"Zelensky's scandal." Big news from NYT!

[dpibel]

Being our periodic look at the NYT bullshit mill.

"Zelensky's scandal" is the subject line of the email version of the NYT feature linked above.

It starts with this drama:

“Is it possible to become president and not steal?” Volodymyr Zelensky asked before he became president of Ukraine in 2019. “It’s a rhetorical question, as no one has tried so far.”
Now his top advisers are tangled in a graft investigation. It threatens his popularity and his government — all while Russia advances on the battlefield and President Trump pushes a peace plan that favors Moscow.

It then spends seven paragraphs explaining a graft scandal that involves members of Zelensky's administration, kinda, maybe. At which point we support the subject line ("Zelensky's scandal" ) with the following:

Zelensky himself has not been directly implicated in the corruption.

Followed by a statement that Z's policies MAY have enabled the graft.

And we walk off with:

It’s an awkward situation for Ukraine’s supporters abroad. They saw a smaller nation stand up to a larger bully that wants to tear it apart. It’s difficult to cast the victim as virtuous, though, when its government is engulfed in a corruption scandal.

Are you goddamned kidding me?

The NYT wants to both sides Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a Ukranian graft scandal?

"See! They're not so virtuous! Maybe Russian was right to invade."

By way of attempted save, the final paragraph of this mess says that, rilly, we're not saying Russia invaded to save Ukraine from graft issues; it's just that the corruption makes it hard to be so self-righteous about the invasion thing. (Can't quote directly bec. 4-graf rule.)

You can't make this stuff up.

[Lovie777]

1. NYT, and other papers are considered RW rags................

CBS, Paramount, etc are dead.

I refuse to watch CNN.

[gab13by13]

2. This post is really bad right wing BS.

I never alert on anyone though.

This is an example of posting right wing talking points and then saying, isn't that awful?

[dpibel]

3. That's quite a stretch

Please do check out my prior posts to see if I'm a right-wing disrupter.

But, hey. You be you.

[Qutzupalotl]

4. The OP is saying the NYT headline is bad or misleading.

That’s not right wing BS. Just the opposite, in fact.

The headline should be something like “Ukrainian scandal” — rather than dragging in someone who didn’t know about the corruption and blaming him.

[maxsolomon]

5. Nowhere in your link does the NYT call it "Zelensky's Scandal".

It does have this section, text bolded by me:

Zelensky’s role
Zelensky himself has not been directly implicated in the corruption.

But his policies may have enabled it. After Russia’s invasion, Zelensky relaxed anti-corruption rules in the name of boosting the war effort. He worked with political and business figures he had once called criminals, and, this summer, he tried to curtail the independence of anticorruption investigators as they pursued the case that ultimately implicated his associates. (He reversed course after Ukrainians poured into the streets in the country’s first large antigovernment protests during the war, saying that Zelensky was threatening Ukraine’s fragile democracy.)

In the course of the investigation, Zelensky asked for the resignation of two ministers and his powerful chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.

[dpibel]

7. Careful reading is important

"Zelensky's scandal" is the subject line of the email version of the NYT feature linked above.

That's a direct quote from my OP. You could look it up.

And the closer part--y'know, where the writer says that this really hurts Ukraine's case? That's right there, innit?

Also: I'm not sure why you are bolding for me language that I quoted in my OP. It's right there, in a nice gray box.

Other than that, though, thanks for your help!

[maxsolomon]

9. I don't get NYT emails.

I just followed your link.

Nothing can mitigate DU's ire for the NYT.

[maxrandb]

6. The fucking NY Times would highlight the corruption of pineapple farmer kickbacks to Hawaii politicians

on December 7TH.

Not December 7 of this year, but December 7 of 1941!!!!

Maybe "that" was why Japan bombed the fuck out of the US Pacific Fleet.

[calimary]

8. Sheesh, they're doing back flips trying to sling mud at him!

AWFUL!!!