Journalistic anecdote

I have spent nearly three weeks in America. It was easy to communicate and get acquainted with people here: you stop to ask the way and, if the explanation gets longer than two phrases, they will ask you were you come from.

Answering “from Ukraine,” I            didn’t especially expect that the conversation would continue: after all, our country is only one out of a dozen torn by an internal conflict or attacked by an aggressive neighbor. But most of my interlocutors had a general notion of what is going on in our country: at least they clearly understood that Russia attacked us. And every one, in one way or another, took our side.

One interesting exception happened in Berkeley, not far from the famous university, in the People’s Park. In 1969 there were real battles for this land plot: city community led by students wanted to have a park there, whereas the then governor of California, Ronald Reagan, sought to moderate the students’ protests considering them a threat to the national security. Two people died. The state of emergency was practically implemented, but the people defended the park; though, this is a different story. When I visited the park out of historical interest, I had a talk with one of its regular visitors, a       serious guy, who was politically advanced, judging by everything. As soon as he heard where I come from, he asked, “Why do you think Putin will be better than Yanukovych?”

I don’t know whether he understood everything I told him, but at least he will know for sure that Putin is the president of Russia.

Paradoxically, this comic situation argues for journalism: radicals like my park acquaintance don’t trust the mainstream mass media and sometimes tell absolute nonsense because of this: sometimes it is not even connected with their political stand, whereas ordinary citizens, bourgeois and intellectuals, the middle class the radicals don’t like so much, watch CNN and other professional channels like this (which is important) and are much better informed.

Ignorance is a demon which can cause much sorrow. In this case it came to just an anecdote. In the Donbas, like someone has written, there are a lot of adults who believe that a boy was crucified in Sloviansk. And they talk about silly Americans.