The Russian Presidential Aide and head of the Russian negotiating group with Ukraine also said that recently the Russian Military Historical Society handed over several thousand books to the institutions where Ukrainian prisoners of war are being held, including textbooks on the history of Russia in the 20th century and pamphlets about Bandera
Private media is beholden to the wealthiest in society, and often recieves state funding as well. This is true across all western nations, including European nations. The few, minor independent news organizations that go against the grain are overwhelmed by the standard mass media.
Bullshit. Sure, in the US everything is corporate owned and controlled. But in Europe, there are media reporting every side of every story. My primary newspaper (NRC, a major Dutch newspaper) has no problem going against the grain when the situation calls for it. But even in the US with its highly partisan media, there are news outlets for every political leaning, and many do not blindly parrot the government narrative like Russian media does.
Whatever misgivings you have about western media (and some are definitely justified), it’s really no comparison to Russia, where a wrong word can have you falling out of a window. Putin brutally silences dissent in a way even Trump can only dream of.
Dutch media isn’t particularly different from US media. Further, the “every political leaning” really just translates to various flavors of right-wing, from SocDem to fascist. What gets boosted by private investors is what permeates discourse. Private media is no less biased than state media.
Dutch media is far less partisan than US media, which in turn is still far less state-controlled than Russian media. You’re fooling yourself if you want to pretend these are all the same.
Furthermore, SocDem is not right-wing by even the farthest stretch of the imagination. It’s moderate left. If you want further left than that, there’s still small indie media for you. If you consider every voice out there to be compromised and right-wing, maybe the problem is you.
NRC is not Partisan? LOL.
Dutch media copies US media to the tee.
The difference is that it only follows US democrat media,
until far-right movements popped up and one of them
created a ‘US republican outlet’ show.
There’s currently a wave of articles in the NRC going on about feminism,
for the millionth time, about violence against women,
because one teenage girl had been killed.
Meanwhile, in Palestine we have hundreds of thousands of women and children dying of a genocide
and it’s being completedly ignored.
And that’s deliberate to pull wool over your eyes from the genocide our country is complicit in.
If NRC condemned Israel like it does Russia, we’d have articles like these:
“Name of person is resisting Israel for its human rights violations”
“Israel keeps repeating it’s imperialistic tricks”
“Netanyahu’s borders doesn’t stop at NATO’s borders”
“The Liberal Party manoeuvres into the heart of a pro-Israeli network”
etcetera, etcetera, etcetera
And if NRC would be writing about Russia if it were Israel we’d have articles like these:
“Greater-Russia has deep historical roots”
“Russian parlement votes against the establishment of a Ukrainian state”
“Why did Russia attack Ukraine and twelve other question.”
“The Netherlands wants Russia to deliver proof that the murdered journalists were Azov nazis”
“Russia air strikes Lithuanian military targets”
“Putin’s long cherished air strike attack on Poland is also a welcoming diversion” “UK, France and Canada warn Russia that they will take concrete measures if Russia continues this war”
And the problem here is that Russia actually has a legitimate reason for their invasion where Israel does not.
When Ukraine got independent, pieces of Russia that the Soviet Union gave to Ukraine for administrative purposes came with it. It was accepted as Ukraine was thought to be a “sister nation” like Belgium to the Netherlands. Today Ukraine can no longer be trusted to safeguard its Russian population as it tries to join NATO and NATO is anti-Russia. Ukraine has been actively been suppressing its Russian population,
including but not limited to machine gunning civilians trying to enter voting booths for the demand of independence from Ukraine.
Russia’s response to that was demilitarization of Ukraine,
targeting military only, with a record low amount of civilians killed per soldier.
That’s very different from Netanyahu’s “Greater Israel” plan that tries to simply conquer 9 nations, most of them tacit allies, with zero historical roots to them, apart from parts of Palestine, but that already pales in comparison to the area south of Beersheba Israel already occupies that never were historically Israeli.
Hamas did a desperate attack on Israel as Netanyahu publicly displayed part of his Greater Israel plan at the UN.
Israel’s response to that is genocing, targeting civilians first and foremost.
Women, children and hospitals first.
If you know about the articles in NRC, you also know that they have many articles about Gaza, and yet you choose to lie about that. Why would you even think you can lie about that when I also have access to those articles?
