Ukraine: It's Not Just the Shooting War That Deserves Prime Time

What Americans need to understand extends well beyond Ukraine39s battlefields In Paris Berlin Budapest and elsewhere elections power struggles and policy decisions now unfolding will decide Europe39s strategic landscape The major dailies many web outlets national security policy journals and the foreign press are on top of the stories But for news consumers who rely on broadcast and cable these developments and their implications are receiving scant attention They39re no less important than the military play by playWhat39s missing isn39t realtime coverage of the war From the destruction of cities and lives war crimes and refugee sagas to the sanctions hitting Vladimir Putin39s regime stories on Russia39s travesties Ukraine39s resistance and the consequences fill airtime the web and print Indeed the oftencourageous war reporting may be having unintended effects According to a recent poll by Civicscience the tally of people who said they are closely following events in Ukraine has fallen from 60 to 41 percent suggesting many have a version of warinduced PSTDEvents involve Europe39s big powers as well as small In France the second round in presidential elections this month pits incumbent Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen the farright leader whose affection for Putin rivals Donald Trump39s If Le Pen wins on April 24th her victory is likely to fracture NATO39s unity and Europe39s cohesion not only in confronting Russia today but also Putin39s aggressions to come That Le Pen is portraying herself as a populist to soften a far rightwing image can39t conceal her history including opposition to NATO and France39s EU ties In fact Putin has cheered her nationalistic zeal including underwriting her political causeIn Germany the success of Chancellor Olaf Scholz is no less consequential Scholz must make good on his historic commitments to double defense spending ship military aid to Ukraine and curb Russia39s leverage as Germany39s leading energy supplier Half of the country39s natural gas and a third of its oil imports come from Russia presenting wrenching choices for Europe39s largest economy Scholz39s pledges aren39t pro bono policy changes to help Ukraine Putin39s aggression has revealed Germany39s vulnerabilities after decades of underfunding its defenses while ignoring Russia39s stranglehold on its energy supplies as well as potential military threatThe challenges among NATO39s frontline members are equally striking In Hungary President Victor Orban won reelection this month His bromance with Putin not to mention copycat antidemocratic domestic designs are raising obvious questions among Hungary39s NATO partners about the security of their flanks Meanwhile Romania which shares the longest border with Ukraine among NATO members faces a growing threat and military need as Russian forces consolidate their grip on Donbas Crimea and the Black Sea coastFor President Biden of course these and other developments across Europe are top of mind His administration must make choices that not only build domestic political support for sustaining US aid to Ukraine but also empower the President39s role in leading NATO39s response Whether its forward deploying US forces in Europe or financing Ukraine39s reconstruction along with allies Biden will need to break new ground making it important that Americans understand not only the continent39s changing political landscape but also the challenges aheadReporting the stories that will deliver these facts isn39t beyond broadcast journalism39s ken To be sure more extensive coverage of the impact of Putin39s aggression on US allies obviously will require beefing up reporting from their capitals It will also require indepth reporting to educate American audiences used to an onscreen international news diet that has treated such stories as hors d39oeuvres rather than a main course The news networks have an opportunity to do just that not only by investing in the effort but also partnering with news outlets abroadTake Le Monde France39s leading daily The newspaper is launching an English language newsletter hoping to hit a target of a million web subscribers in the United States and the United Kingdom by 2025 Or consider Russia39s exiled media Two weeks ago Novaya Gazeta Russia39s last independent daily newspaper closed its doors because of the Putin regime39s draconian censorship The paper is launching a new Europeanbased edition staffed by its now expatriate reporters Odds are their expertise on east Europe as well as Russia can39t be beatLouis Dreyfus Le Monde39s chief executive put it this way amp8220I think that with the US there is an important population that will be happy to understand that there is another coverage of news that is not The New York Times neither The Washington Postamp8221 Dreyfus was talking about the web and the world of print journalism He could just as easily have included broadcast and cable newsClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Ukraine: It's Not Just the Shooting War That Deserves Prime Time

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Kent M. Harrington

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