by Alex Kee

Created on: September 29, 2008

Fair and accurate, at its very best is still a subjective matter and therefore, will never be determinate.

However, if we intend to compare the US media's presentation vis-a-vis that of the Russian's, there could be some objective comparison.

Overall, given the US media operates in an open democratic environment, relatively free from government control, pressure and influence, portrayal of the the recent Georgia/Russia conflict had generally been fair and accurate vis-a-vis that of the Russians' who, understandable have to operate under a totally opposite regime of government's patronage.

The Georgia/Russia conflict should not be seen as just an isolated petty neighbor's quarrel but sort of a larger war by proxy of two conflicting major ideologies, one democratic and the other autocratic.

Whilst it would be moralistic to summarily brand any stream of ideology as "good" or "bad", the world view that supports and nurtures the ideology in some kind of a feedback loop renders and behooves us to understand the seemingly bias in both sides reporting and portrayal of the identical incident.

The US media who champions and upholds freedom of the press, rightly or wrongly paints Russia with one broad paintbrush stroke portraying Russia as the great bully and Georgia, the bullied.

The Russian media on the other hand portray the US as meddlers seeking to destabilize the region near and around Russia, especially former USSR members, seeking to fish in troubled water now that Russia is down but recovering.

Russia is generally still in its imperial mindset and it will take a long time for it to evolve to that of the USA, but metamorphoses it will be, as the middle class develops substantially.

Lest we forget, Russia and USA shares no commonality in its history and nationhood.

Russia is a continuation of its long history and while communism is supposed to have eradicated its imperialism, she is still trapped in its common social ethos of believing in strong central despotic control.

The USA is founded, built and promoted on diametrical value sets: respect for the individual in its expression, beliefs, rights and enterprise where as little "government" as possible is preferred.

In our value judgment as whether the US media had been fair and accurate in its portrayal of the conflict, we can safely say, "It is", with the caveat when compared to the Russian media, but if it had been absolutely fair and accurate, well, I would like to reserve it with a caveat because we are never value neutral, so we can never be absolutely fair and accurate against our inherent bias human nature.

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