by Robert Bridge, Strategic Culture:

Not since the Vietnam War – when liberals behaved like peaceniks and not the Neocon country cousins they’ve become – has the media seriously scrutinized the US government’s arguments for military exploits abroad.

From the oilfields of Iraq, to the mountains of Afghanistan, to Trump’s classic head fake in Syria when a few missiles demolished a deserted airfield, triggering NBC host Brian Williams to get all choked up over “the beauty of our weapons,” the MSM has dutifully played water boy to Uncle Sam’s overseas misadventures. Somewhere, somehow along the way Americans inherited a Fourth Estate that actively promotes military aggression abroad.

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Last week, however, it looked as though the White House press corps experienced an awakening of sorts as the risk of Russia and NATO stumbling headlong into Armageddon looked razor close. That epic moment in US media history happened when State Department spokesman Ned Price, fleshing out an earlier report from the Washington Post, claimed that the Kremlin was producing a video of a mass casualty event in Ukraine to be used as a pretext for a Russian invasion.

According to Price, the video is “fabricated by Russian intelligence using crisis actors” and is “one of a number of options the Russian government is developing as a fake pretext to initiate and potentially justify military aggression against Ukraine.”

Reporter: “It’s an action that you say they have taken, but you have shown no evidence to confirm that. […] This is like – crisis actors? Really? This is like Alex Jones territory you’re getting into now.”

Must-watch exchange between @APDiploWriter Matt Lee and @StateDeptSpox. pic.twitter.com/RPIPb2zwf5

— The Hill (@thehill) February 3, 2022

In the past, these zero-calorie morsels of intel from the State Department would have been gobbled up by the press and regurgitated across every front page the very next morning. But just as Price was about to move on to more pressing matters, like maybe what flavor ice cream the Commander-in-Chief prefers this week, something weird happened.

Matt Lee, a veteran writer with the Associated Press, unexpectedly pounced on Price, demanding to know how he can “support the idea that there is some propaganda film in the making?” At one point Lee even suggested “this is Alex Jones territory” with regards to the idea of crisis actors being employed.

In other words, Lee wanted something that the White House hasn’t been forced to produce since Monica Lewinsky’s stained blue dress surfaced at Bill Clinton’s 1998 impeachment trial – gold ol’ fashioned, hardcore evidence. Price, visibly stunned, apparently couldn’t believe that the term “intelligence” no longer worked to mollify a roomful of reporters as it once did.

What is so laughable about the Price-Lee standoff is how a US reporter simply doing his job – pressing the State Department for evidence regarding an unclassified intelligence report – has actually turned into a major news story. And as the Price-Lee saga went viral, the main question – the veracity of the ‘Russian video’ claim – went conveniently missing in action. This shows how far the paying audience has allowed the establishment to travel from that safe space known as reality.

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