Russia has now embarked on what is unquestionably a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, so it seems an appropriate time to revisit some of the media voices that spent the last month relentlessly mocking such a possibility. These figures in effect supported Vladimir Putin, by minimizing the threat that Russia posed to Ukraine, Europe, the U.S., and Western democracies as a whole—in particular those member countries of the NATO alliance. In other words, let’s examine the voices of those who deliberately intensified their efforts in order to preemptively undermine—through mocking, disinformation or otherwise—any response by the Biden administration to the run-up and execution of Putin’s plan of attack.
Without delving too deeply into its precise lexicon, the term “fifth column” dates back to the Spanish Civil War. It denotes an embedded base of support of ready sympathizers, usually in the civilian realm, intending to sabotage or undermine their home country’s efforts to stop an attack by outside enemy. The term has been used in the past by conservatives to describe alleged treachery by liberals who failed to support the country’s war efforts. Most notably (and infamously), conservative Andrew Sullivan used the term to describe those who opposed the lie-based war on Iraq, though he later backpedaled and apologized for it.
But what we see today is not a tiny group of war dissenters challenging an unjust war. Instead, we’re facing a corporate behemoth whose most visible focus over the past several weeks has been to diminish and ridicule the national security interests of the U.S., thereby—implicitly and explicitly—lending support to a strategic enemy, one which currently has its nuclear missiles targeting American and European cities. Much of the mocking and sarcasm has emanated from a single individual, who currently holds a prime perch as one of Fox News’ primary faces.
In reality, however, the entire Fox News network, under the control of the Murdoch family, has been engaged in obliquely or directly supporting Russian interests, and downplaying Russian efforts to subvert the U.S. for quite some time. Still, let’s begin with that specific individual: Tucker Carlson.
A “lower third” or “chyron,” in news parlance, is a typed script appearing (usually) across the bottom of the screen, serving to grant immediate context for a viewer just tuning in, name the person speaking, or—particularly in right-wing media—to isolate and emphasize a single point or stance.
Take a good look at the following chyrons, each proudly emblazoned with Fox News’ logo. They all date from Feb. 17—five days before Putin launched his assault by inserting troops into the “separatist” Ukrainian enclaves of Donetsk and Luhansk (immediately followed by the melodrama of Putin signing a decree falsely recognizing each of these regions as newly “independent”), and one week before Putin launched a full-blown war.
These chyrons appeared during Carlson’s show, accompanying Carlson’s statements prior to and during his colloquy with his guest, Joe Kent—a Donald Trump-endorsed zealot currently attempting to unseat Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler.
Note the phrase “state department propaganda.” The primary method of sophistry employed by Republicans in this instance is to backhandedly allude to the alleged “intelligence failures” that preceded the run-up to the Iraq war in 2002-2003, a war which in fact they loudly cheered on. That sophistry ignores the fact that Republican leaders themselves, notably Dick Cheney, deliberately falsified intelligence, cherry-picking fake “threats” in order to propagandize Americans into believing that war was justified: the lie that Saddam Hussein possessed “weapons of mass destruction,” that failure to stop him could result in a “mushroom cloud;” and, above all, that Iraq was linked to the 9/11 attacks. This panoply of deliberate lies reached its apotheosis in Colin Powell’s false testimony before the U.N. as he sought to cajole the international community into assisting the U.S. in its effort to topple Hussein.
Putin and his enablers, Fox News, Carlson, and (now) many Republican lawmakers, know that this cynical analogy is misplaced both in context and in effect, but rely on Americans’ political polarization (and general amnesia and outright ignorance) in order to further this tactic. Carlson’s chyron, above, draws upon this studied contempt for the American people as well as contempt for American national interests, and thus dovetails neatly with Putin’s goals.
Next chyron, same broadcast:
Again, this bit of psychological manipulation is intended to ridicule American efforts to anticipate Putin’s actions as nothing but “hysteria.” While it only mentions Ukraine, it is actually a political attack on President Biden. The word “hysteria” is also commonly used as a pejorative against women; its usage and subtext here is to imply that Biden is somehow “effeminate,” a slur in keeping with Fox News’ typical appeal to its straight, white, and male audience. This type of slander also serves Putin’s goals of sowing doubts among Americans as to Biden’s ability to respond to his planned attack: nothing to see here but weak (read “effeminate”) American pearl-clutching!