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/08/23/wanhoop-in-gaza-stad-door-israelische-invasie-de-huidige-belegering-zal-leiden-tot-complete-vernietiging-a4903870
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/08/21/na-de-daverende-klap-van-de-raket-opent-israel-het-offensief-in-gaza-stad-a4903685
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/08/21/massa-arrestaties-in-het-verenigd-koninkrijk-wanneer-is-pro-palestijns-protest-terrorisme-a4903712
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/07/29/europees-geduld-met-israel-slinkt-maar-over-een-bescheiden-sanctie-is-eu-het-nog-niet-eens-a4901657
https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/08/13/worden-de-palestijnen-diplomatiek-wisselgeld-voor-zuid-soedan-a4902927
You’re still equating private funding with independence. Further, social democrats are capitalists, by definition they are right wing. There are exceedingly few leftist voices except for small indie media, across the west, and these voices get drowned out by the huge private mass media corporations that are just mouthpieces for wealthy owners.
They exist, though. They’re worth listening to. Critically, of course, as with all media.
Yet they are also socialists. By definition. They’re trying to find a balance, and have at times been quite successful.
Seriously, read up on the history of socialism. There’s a lot more to it than you probably think.
Yes, leftist news is worth listening to, but these are by no means the common news sources in the west. Social democtats are not socialists, you cannot be both a capitalist and a socialist. Believe me, I have done reading on the history of socialism, I’m a communist.
Lol. I do not understand how people can be so simultaneously ignorant and arrogant on a subject.
“Social Democracy objectively represents the moderate wing of Fascism.” - J. V. Stalin
https://marxistleninist.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/bourgeois-democracy-and-fascism/
Eh… DemSoc is left wing while SocDem is basically welfare capitalism these days.
Read your own link, man. It calls Democratic Socialism a wing of Social Democracy. Also, why do you not also share the article about Social Democracy itself?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democracy
Now, you would be correct if you merely argued that many Labour movements dipped to moderate right with their embrace of neoliberalism in the 1990s, but outside of that, they’ve been moderate left. But SocDem has always been considered various degrees of left. Sometimes not even moderately so.
Social Democracy is an ideology supporting capitalism, at best it is center-right. Welfare capitalism is still capitalism.
Mixed economy is the word for it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_economy
All economies are mixed, what determines mode of production is the principle aspect of the economy. In social democracy, the large firms and key industries are still privately owned, with perhaps some little nationalization, and the state is dominated by the wealthy.
The netherlands are absolutely not exempt from this phenomenon. It affects every country where capital stands above political power and the media, including yours.
https://swprs.org/the-propaganda-multiplier/
None of that confirms the claim that western media is as unfree as Russian media. Sure there are concerns, but even then, none of the quoted percentages are 100%; the other voices do exist. And regardless of the power of money, there are many journalists out there risking their lives to report the truth. Look at Gaza, for example. Many western governments wanted to ignore it but now can’t because media keep reporting about the atrocities.
Please tell me this is a bit
Israel has murdered more journalists than Putin could dream of, with full support of Europe.
And the media report it. That is my point.
Western governments are (too) slowly changing their stance on Israel and Gaza because western media keep reporting about it.
Pretty fucked to say that murdering journalists isn’t “brutally silencing dissent” just because other sources report on it, sometime. Do you apply the same standard to Russia?
Besides, the western media have done everything they can to downplay it without losing credibility entirely.
Bullshit
Yeah. Is that something you wanted to deny? Or are you desperately trying to put words in my mouth when I said the exact opposite?
Then you’re reading the wrong media. I’ve been reading about these atrocities constantly.
It’s happening. Dutch government just fell apart over this (and the Dutch government has been pretty awful in their blind support of Israel so far).
You need to come out of your bubble and inform yourself.
No, I was just pointing out that it’s fucked up that you denied that Israel and the West killing far more journalists than Russia is “brutally silencing dissent”
Really? What have you been reading that has accurately been describing Israel, and the West’s, planned extermination of the population of Gaza, including the deliberate killing of journalists, and has been doing it consistently over the last two years?
Really? So Denmark is a governmentless failed state now?
Have you considered that maybe you should come out of your bubble and inform yourself? Do you really think that I, as a westerner, am not exposed to Western Media all the time?