I have long thought there should be an award that recognises the hard work and achievement of the people who write – that is to say, emit – outstanding pieces – that is to say, unusually idiotic propaganda – about Russia in Western media outlets. An unusually rich crop of nonsense in the last week has inspired me to put this idea forward.
May I have the envelope, please:
Ladies and Gentlemen, our first nominee is Amanda Foreman of the Sunday Times for “A view from afar: Chest-beating Putin aims his vilest weapon at the West — misogyny” containing this opener: “Putin’s Russia is one of the most loathsomely misogynistic countries in the world”. Fact: Russia has more women in senior management than any one else.
Our second nominee is Liisa Tuhkanen of Reuters for “Putin’s high approval ratings not real: protest group”. Ignoring repeated data from actual polling organisations like Levada or Gallup that find his popularity sky-high, she prefers to quote the only two members of Pussy Riot/Voyna we ever hear about (what happened to the others?). Apparently the opinions of these two professional stokers of the anti-Putin fires are worth the death of a few trees.
Our third nominee, and a personal favourite, is this cartoon by Tom Toles in the International New York Times. So stunningly upside down, that I don’t think any comment would be possible. Thanks to Eric Kraus who found it: I hope he gets the paper free.
So, over to you out there in Internet land: announce your nominees (just from the last month or two – no one has enough time to look at all the potential winners from the last twenty years) and vote for your favourites.
Let’s make the The Porcelain Cup Award a coveted honour among the anti-Russia cohort and a byword and a hissing among the rational cohort.
Russia Observer 