The next chyron is even more direct in its approach:
The same theme was repeated in this chyron:
Last week the Biden administration repeatedly warned of Putin’s intentions, in an effort to prepare the American people for what was coming and also, not coincidentally, to demonstrate to Putin our full knowledge of his goals. Here, Fox News, via its approved spokesman, tries to ridicule those efforts, in keeping with Fox’s goal to diminish the Biden administration and thereby facilitate Putin’s assault when it actually occurred. The chortling tone of this particular chyron “Gave A War And Nobody Came” directly impugns the administration’s response by suggesting it is fumbling, thus serving the dual goals of undercutting Biden (remember, Fox News is essentially the voice of the Republican Party) and thus facilitating Putin’s attack.
Over the past month Fox News has been engaged in a deliberate effort to portray administration warnings about Ukraine as merely an effort to distract Americans from what Republicans (and Putin) would prefer to focus on: their manufactured lies about Hillary Clinton. Here is Fox News propagandist Maria Bartiromo, doing exactly that last week:
BARTIROMO: Yeah, well, I mean, he’s playing us. The State Department may also be playing us, because this hysteria over the weekend was obviously an opportunity to take the conversation away from Hillary Clinton paying an outside technology company to spy on President Trump, which is an incredible national security issue in and of itself.
Republican lawmakers have also eagerly signed up as foot soldiers for these implicit efforts to undermine U.S strategy. Here, for example, is Rep. Lisa McClain, typing away on Twitter just hours after Putin launched his assault on Ukraine.
It seems—at least to these Republican representatives—that the past two weeks of the administration’s incessant warnings about an impending attack never occurred. Suddenly, when the true horror of Putin’s intent has been made clear, he is now a “tyrant” who must be stopped at all costs, preferably yesterday. We can expect a similar rhetorical back-flip from Fox News now that Americans are being treated to a firsthand glimpse through their TV sets of what a murderous monster Vladimir Putin really is.
As pointed out by Ja’han Jones, writing for MSNBC, the right’s love affair with Putin dates back for some time, but its real attachment to not only Putin himself but autocratic regimes as a whole became much more obvious during the Trump administration. As Jones points out, the Republican Party in its current form has embraced white, nationalist sentiments in its effort to maintain relevance in an increasingly diverse America. Putin’s Russia, Orban’s Hungary and other autocratic regimes provide a ready model for the right to emulate and hold up as an example of its preferred worldview:
National security experts have warned about those dangerous connections for years now. In essence, many white nationalists and American conservatives feel a kinship with Russia that largely stems from a shared opposition to multiracial democracy. We can take their words and actions as proof.
Former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke once called Russia, a majority white, Slavic country that frequently opposes the increasingly diverse European Union, the “key to white survival.” White supremacist leader Richard Spencer hailed Russia as the “sole white power in the world” in 2016. Republican approval of Putin grew stronger after Russia was seen by many as having helped Donald Trump win the 2020 presidential election (in part by targeting Black voters with propaganda, I should add). And several American white nationalists have reportedly attended multiple events sanctioned by Russian extremist groups. [...]
All of these instances show that where white nationalist and American conservative support for the Kremlin exists, it isn’t just born out of political convenience. It exists because these entities have similar beliefs about what kinds of people should be able to wield power.
So in a sense Carlson himself need not be singled out; in fact he’s beside the point. He is simply parroting propaganda which could not be parroted without the complicity and approval of the entire Fox News corporate leadership, and more broadly, without the assent and approval of the Republican party. In their perception, U.S. security interests take a back seat to ideology. And when the two are in opposition, ideology always gets preference.
As this 2021 tweet by the New York Times’ Ezra Klein, illustrates:
There has never been another time in American history when the media arm of a U.S. political party has repeatedly demonstrated its intent to undermine U.S. interests in favor of a strategic enemy. But that Fifth Column exists here and now. It’s just a click away, in fact.