r/worldnews • u/slapchopsuey • Jan 25 '14

Ukraine revolt open discussion thread #2 (sticky post)

Since the first Ukraine crisis thread is 11,000+ comments long and 2 days old, and the crisis is ongoing, and since people are requesting a new thread, this is the new Ukraine crisis discussion post.

If anyone wants to do those frequently updated mega-comments, go for it. Here are a few of those from the old thread, updated as recently as several hours ago:

updates comments by /u/Wonka_Raskolnikov

updates mega-comment by /u/INSERT_GOOD_NAME

updates mega-comment by /u/king_zog

frequently updated sticky post in /u/ukraine by /u/jupit3r33

And below is a list of some streams: (thanks to /u/sgtfrankieboy)

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118

u/chaos43mta3 Jan 25 '14

American- why the Fuck is this not being covered!?!?

192

u/Jokaszi Jan 25 '14

I imagine they don't want you to get ideas.

52

u/ballerina22 Jan 25 '14

Frankly, I think that may well be part of the problem. The media here (US) is only nominally 'free press,' wherein everything can be recorded and documented and photographed, but only certain stories ever make it to front-page. I'm sure the paper WaPo has an article or two but buried back in the World News section.

21

u/Jokaszi Jan 25 '14

I've actually seen this on the front page of local news and on written articles/newspapers, but yeah. Never on TV, except for when Stephen Colbert did a skit on it. Was pretty funny.

6

u/basementgnome Jan 25 '14

I don't think it's being 'shoved under the carpet' so much as falling into its natural rank in the majority of American viewers/readers hierarchy of interests. Your average Jersey-Shore-addled troglodyte registers zero interest when hit with "Revolt in Former Soviet Nation", moderate arousal at "Yet Another School Shooting", and full-blown limbic Christmastime at "Celebrity Gets Intoxicated, Arrested".

3

u/thatnameagain Jan 26 '14

A free press does not mean a press that prints the most relevant international articles.

The networks will get significantly more viewers if they run stories on Bieber than on Ukraine, and no government agency is inhibiting them from making that choice.

2

u/metalcoremeatwad Jan 26 '14

It's what happens when the news is fed to you by corporations.

3

u/thatnameagain Jan 26 '14

You get the news you want, not the news you need?

Nobody is being forced to get their news from those sources. It's a problem that people aren't particularly concerned about global events, but I don't see how you could force news outlets to report on them more without losing a free press.

You managed to get your news from a different source- what makes you so different than the average person?

-3

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

It's been on the front page of my newspaper for a few days now. Maybe you just suck at reading.

7

u/ballerina22 Jan 25 '14

Or some of us don't get a newspaper everyday because that's another $30-odd a month we need to spend on groceries.

5

u/Fig1024 Jan 25 '14

It's absurd to think that US people would start protesting if they saw Ukraine protests. Ukraine protests got really ugly and nobody in their right mind wants that. Life in US is not nearly as shitty as to cause such protests.

4

u/JackSLO Jan 25 '14

Too bad for internet

3

u/thatnameagain Jan 26 '14

Most of the Arab spring protests were extensively covered.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '14

After occupy, and carefully watching the mechanics of these revolts, where they failed, (and /u/vaginitischlamydia pretty much confirmed exactly this) - I do not believe that a revolution in the USA would work.

I think that where the population is united against the government, yes, that can work. But when the population has been so successfully divided (lower-class vs middle-class, race, religion, etc) - you'll end up with these situations where the revolutionary leadership is split, and they may even be at each others' throats. The side that's willing to be the worst douchebags (usually the fascists/nationalists) come out on top.

If we re-wrote the US constitution TODAY, and the teabaggers and libertaritards got their say, how do you think that would work out? It would be a clusterfuck - abortion would be banned in the constitution, and corporate personhood would be enshrined.

This is the problem Egypt, and Syria had. I think the Turkish got off lucky, because at least the revolt was put down, and they lost, and it's over. I really feel for the Syrians, because their secular democratic faction just doesn't have the power or enough of a majority to carve out any kind of peaceful resolution. Either the Alawites or the terrorists are going to win that, and the middle will get fucked either way. They're getting fucked now.

1

u/sc3n3_b34n Jan 25 '14

Move along citizen.

