From CNN’s Reliable Sources with Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy:
“A thoroughly modern war”
Wednesday was Day 21 of the war in Ukraine. Every day brings new examples of how it is, as this Washington Post headline said, “A thoroughly modern war:”
— Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the US Congress via video link on Wednesday. “There has never been a speech” quite like it, Dan Balz wrote…
— Zelensky tossed to a Hollywood-quality video contrasting previously peaceful scenes in Ukraine with the bloody, gory hell of the past three weeks. “It was a very modern advertisement for a very urgent need,” Philip Bump wrote…
— Zelensky spoke to an American TV audience again later in the day through an interview with “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt. The “Today” show will air more in the morning…
— “Facebook and YouTube said Wednesday that they removed uploads of a deepfake video” of Zelensky “that purported to show him yielding to Russia,” CNN’s Rachel Metz reported…
— A senior adviser to Zelensky used Telegram to share a statement that Ukrainian forces are starting to counterstrike Russian invaders…
— A key point from Bump’s story: “Ukraine’s communications infrastructure remains intact, allowing video and photos from the war to quickly make their way to the international community.” Case in point, images from the theater bombing in Mariupol were available within minutes of the blast…
— Images from the satellite company Maxar showed that the Russian word for CHILDREN was spelled out on two sides of the theater before it was bombed…
— To underscore the point, CNN.’s lead story right now is based on satellite imagery: “Where some buildings once stood in parts of the country, only scorched structures remain following Russia’s military strikes…”
— “Modern war” means this too: One of the banners on MSNBC Wednesday night said “U.S. TO SUPPLY UKRAINE WITH DEADLY ‘SWITCHBLADE’ DRONES…”
— A few minutes earlier, one of the banners on CNN said “HACKERS TRY TO BREAK THROUGH PUTIN’S DIGITAL IRON CURTAIN.”
— A sign of what’s to come? “Putin called pro-Western Russians ‘scum and traitors,’ signaling a fiercer crackdown in the country…” (NYT)
— President Biden explicitly called Putin a “war criminal” on Wednesday, “after weeks of avoiding the term,” Ashley Parker writes. The “seemingly off the cuff” accusation came after Fox reporter Jacqui Heinrich posed a question about it… (WaPo)
— “CNN’s Erin Burnett wept on Wednesday as she interviewed a Ukrainian man whose wife and children were killed last week” in the attack seen around the world through Lynsey Addario‘s photos… (Mediaite)
— On the latest episode of CNN’s “Tug of War” podcast, Anderson Cooper talked with Sara Sidner about several topics, including the weaponization of the term “fake news.” It’s a powerful conversation… (CNN)
— The recent muffling of Russian state media was an unprecedented move by social media giants “to stop the spread of misinformation.” And early signs “show it may be working,” according to WaPo’s analysis of traffic data… (WaPo)
— Charlotte Klein‘s latest about independent media: “Ukrainian and Russian journalists are raising money to survive…” (VF)
— Jennifer Rubin‘s latest: “Ukraine shows the press is the enemy of tyrants, not the people…” (WaPo)
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