How about getting your news straight from the mouths of the innocent civilians of Ukraine? Too real for you? Do you actually think these are paid actors?
I told you about Patrick Lancaster a while back. Here's more on him:
Patrick Lancaster describes himself as an independent journalist. Critics say he's a foot soldier for Moscow's information war against Ukraine.
Lancaster’s videos have often appeared on Russian state-run media, including Russia Today and Zveda, a television channel owned by Russia’s defense ministry,
reporters Jason Paladino and Anya van Wagtendonk with Grid, an independent news site, revealed on Monday.
Not only is Lancaster able to travel through Russian-controlled territory at will, but in one video he wore a white band on his arm and leg, which is a method that Russian troops use to distinguish friends from foes, Grid reported.
Iraq war veteran Kristofer Goldsmith tracks disinformation and extremism as CEO of the firm Sparverius. He believes it is possible that Lancaster is working for the Russians, but it’s just as likely that he believes the conspiracy theories that he espouses, Goldsmith told Task & Purpose.
Goldsmith noted that Lancaster will often claim “the Western media won’t show you this” in his videos....
His videos — which contain factual errors, misinformation and in the case of the video involving the alleged IED, have been accused of being outright fabrications – have the potential to reach a wide audience. His YouTube channel has 408,000 subscribers and he has also been featured on InfoWars, a website owned by radio host Alex Jones that passes off conspiracy theories as news.
During a Feb. 25 interview with Jones, Lancaster said the people in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-led separatists were “in tears of happiness” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine....
“The pretext of everything that he does is that there is a conspiracy of the Western media to hide the truth from you,” said Goldsmith, who is also helming Task Force Butler, a team of veterans volunteering with Human Rights First to counter extremism and radicalization. “That puts him not just in the same camp as Russia Today or Sputnik, but of Alex Jones.”
The Kremlin’s goal is to undermine American’s faith in democracy, Goldsmith said. Toward that end, it is extremely useful to have veterans such as Lancaster serve as an arm of Russian propaganda because American military veterans can have a tremendous amount of influence on social networks.
“A veteran is more likely to inform the beliefs of their immediate family, of their co-workers, their friends, etc.,” Goldsmith said. “So, for every dollar — or every ruble — that is spent targeting an American service member, they’re getting a better bang for the buck than targeting any other demographic within the United States.”