Why the media coverage of Ukraine’s ugly war has shattered expectations

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Rep. McCaul: Humanitarian crisis on Poland-Ukraine border reminiscent of WWII

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, on his trip to Poland-Ukraine border.

An agonized world watches journalists report from the Ukraine rubble, as the night sky lights up with incoming missiles, as panicked families step over a broken wooden bridge to flee to safety.

What should not be lost amid the inevitable fog is that the media are doing a hell of a good job in conveying not just the military and political strategy surrounding Russia's invasion but the human emotions in a country that is suffering a totally unprovoked attack. 

Refugees from Ukraine rest in a hall with cots after their arrival at the main station.  (Getty Images)

I don’t just mean the journalistic boots on the ground, although they are displaying extraordinary courage in serving as our eyes and ears in a dangerous situation.

I think the media as a whole have risen to the occasion.

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Every once in a great while, a story emerges that is so momentous that it doesn’t need to be hyped, teased or trumpeted. It’s a story, generally with life-and-death dimensions, that compels our attention and requires major resources to pursue.

Putin against the world

Ukraine fits those precise descriptions, given that it’s not only the biggest European land war since 1945 but that it pits a seemingly unhinged Vladimir Putin against the world with a horrifying level of suffering that has reached humanitarian crisis levels.

I remember expressing similar sentiments after 9/11, the terrorist attack that so shocked America and the world and felt, even in the opening hours, that it would forever change our way of life. I had the same feeling about Hurricane Katrina and the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, although the virus quickly got caught up in politics as many people felt the press was scaremongering (an accusation that looks very different 950,000 deaths later). 

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People sit around a lamp in a bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 6, 2022.  (Associated Press)

In ordinary times, the media establishment has a lot of time to fill – cable news hours, column inches, online verticals, social media posts. Everyone is trying to break through the static. So there’s a daily dose of political sniping, charges and countercharges, eye-poking, eye-rolling and garden-variety sensationalism. 

All that becomes unnecessary when you’ve got more than 2 million people fleeing a war that includes deliberate bombardment of civilian neighborhoods and supposed escape routes by a country that insists it is not waging a war at all. 

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Tech brings intimacy

Technology has given this conflict an intimate feel, with everyone posting images and videos from TikTok to Twitter, and journalists able to show unspeakable damage and panicked families with a speed and reach that had never been possible.

The flag of Ukraine is wrapped around a replica of the Statue of Liberty (Associated Press)

Now I’m not saying that partisanship has completely vanished from the media landscape. You still have some debates over whether President Biden could have prevented the invasion, whether his Russian oil ban screws American consumers, whether Donald Trump was wrong to tie Ukrainian aid to dirt on Biden.

And there are those voices that are demanding the administration enforce a no-fly zone, which could lead to a direct U.S. military confrontation with Russia, or put Putin himself on the no-survive list, which happens to violate international law.

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Close to consensus

But the larger truth is that the country is pretty unified on the Ukraine crisis, and the space between Republicans (some of whom attacked the country as corrupt during the Trump years) and Democrats has visibly narrowed. In a Wall Street Journal poll, 79% of those questioned – including vast majorities in each party – favor the ban on Russian oil and gas, even with the knowledge that it will boost prices here at home. That’s about as close to consensus as we ever come in this country. 

We’re also seeing a dramatic drop in the MSNBC and CNN vs. Fox dynamic, a usual prime-time staple. It just feels like an unaffordable luxury when people are trapped and dying and Volodymyr Zelensky is everywhere, pleading for help for his overwhelmed country. The actual reporting and analysis of this brutal war is eating up most of the time that might have been devoted to television towel-snapping.

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The coverage hasn’t been perfect. Mistakes have been made. Some journalists have overindulged in emotion. But it reflects the messy, cruel and heartbreaking realities of this war in particular, and as someone who criticizes the press for a living, I’m grateful for however long it lasts.