Listening to right-leaning various media within the U.S., one would possibly come away with the impression — albeit with out proof — that Ukraine is irredeemably corrupt, President Volodymyr Zelensky is a dictator, and Russia’s invasion was someway justified.
On a December episode of comic Tim Dillon’s podcast, podcaster Joe Rogan asserted that “most individuals don’t even know in regards to the coup in 2014 in Ukraine,” echoing a Russian speaking level that casts the nation’s revolution towards a pro-Russian corrupt regime in 2013-2014 as a U.S.-backed plot.
“Most individuals don’t know that the president of the Ukraine proper now, Zelensky, performed the president on a tv present — a comedy present. And the premise of the comedy present was {that a} comic turns into the president,” Dillon added.
Whereas true partially, Dillon misrepresented Zelensky’s function in “Servant of the Folks,” the place he performed a schoolteacher turned president, not a comic. Dillon’s use of “the Ukraine,” a linguistic relic of Soviet-era dominance, underscored how even informal conversations can echo geopolitical biases.
After the onset of Russia’s full-scale battle in 2022, unfavourable and deceptive narratives about Ukraine have gained momentum in right-leaning U.S. various media. As conventional information consumption reaches historic lows, a brand new frontier of media consumption has taken the lead.
Proper-wing various media has been significantly profitable within the U.S. as a result of “it fills a void that mainstream media left open. It provides a transparent, emotionally compelling, and sometimes conspiratorial narrative that provides its viewers straightforward explanations for complicated issues,” David Pakman, an American speak present host and progressive political commentator, informed the Kyiv Impartial.
“Progressive media is up towards a critical drawback which is that the reality is usually manner much less thrilling than a lie.”
Throughout his 2024 election marketing campaign, U.S. President Donald Trump aggressively courted influential right-leaning podcast hosts, harnessing their attain to tens of millions of listeners for his political profit. A few of these media figures — together with Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Patrick Wager-David, and Lex Fridman — have additionally repeatedly amplified Russian narratives about Ukraine.
With the U.S. suspending army help and intelligence sharing with Ukraine in early March and the Trump administration’s intensifying assaults on Zelensky, coverage debates within the U.S. over the battle and Ukraine’s future look like formed much less by specialists and extra by Russian propaganda narratives, amplified by U.S. right-wing podcasters.
Extra ‘genuine’ however not factual
Rogan’s podcast, with over 19 million YouTube subscribers and a constant maintain on the highest of the charts, dominates the choice media sphere within the U.S. What started as an informal hangout for comedians has developed over the previous 16 years right into a platform that includes high-profile friends like Silicon Valley tech moguls and presidential candidates.
Whereas he positions himself as “an American first” — showing to indicate that patriotism is separate from political occasion allegiance — Rogan has, in recent times, slowly embraced right-wing speaking factors. Rogan formally endorsed Trump throughout the 2024 presidential election and declared, “Why would anybody be towards (his want to make America first)?” in a current episode with businessman Marc Andreessen.
“There's all the time been a really sturdy isolationist, ‘America First’ constituency within the U.S. You’ll all the time be capable to promote business media programming by waving the flag and asking why overseas help is being despatched overseas slightly than paying for native or state wants,” Professor Michael Socolow, an American media historian, informed the Kyiv Impartial.
“(President Franklin D.) Roosevelt needed to struggle (isolationism) when making an attempt to cease the Nazis earlier than the Japanese bombed America into World Battle II. It looks as if the anti-Ukraine discourse has blended into this conventional American political faction."
Rogan has additionally voiced sturdy opposition to U.S. help to Ukraine. In a single episode, whereas speaking to document producer and songwriter Scott Storch, Rogan condemned then-U.S. President Joe Biden's authorization of Ukrainian strikes on Russian soil with American weapons, unleashing expletives aimed toward Zelensky.
“How are you allowed to try this when you find yourself in your manner out? Like individuals don’t need you to be there anymore, possibly that may be factor we want to keep away from from a dying former president. The entire thing is nuts,” Rogan stated.
"Zelensky says Putin is terrified. F**okay you, man. You f**king individuals are about to start out World Battle III.”
In the course of the heated Feb. 28 assembly in Washington, Trump made an analogous level when he warned Zelensky he was "playing with World Battle III," suggesting that Ukraine’s resistance to Russian aggression was a higher risk to international stability than Russia's invasion itself.
