The New York Times published "Photos Link Masked Men in East Ukraine to Russia" by Andrew Higgins, Michael R. Gordon and Andrew E. Kramer prominently on page A1, April 20, 2014.
The New York Times reported the Obama administration "endorsed" the photographs as proof that Russian troops invaded eastern Ukraine:
Now, photographs and descriptions from eastern Ukraine endorsed by the Obama administration on Sunday suggest that many of the green men are indeed Russian military and intelligence forces — equipped in the same fashion as Russian special operations troops involved in annexing the Crimea region in February. Some of the men photographed in Ukraine have been identified in other photos clearly taken among Russian troops in other settings.
A set of four blurry photographs of bearded soldiers, one of whom bears an uncanny resemblance to ZZ Top, had this caption alleging these photos are evidence that soldiers in Eastern Ukraine are members of Russian special forces:
Soldiers in a group photo of a reconnaissance unit, which was taken in Russia, were later photographed operating in towns in eastern Ukraine.
Only trouble is that the group photo was not taken in Russia, but
was actually shot in the Ukrainian town of Slovyansk, according to Maxim Dondyuk, the freelance photographer who took the picture and posted it on his Instagram account.
NYT Retracts Russian-Photo Scoop by Robert Parry, Consortium News, April 23, 2014.
Robert Parry calls out the NY Times for burying their retraction on page A9 and for not vetting this story before printing it on the front page.
In the old days of journalism, we used to apply the scrutiny before we published a story on the front page or on any other page, especially if it had implications toward war or peace, whether people would live or die. However, in this case – fitting with the anti-Russian bias that has pervaded the mainstream U.S. press corps – the scrutiny was set aside long enough for this powerful propaganda theme to be put in play and to sweep across the media landscape.
Alexander Mozhaev, who bears an uncanny resemblance to an Emerald City guard in the "Wizard of Oz" and appears in several of the photographs alleging he is a Russian soldier, insists he is not in the Time magazine article,
Time Magazine Exclusive: Meet the Pro-Russian Separatists of Eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine has alleged that Russian forces are operating in the east. But one man tells TIME that they do not work for the Russian government.
Their leader, Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, a soap manufacturer who took the title of “people’s mayor” after seizing power, has pleaded for assistance from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but has apparently been ignored. “We need guns, you understand? We’re running out of everything but spirit,” he tells TIME. His militia force, he admits, is made up partly of volunteers who have come from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and other parts of the former Soviet Union. But Kiev’s cries of a separatist insurgency fueled with money, weapons and troops from the Russian government look out of sync with the reality in Slavyansk.
No one embodies that disconnect quite like Mozhaev. In trying to link him to Russia’s GRU special forces, the government in Kiev has offered two blurry photos as evidence. One of them, allegedly taken during the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008, shows a bearded man wearing the GRU insignia — a black bat with its wings spanning the globe — on the shoulder of his uniform. The second photo, taken this year in eastern Ukraine, shows Mozhaev dressed in camouflage among his fellow separatists. Kiev says the two photos are of the same man. Mozhaev finds that slightly flattering but altogether false.
The circumstances behind the Ukraine coup and subsequent after shocks are as unclear as the photos hastily published in the New York Times with incorrect captions, and I would hope the New York Times and MSM would be more careful vetting their stories, especially after the infamous Judith Miller WMD debacle that helped launch the Iraq War. Looking at a timeline of how the democratically elected President of Ukraine was removed and how
Victoria Nuland was discussing who would replace him and fill his cabinet a month before the coup, one of whom actually called a Nazi a hero and is a member of
Svoboda, a party that wants one's ethnicity to be printed on one's passport, puts the less then in depth news coverage on the bizarre
anti-semitic fliers and the sketchy photograph of an alleged masked Russian soldier saluting like a Nazi in perspective. There's nary a follow up article explaining that the
signature on the anti-semitic fliers was forged, and the program that requires Jews to register doesn't exist. After putting
Oleh Tyahnybok in the Ukraine cabinet, it's beyond hypocritical to paint pro Russians as anti-semitic with fake fliers and misleading photographs.
US troops land in Latvia amid Ukraine crisis
11:56 AM PT: Fixed the Time Magazine link. Sorry about that.