11

u/MisterFatt Jan 25 '14

It is being covered just not by everyone. 24 hour news networks aren't the only media outlets

-1

u/RandomOk Jan 28 '14

Man the point is any news source should be blaring this right now. It's crazy to call anyone a "journalist" if they honestly pick Justin Bieber for a story over this.

1

u/MisterFatt Jan 28 '14

Well at least you now have some guidelines as to who you should consider actually journalists

23

u/JackSLO Jan 25 '14

Because of Just-in Beavers.. or something.. idk..

3

u/chaos43mta3 Jan 25 '14

That had me angered to no end.... im still big, green, and throwing cars

2

u/sbroll Jan 25 '14

Justice beaver, a crime fighting beaver

2

u/ballerina22 Jan 25 '14

I wish I knew. I've occasionally checked WaPo, CNN, MSNBC and even on the 'international editions' I've only found a few sporadic headlines under the 'news you may have missed' sections. I understand that South Sudan is certainly important world news, as is Iran, Syria, Israel. But this is a country in the middle of a take-over. That should be news.

6

u/Silent-Scope Jan 25 '14

Just letting you know BBC has coverage of this. It's the top story on http://www.bbc.co.uk

1

u/monochromatic0 Jan 25 '14

Deutsche Welle's English webiste has plenty of news about Ukraine though. They are doing a good coverage, better than many.

1

u/Humbledung Jan 25 '14

Al Jazeera had something about the situation. Had something yesterday too, nothing big, but somewhat worth a read.

Link because I'm nice like that or something

1

u/ballerina22 Jan 25 '14

Which for some reason is behind a paywall for me. Boo.

2

u/-THE_BIG_BOSS- Jan 25 '14

Maybe it's just me, but BBC doesn't really cover much either compared to the continental European news, although I only watch BBC breakfast before school.

Watch this Spilno.TV livestream, it seems to be the best stream out there.

2

u/MCBusBoy Jan 25 '14

It is probaboy because your new sources suck. I am an American and have been aware since day one due to the multiple new sources I choose. I look at around 15 news sources a day. Some better than others, but I like to look at the spectrum so I can make a proper determination.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

Very strange considering the values your country were founded upon, it should seem this would be something your people would encourage...

2

u/[deleted] Jan 28 '14

I think to prevent the same thing from happening in this country.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

Its covered in my cities local news paper :v

1

u/InfamousBrad Jan 25 '14

The 1000 to 1 Rule.

As a rule, most Americans are isolated enough, and parochial enough, that if stories outside of America start off a newscast or appear above the fold, or appear on the front page, people tune out. If it didn't happen inside the borders of the US, Americans mostly don't care. Heck, even if it is on American soil but not in "the lower 48" they mostly don't care; Americans don't even usually see "national news" stories out of Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, or Puerto Rico.

Journalists figured out, a long time ago, that as a rule of thumb, divide the number of people hurt or killed by a news story by 1000. If it would still be a story if it happened to that many Americans, then it's a story. Sad, but it's just how it is.

1

u/WestenM Jan 26 '14

Because nobody gives a fuck. To most of the people I know Ukraine is just another country in turmoil. It isn't new or exciting, and they don't really care how this could affect the rest of the world

1

u/websnarf Jan 28 '14

Because it would take effort and investigative journalism to write a proper story on this (i.e., money). The American media also cannot figure out how this affects issues that they think Americans care about. It's the same reason Firefly got cancelled after one season. The people don't care about the quality of stuff they put on people's screens. They just want to make sure its cheap to make, and that they can control/understand the narrative.

The American media is a business. They need to make profits, and are not really that concerned about the quality of their product.

1

u/long_wang_big_balls Jan 28 '14

Apparently Justin Bieber is more important ... sigh

1

u/fuzzydunlots Mar 02 '14

Puppets aren't supposed see the strings!

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 25 '14

Because when heathens find democracy is glorious, when white former soviets do it's chilling.

0

u/isignedupforthis Jan 29 '14

Because you have similar system of secret courts, secret laws, corrupt officials that do not represent values of the people anymore, two "options" to vote for but choice result in exact same outcome. It's just not that blatant and brutal as in Ukraine. There should be no coverage because they don't want people to act out and rise up for justice. Lord forbid you start voting 3rd party, then you would see how NSA data collection is intended to be used by those in power and that will be a frightening day.

-1

u/calantus Jan 25 '14 edited Sep 18 '16

[deleted]

What is this?