You tap into the internet where your eye catches a headline: “Ukrainian Border Guards Pummel Russians on Front Line.” Open the site and up pops a video made by a
digital marketing firm called Viral Press.
All the video shows (with a thrumming soundtrack) is a few supposedly
Ukrainian soldiers (you can’t even be sure of that) loading ammo into small artillery,
light machine guns, and a tank.
Now unless you’re a complete idiot, you will realize no ‘Russians’
are being ‘pummeled’ and that the video is up for sale to anyone with a motive
for buying it. Likely buyers might be
the Ukrainian propaganda arm, financial facilities with investments in the
Ukraine (purposeful “the”), and the U.S. state department under Anthony
Blinken.
Note: Viral Press and other sites are making money from
playing off on your bad instincts. Be
careful of what you read no matter where it comes from. Especially consider the source. Journalism has deteriorated from the days
when responsible organizations required verification of facts through three
different and respected sources before they’d even think of publishing the
story.
