In the picture you see a screenshot of the website of DennikN, a popular Slovak newspaper, especially among intellectuals. They have added the Ukrainian national colors to their logo. This is highly unprofessional, subjective and similar to a declaration of war. Picking sides is not what we expect of journalists. They should be as objective as possible and inform us. What is good about it, is that they have openly made it clear that their reporting on the conflict now playing out in Ukraine (but really also in other places such as Syria) cannot be trusted and will be entirely biased. At least this propaganda outlet has made it clear to its readers that they shouldn’t be expecting any balanced news coverage.

Since the start of open hostilities between Russia on the one side and Ukraine and its many weapons donors on the other side the media has picked a clear side. Not all of them have gone so far as to change their logo. Luckily. Imagine mainstream media outlets changing their logo into something showing support for the Palestinian cause when Israel invades the remnants of Palestine for the zillionth time… How would people react to that? Those newspapers would promptly be labelled ‘anti-semite’. But in this case the complete lack of even a thin veneer of objectivity is accepted by the public.

A newspaper like DennikN is now not much different from any impassioned YouTuber with an opinion to share on this conflict. If Ukraine will commit – more – war crimes in the coming days how eagerly will DennikN report on that now that they have so clearly aligned themselves with the Ukrainians?

This is like a therapist openly displaying the picture of one partner on her coffee table and not the picture of the other partner while the couple is settling down on her couch ready for a couples therapy session…

Our media have a very clear playbook and they are extremely good and consistent at telling us what and whom we should care about and what and who should be of absolutely no importance to us.

My suggestion? Don’t fall for it. Aude sapere. Dare to know.