NBC Offers Muted Coverage From Moscow of Putin’s Law Criminalizing Journalism

After NBC’s Today SkippedFriday morning brought the terrifying news that Russia had made it illegal to report basic information about its war on Ukraine. NBC Nightly NewsThey covered the story for 55 seconds, but it was muted hours later. Perhaps because they still reported from Moscow after other west networks stopped reporting.

Meanwhile, ABC’s World News TonightTheir team reported that they had temporarily stopped reporting from Moscow because of the law and CBS Evening NewsThis was the only broadcast newscast that reported on the topic. horrifying videoThe Sky News team is subjected to unrelenting gunfire by Russian soldiers at Kyiv, despite being journalists.

Nightly NewsAnchor Lester Holt stated to viewers that Vladimir Putin, the dictator of Russia was his favorite. “taking harsh new steps tonight to control messaging about the war, including a press crackdown that has prompted some international news organizations to suspend operations there.”

Keir Simmons, senior international correspondent, added the clampdown on independent and free press to a segment on latest developments on Putin and Kremlin.

You can see how cautious Simmons was with his words to avoid putting himself in danger.

[Putin] signing new law passed by parliament making it illegal to distribute so-called “false information” about the military operation: calling the operation in Ukraine an invasion or a war could be illegal. A violation of the law could land you up to fifteen years in jail. State media reported that Russia’s Internet regulator blocked Facebook and restricted Twitter. And tonight, more independent news organizations have been taken off line here, including the BBC’s Russian service, a state-funded German channel, and Radio Free Europe.

ABC News World News Tonight anchor David Muir said from the Ukraine-Poland border that Russia’s law would mean “[j]ournalists…fac[e] up to 15 years prison for so-called fake news, anyone spreading what the government deems as ‘false information,’ potentially for using like words like war and invasion.”

Senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce noted that, as part of the overall crackdown on non-Kremlin-approved media, “Moscow’s last independent TV station” went dark as they found it “impossible” to continue.

She then told ABC viewers that the network had joined other networks such as “CNN, Bloomberg, and the BBC” (click “expand”):

BRUCE: Some Western networks including ABC News are no longer broadcasting from Brazil. 

BBC NEWS INTERIM DIRECTOR JONATHAN MUNRO: We don’t want to find that out the hard way, by finding that someone has said something which we believe to be true or used words which are now outlawed like “war” or “invasion,” and find that we’re then punished in a completely draconian and unacceptable way. 

(….)

MUIR: Mary Bruce joins our team from the White House. And Mary, we’ve now seen several news organizations pause their broadcasting from Russia, and, of course, we know that includes ABC News. 

BRUCE. David. We are seeing western networks such as CNN, Bloomberg, the BBC and our ABC News not broadcasting in Russia due to this Russian censorship legislation. An ABC News spokesperson adding, “we will continue to assess the situation and determine what this law means for the safety of our teams on the ground.” The White House tonight telling me the Russian people deserve to know about the death and destruction being inflicted by their government on the people of Ukraine. David.

“[T]he safety and security of our team is paramount,” Muir was added.

Then, move to CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell said “a new iron curtain has fallen in Russia, and this time, it’s an information iron curtain.”

Speaking of the genuine crackdown on freedom of speech and the press, O’Donnell said the Kremlin’s blocking of social media platforms and shuttering all “independent media outlets” were reasons “why most Russians don’t know what’s really happening in Ukraine.”

Foreign correspondent Roxana Sabieri said from London that “many Russian journalists are fearing for their safety” with “[s]Ome hav[ing] already fled the country this week” and “others…now packing up and getting ready to go.”

Earlier, O’Donnell and foreign correspondent Charlie D’Agata broadcast the chilling scene in Kyiv of Sky News correspondent Stuart Ramsay and his team being attacked in what O’Donnell described as “Russian troops ambushing journalists.”

D’Agata recapped what happened (click “expand”):

D’AGATA: In a dramatic example of the violence in unpredictability here — 

[GUNSHOTS]

D’AGATA: — our colleagues at Sky News —

SKY NEWS TEAM MEMBERS: STOP!

D’AGATA: — were ambushed on the outskirts of the city, dozens of bullets tearing through the car.

SKY NEWS TEAM MEMBER: Andrii!

D’AGATA: — attacked by a suspected Russian reconnaissance team.

[JOURNALISTS SCREAMING]

(….)

D’AGATA: Now, in terms of that Sky News team, we’re happy to report that they’re all okay. Stuart Ramsay was the one I reached out to. He is my correspondent. My good friend, he told me right after hearing that there were 100 bullets through the van. He did get hit. He was admitted to hospital. All of his coworkers are safe now that he’s back home in the U.K.

After years of the liberal media painting a dystopia in which the Trump administration would be behaving this way toward journalists, it’s necessary for all parties to condemn this act against innocent people, regardless of their political ideology.

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