNN)
FOR THE RECORD, PART FOUR
-- "Sinclair Broadcast Group said that the cyber attack the company faced last year resulted in $63 million in lost advertising revenue in the fourth quarter, plus other costs of $11 million." Only some of the costs will be covered by insurance... (B&C)
-- "The AP on Thursday hurriedly attempted to scrape the egg off its face after promoting a forthcoming 'NFT drop' of a raft of migrants adrift at sea..." (Beast)
-- Spotify has scrubbed its platform of Alex Jones podcasts which had been quietly uploaded to the platform where the InfoWars founder remains banned... (Variety)
-- ASME named the finalists for the 2022 National Magazine Awards on Thursday. New York mag led the nominations with eight... (ASME)
FIRST IN RELIABLE
NY Mag sees traffic & subscription boost from "Inventing Anna"
Oliver Darcy writes: "The buzz generated by the Netflix series 'Inventing Anna' is sending large volumes of traffic to the 2018 New York mag story which it is based off of. A spokesperson for the mag told me that the article has been the most-read story on the site since Sunday. The spox added that it has also been 'the top story for driving subscriptions to the magazine in February.' New York mag is capitalizing on the influx of readers. The spox explained, 'We also used the top of the page to soft-launch our first archival newsletter, Reread: New York Hustlers, which will resurface classic tales of scammers, grifters, and strivers from the New York archives...'"
"The Pandemic Interpreter"
David Leonhardt has been a recurring guest on "Reliable Sources" in the past year. I have greatly valued his approach to covering and communicating about the pandemic. He has also become quite controversial for his morning newsletter columns, which is why Sam Adler-Bell penned this new piece for NYMag about Leonhardt's unique role – including "being an implicit corrective to some of the more alarmist coverage showing up elsewhere in traditional media and even in the Times itself." The subheadline is "Why are so many liberals mad at David Leonhardt?" Check out the article here...
FOR THE RECORD, PART FIVE
-- On Thursday NBC confirmed Wednesday night's "Reliable Sources" scoop about Bill Barr's book rollout. Barr's "first TV interview since his resignation" from Trump's cabinet will be in prime time with Lester Holt on Sunday, March 6. He will be on the "Today" show with Savannah Guthrie the next morning... (The Hill)
-- Closing bell schedule shifts at CNBC: "Sara Eisen will solo anchor 3pm, Scott Wapner gets 4pm..." (TVNewser)
-- Andrew Marchand reports that ESPN might try to pluck Joe Buck from Fox Sports... (NY Post)
-- The National Association of Hispanic Journalists "has selected David Peña Jr. as its new executive director..." (Media Moves)
Discovery's streaming spending plan
"The company to be created by the merger of Discovery and AT&T’s WarnerMedia will focus on profitable growth in streaming, Discovery CEO David Zaslav said Thursday, with his CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels vowing a 'conservative approach' to content spending," THR's George Szalai wrote. The execs spoke on Discovery's Q4 earnings conference call. Read on...
In two premieres, law and disorder
Brian Lowry writes: "After a dozen-year hiatus, the flagship 'Law & Order' returns as if it was never gone, with an episode that features the murder of a celebrity convicted of rape and subsequently released, who certainly shouldn't bring to mind a former mainstay of NBC's Thursday-night lineup. The weekend also brings another sort-of encore with 'Vikings: Valhalla,' a muscular historical drama about the pillaging Norsemen set 100 years after the History channel series 'Vikings.' The original was a hit, and the show should receive a significant signal boost from its shift to Netflix. Read on..."
FOR THE RECORD, PART SIX
By Lisa Respers France:
-- Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who came to fame as a dance pro on "Dancing With the Stars," was in his native Ukraine Thursday, and posted some emotional videos...
-- We have apparently been mispronouncing Lindsay Lohan's last name this whole time...
-- Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor have reconciled after their 2017 split...
-- Rapper Da Brat and entrepreneur Judy Dupart married on 2/22/22...
-- Ty Pennington took on body shamers who trolled him...
Two Friday programming notes
Via Brian Lowry: "Cyrano," starring Peter Dinklage, hits theaters after several delays. And "The Godfather" is being rereleased in commemoration of its 50th anniversary...
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST...
Pet of the day
Reader Ted Lopatkiewicz emails: "Our rescue beagle Scout is transfixed by CNN’s coverage of President Biden's speech Thursday on the war in Ukraine..."
Email your feedback anytime. Oliver will be leading Friday night's edition...
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