Francesco Specchia May 05, 2022
Yes, it’s true, on television and in the media, a single thought is increasingly being threatened. But it is not that of Ukraine and the EU. It’s Putin’s. The optics reverse dangerously. There is a swg poll as unrelenting as it is underestimating what’s going on in the newsrooms: the Russia-Ukraine conflict is gripped more and more by the doubts and skepticism of the average Italian, to the point where the natural order of things has been turned on its head. Aside from the news of genocides, which the majority of citizens find credible, all other information – to the extent that it is authenticated – is subject to fact-checking by the envoys on the ground – and tends to be pro-Ukraine is considered less reliable the Russian version of reality. Putinian reality, which it mostly is manipulated upstream of Maskirovka, the ancient Soviet art of deception used as a military strategy. Guy Michel Santoro who fears a slaughter not of the invading Ukrainians, but of “120,000 Russian soldiers, while the Ukrainians are 300,000…”.
PROFESSORS
Or type Alessandro Orsini who says he has been contacted by mothers in Kyiv with “dead children” who actually welcome the Russian occupation: “Professor, speak for yourself. You Italians are crazy about giving up arms. Natoci propaganda makes us believe that all these people want war »; of course all without providing proof of his correspondence from the front. And the problem lies precisely in this real/unreal mixture, in this constant mixing of proposals, messages illustrated with propagandistic jokes. For Swg, the certainty of the mass graves of Bucha and Mariupol remains firm (although the other night a Russian colleague who was a guest in the Piazzapulita in Berlin denied it Corrado Formigli which blurts out at the end…): the majority of Italians find them “fairly / very credible” for 51%, “little / not at all credible” for 38%, “don’t know” for 11%. And so far so good. But then there are surprises on subjects that we took for granted. As for the number of civilian casualties (through reports from the main news outlets and correspondents at the front), 44% said the figures were credible, 46% little/not at all, and 10% “I don’t know”. On the achievements of the Ukrainian resistance: 43% credible, 46% false, 11% uncertain. On the impact of the sanctions on the Russian economy: 42% credible, 49% not credible, 9% “don’t know”. And this despite the fact that the governor of the Russian central bank Nabiullina – if the sanctions are tightened – predicts a technical default by Russia in three weeks; and that is why the lady has offered Putin his resignation three times, always declined.
And then here is an unexpected reworking of the character of Zelensky, considered a total hero at home, but by us only for 41% of Italians, while 52% consider him a TV sitcom villain, if not a puppet in the hands of the Americans, and the 10% doubt that the Ukrainian president is after all looking for it. Further doubts about the progress of the negotiations are raised, reliable at 30%, unreliable at 61%, ambiguous at 9%; and on Putin’s state of health (17%, 67%, 16%). And then about the losses of the Russian army: here is 36% reliable information, 53% unreliable, 11% “I don’t know”. Furthermore, the crowded category “I don’t know” it represents the general opinion, not of a cautious certainty, but of a doubt that is about to germinate. So the confusion increases. “The fact is that people are becoming more and more skeptical because they are invaded by a mass of conflicting and often not immediately verifiable information. The quality of the news is no longer perceptible. This creates confusion and confusion breeds skepticism. And it’s clear that the contradiction on talk shows seems almost forced and puts everyone on the same level,” he tells us Rado Fonda, the swg researcher who published the survey. In addition, even the infallible Alessandra Ghisleri, in the programs La7 Coffee Break and L’aria che tira, certifies a “change of mood” in the pro-Putin sense. “The feeling is that there is a large majority of Italians who don’t feel like taking sides because Italy has always refused to get involved in conflicts. However, this thing is seen by the Russians as the element capable of breaking through the common European and Western front,” explains the pollster from Euromedia Research. And it reveals a trivial truth: too much democracy on Italian television gives a voice to Russian colleagues who, live, largely develop a denial of reality and a dense network of nonsense.
HERE ARE THE FRUITS
Russian disinformation is bearing fruit in its boot. He’s not wrong Nathalie Tocci, Director of the IAI when she says: “Charlatans are invited to TV and their jokes are not fought, that’s why Lavrov chooses Italy. At this moment, where do you find a television like the Italian one in relation to this war? ». Dear Formigli, Berlinguer, Gruber, Giletti, Floris, moderators of undoubted skill: you are the most democratic. But isn’t that why you end up playing your game with…?