Walking into my first-year as a journalism student in 2019 had me feeling many things. I felt accomplished that this career would give me something great to work towards for myself and for the rest of the world. I’ve always wanted to help people, and I knew this would be a great way to do so.
Great memories aside, one sentence stuck with me during my introduction to my major. As journalists, we have to be unbiased in our reporting by documenting only facts so the world can stay informed. Fake news is quite prevalent, and in order for people to trust us, we have to be the storytellers of the future.
Shockingly, in 2022, after seeing many conflicts over the years, biased, stereotypical and blatantly racist reporting is apparently okay for some reporters. We can see this in many examples, but more recently with the ongoing coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
On Feb. 24, 2022, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine after many years of tension. One hundred thirty seven Ukrainian civilians and military personnel were killed on the first day, and around 50,000 Ukrainian citizens had fled their homes escaping to neighbouring NATO countries, according to Al Jazeera.
With many people fleeing the country and correspondents flying over to cover the war, the past week has been extremely hectic in the world of news.
Feb. 24 was not just a grim day for the history books. In fact, the reporting done for the people of Ukraine was not only insulting to escaping refugees, but also to the other countries in the world who’ve experienced war but have had their stories reduced to minor disagreements.
Charlie D’Agata, a senior foreign correspondent at CBS News, reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine said in a live broadcast, “[Ukraine] isn’t a place, with all due respect, like Iraq or Afghanistan, that has seen conflict raging for decades.”
Before continuing, D’Agata mentioned how he had to choose his words carefully, insinuating that whatever he was saying was most likely going to insult a group of people.
He clearly didn’t choose his words carefully enough as he continued his racist statement by saying, “This is a relatively civilized, relatively European city where you wouldn’t expect that or hope that is going to happen.”
ITV News correspondent Lucy Watson, reporting from a train station in Kyiv said in a broadcast, “Now the unthinkable has happened to them, and this is not a developing, third-world nation, this is Europe.”
Kelly Cobiella, an NBC News correspondent, mentioned that people fleeing Ukraine are not like the refugees we see from Syria as the refugees from Ukraine are white and Christian. She went on to say, “They’re Christian, they’re white, they’re very similar [to us].”
David Sakvarlidze, the former Deputy Prosecutor-General of Ukraine said in a broadcast on BBC that watching “European people with blue eyes and blond hair being killed,” is very emotional for him.
The above-mentioned “reporting” received massive backlash on social media. Seeing people angry about the statements made me recognize that unfair biases need to be called out as some journalists have negative views against third-world countries. They used such conflicts as scapegoats to make the situation in Ukraine seem absolutely abnormal and something that has never happened before.
As a journalism student, I am greatly disheartened by the reporting done on the Ukraine crisis, and as a racialized Muslim woman, who has seen conflict within her own home country and other neighbouring Muslim countries, I am angry. War is war and shouldn’t, in any capacity or with any justification, be compared to other wars.
I find it astounding that people who call themselves journalists can be so public about their racist bias on international television. Not only that, but it is absurd that other journalists on those broadcasts did not hold these people accountable. This is not journalism, but a horrible, opinionated and lousy bias.
It’s great that people are holding all of these so-called “journalists” accountable for the things they’ve said. In fact, Charlie D’Agata has apologized for his statement. I can’t help but think that he’s only apologizing because he got called out and not because he truly means it. So far, the other journalists mentioned have not released any formal apologies or statements for their cynical comments.
Watching the news since I was a child, racist reporting has always been normalized to casually say, especially for white reporters. It’s hard to understand how anyone could articulate comparing conflicts and struggles to each other knowing the pain and suffering caused by war. Reducing a conflict just because it has happened to other countries weaponizes the people who are actually suffering. You reduce their history, their pain and ongoing fights to something so small and insensitive. Being “civilized” or worthy in not contingent on having blond hair or blue eyes.
This isn’t a conversation about the world being “too sensitive” or about bias statements, this is about human decency and empathy when it comes to reporting. No one from Ukraine, Palestine, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and more should ever have their suffering compared and minimized to each other.
Racism in reporting is not needed to evoke empathy for anyone’s suffering.
For details on how you can help Ukraine, here are some links.