Rogan later revealed that he turned down Zelensky’s supply to seem on the podcast to share the Ukrainian perspective, providing little greater than an informal dismissal throughout an episode with three different comedians: “Zelensky tried to come back on. They tried to get Zelensky on. I used to be like, ‘What are you speaking about?’”
In the identical episode the place Rogan rejected the concept of interviewing Zelensky, fellow comic Ari Shaffir casually talked about that Former Fox Information host and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson had informed him that former U.Okay. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had “prevented” a 2022 peace deal — a Kremlin narrative that ignores the truth that Russia-Ukraine negotiations stalled shortly after the invention of the Bucha bloodbath. Each Johnson and Zelensky have additionally denied the declare.
“The place’s the proof (of Johnson intervening)? What’s the context? Who’re the sources? Doesn’t matter — as soon as it’s stated on an enormous platform, it turns into the reality,” Pakman stated.
“And since these hosts are seen as extra ‘genuine’ than conventional information anchors, their phrases carry weight, even after they're simply speculating or repeating Kremlin speaking factors with out realizing it.”
The Kyiv IndependentOleg Sukhov
Russia-friendly hosts, friends
A number of the anti-Ukraine messaging pushed by Rogan and different various media personalities can usually be traced again to their friends, a few of whom not solely repeat pro-Russian narratives however have additionally interacted immediately with the Kremlin.
Amongst them is U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone, who performed over a dozen interviews with Vladimir Putin throughout the two years of filming a documentary in regards to the Russian chief. Stone’s different documentary, “Ukraine on Fireplace,” depicts the 2013-2014 EuroMaidan Revolution (or Revolution of Dignity) as “the Maidan Bloodbath” that resulted within the overthrow of then-President Viktor Yanukovych slightly than a democratic rebellion towards Yanukovych’s push to develop nearer ties with Russia over the EU.
In a 2022 interview with podcaster Lex Fridman, whose YouTube channel has practically 5 million subscribers, Stone dismissed those that stated that Putin was a “madman” for his invasion of Ukraine.
“What individuals don’t perceive,” Stone argued, “is that Ukraine has been a terrorist state since 2014” – one other Kremlin speaking level that has nothing to do with actuality.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has appeared on Rogan and Fridman’s podcasts, has used X, previously often called Twitter, to repeatedly amplify Russian speaking factors. He has additionally referred to the EuroMaidan Revolution as a coup and known as for Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula – occupied by Russia since 2014 – to stay with Russia, which garnered him reward from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Carlson, who has additionally interviewed Putin in addition to Russian Overseas Minister Sergei Lavrov, has been a visitor on quite a few these reveals or featured a number of the hosts on his personal present.
“I do really feel for Zelensky, I do…I believe Zelensky’s been fully misused by the State Division…by the coverage makers within the U.S. who’ve used Ukraine as a vessel for his or her geopolitical ambitions,” Carlson informed Fridman shortly after his interview with Putin, reinforcing the narrative that Ukraine’s push for independence will not be really its personal.
Moreover, Carlson has repeatedly claimed — with out proof — that Ukraine is promoting U.S.-supplied weapons on the black market, together with to Mexican drug cartels.
Fellow right-wing commentator Richard Hanania privately requested Carlson for proof behind his declare, to which Carlson responded with a slew of private insults, Hanania revealed in a March 2 publish on X.
When pressed on Carlson’s pro-Russia rhetoric in an interview with Piers Morgan in early February, Zelensky didn’t mince phrases: “He must cease working for Putin, to cease kissing his ass, truthfully.”
Along with those that have traveled to Moscow for sit-downs with Putin, some podcasters have additionally been accused of receiving cash immediately from the Kremlin.
In September 2024, the U.S. Justice Division alleged that a number of right-wing podcasters, together with Tim Pool and Dave Rubin, had been linked to Tenet Media, an organization serving as a Russian intelligence providers fronta entrance for Russian intelligence ser after Russia Right now’s attain was restricted.
The podcasters had been allegedly unaware of the corporate’s ties to Russia and denied that the Kremlin had any affect over their work. Nonetheless, a few of them proceed to push anti-Ukraine speaking factors to today.
“I f**king despise these smarmy hypocrites defending Ukraine and Zelensky,” Pool wrote on X on March 4. “Ukraine has given us NOTHING. There isn’t a purpose to be concerned on this battle.”
The Kyiv IndependentDaria Shulzhenko
Rising affect
Given these various media figures’ ties to Trump’s political orbit, Zelensky has tried to navigate — and capitalize on — this various media panorama to his nation’s profit.
