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4.6 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2022

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As the horrific violence in Ukraine escalates, the global far-right is justifying Russia’s invasion with outlandish conspiracy theories. On this week’s On the Media, guest host Matt Katz digs into one viral lie that went mainstream. Plus, how internet sleuths are collecting digital evidence of alleged Russian war crimes to be used in international courts. And, we hear from the author of a new book about four foreign correspondents who shaped early American coverage of World War II.

1. Ben Collins [@oneunderscore__], senior reporter with NBC News, on the viral Ukrainian "bioweapon labs" conspiracy theory. Listen.

2. Eliot Higgins [@EliotHiggins], founder of Bellingcat, on how his organization uses open source investigations to track alleged Russian war crimes. And Alexa Koenig [@KAlexaKoenig], Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at the UC Berkeley School of Law, on how such digital evidence may be used by future war crime tribunals. Listen.

4. Deborah Cohen [@DeborahACohen], professor of history at Northwestern University, on her new book about four foreign correspondents who sounded the alarm on WWII. Listen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Russian disinformation, they've been telling us for days as a lie and a conspiracy theory
0:05.3	and crazy in the moral to believe is in fact totally and completely true.
0:10.2	Well, it's not.
0:12.3	But how did one dark corner of the American Internet create a worldwide Kremlin conspiracy
0:17.4	theory?
0:18.4	From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media, on Matt Katz.
0:23.2	Also on this week's show, what it's like collecting digital evidence of war crimes.
0:27.4	Local Russians were using TikTok to fill military convoys and a lot of those videos have
0:32.4	been collected and that allows us to track the movements of Russian convoys.
0:36.3	Plus, a club of foreign correspondents in the 1920s and 30s witness the biggest story
0:41.3	of their lives, the rise of autocracy.
0:44.3	So if the world has centuries of experiences with kings and emperors, who are these people
0:50.7	who claim that their authority descends from the people, but they disdain hereditary rule?
0:56.3	It's all coming up after this.
1:00.6	From WNYC in New York, this is On the Media, I'm Brooke Gladstone.
1:05.4	And just for this week, I'm handing the hosting duties over to my WNYC colleague, Matt Katz.
1:11.6	He covers public safety for our local newsroom and his multiple awards to his name.
1:16.7	For instance, he won a P-body for his investigation of Governor Chris Christie's involvement in
1:21.8	the scandal known as Bridgegate.
1:23.9	So you know, he's no slouch.
1:26.5	When I'm saying is you're in safe hands, listeners, I'll see you all next week.
1:31.3	Take it away, Matt.
	...

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