Whereas Zelensky didn’t seem on Rogan’s podcast and talks of an interview with Carlson by no means materialized, he sat down in January for a virtually three-hour dialog with Fridman. In the course of the dialogue, Zelensky fervently detailed Ukraine’s struggles in an existential battle and why negotiating with Putin isn’t as simple as some recommend.
Whereas Fridman has publicly praised Zelensky as a hero, likening him to Winston Churchill, he steered their dialog in a unique course throughout the interview by talking of the necessity for compromises and even to forgive Putin, prompting Zelensky to answer that the compromise was that Putin will probably by no means face the jail sentence he deserves — however forgiveness, after every part, is out of the query.
Following the interview, Fridman stated on Rogan’s podcast that he intends to journey to Moscow for an interview with Putin.
Another Ukrainian political figures, for private acquire, have additionally tried to take advantage of the alternatives offered by this right-wing various media panorama.
On the finish of December, Oleksiy Arestovych, a controversial former adviser to the President’s Workplace, made an look on Iranian-American entrepreneur Patrick Wager-David’s podcast. Wager-David hosted Trump and a number of other of his fast relations on his present throughout the presidential election.
Arestovych forged himself to Wager-David’s viewers as a “phenomenally common” determine pressured to go away Ukraine on the warning of an unnamed U.S. official however resolute in his ambition to return when circumstances permitted. Arestovych is understood for exaggerating and even mendacity about his function in wartime Ukraine.
None of Arestovych’s statements had been challenged by Wager-David throughout the three-hour-long interview — each declare was offered and, in flip, accepted as reality.
“There are only a few important or antagonistic interviewers on podcasts,” Socolow defined.
“That's how Trump used them so successfully throughout the marketing campaign, for instance. He knew he can be handled properly, and that made it simpler to advertise his anti-Ukraine (and supposedly ‘pro-America’) messages.”
Amid declining U.S. common assist for Ukraine, Arestovych additionally sought to undermine confidence in Zelensky's management each domestically and internationally with provocative statements like “I belief Putin greater than Zelensky.”
Wager-David, identified for often discussing alongside his co-hosts how Ukraine is “completely corrupt,” then pressed Arestovych to reply whether or not Zelensky had profited financially from the battle.
“It is a crucial query so that you can reply,” Wager-David stated. “Should you reply it, in a manner, it’s catastrophic for (Zelensky). Are you aware the reply, whether or not cash ended up flowing to him by means of shell accounts or different individuals?”
“I shouldn’t have data that he acquired cash from corruption scandals. However I can inform you for positive that the extent of corruption is off the charts. It’s catastrophic,” Arestovych replied vaguely, including that “at a minimal, it advantages the people who find themselves surrounding (Zelensky).”
Wager-David has more and more pushed anti-Ukraine rhetoric by means of conversations with quite a few friends that haven’t any obvious experience on the problem. In a March 4 interview, males's rights activist and alleged human trafficker Andrew Tate joined Wager-David in accusing Zelensky of the “audacity” of "disrespecting" Trump throughout his White Home go to.
Wager-David and Tate additionally implied that Zelensky is someway prolonging the battle out of private pursuits, regardless of the Kremlin saying publicly that they’ve but to attain their goals in Ukraine — particularly, the destruction of Ukrainian statehood.
Polls present that right-wing various media’s anti-Ukraine rhetoric has resonated amongst a major proportion of the American public. Because the full-scale battle entered its fourth 12 months, that lack of assist might show lethal.
Pew Analysis revealed a ballot in November that confirmed 43% of Republicans believed that the U.S. was offering an excessive amount of help to Ukraine, and solely 36% stated the nation had a duty to assist defend Ukraine.
Likewise, a Gallup ballot from December confirmed that fifty% of People consider within the want for a swift finish to the battle even when it means Ukraine doesn’t recuperate all of its territory below Russian occupation.
“What seems to be taking place is that the perimeter media is influencing the more-established and respectable conservative media mindset,” Socolow stated.
“And that is shaping anti-Ukraine, pro-Putin rhetoric that's changing into extra influential."
Word from the creator:
Thanks for studying this text. As an American who has lived for a very long time in Ukraine, it’s vital for me to name out these again in my start nation who’re spreading dangerous disinformation in regards to the nation that holds a particular place in my coronary heart. Throughout wartime, it’s much more vital to get info straight. Should you like studying this kind of factor, please take into account changing into a member of the Kyiv Impartial.