Those are the only two possibilities after PBS broadcast an interview over the weekend with a Ukrainian mayor who has ties to neo-Nazis.
PBS "published and promoted an interview with a renowned Neo-Nazi Ukrainian mayor, without disclosing the politician’s allegiances to World War II German leader Adolf Hitler and Ukraine’s own Nazi sympathizer Stepan Bandera," The National Pulse reported.
"The interview comes just days after PBS published an article downplaying the links between Neo-Nazi politicians and Ukraine’s current political situation," the outlet continued.
PBS hosted Mayor Artem Semenikhin of Konotop, which is situated in Ukraine's northeast, an interview in which he described the Russian military as "cockroaches" before then thanking the U.S. for supplying weapons to him and his people.
“My weapon is American, and I feel like our occupiers will be pleased that we are killing them with American weapons,” he said.
That said, Semenikhin is not the America-like "freedom fighter" he was portrayed as being. According to a 2015 report by the Jerusalem Post:
Two months after local elections were held across Ukraine, residents of the small northern city of Konotop are expressing shock and dismay over the behavior of newly chosen Mayor Artem Semenikhin of the neo-Nazi Svoboda party.
According to reports, Semenikhin drives around in a car bearing the number 14/88, a numerological reference to the phrases “we must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” and “Heil Hitler”; replaced the picture of President Petro Poroshenko in his office with a portrait of Ukrainian national leader and Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera; and refused to fly the city’s official flag at the opening meeting of the city council because he objected to the star of David emblazoned on it. The flag also features a Muslim crescent and a cross.
The National Pulse went on to report that during the interview with PBS, Semenikhin had a Bandera portrait behind him but it was blurred intentionally by the network in what appeared to be a purposeful attempt to hide their work and association with Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
The broadcast also came as media throughout the West work overtime to try and discredit Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims that neo-Nazis have a significant role in the political makeup of Ukraine as a whole.
It also comes as big tech behemoth Facebook decided to reverse its ban on neo-Nazi support in order to allow users to post supportive comments about a unit in the Ukrainian national guard that is heavily pro-Nazi.
As reported separately by The National Pulse, the platform “is reversing a ban on users praising Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, previously included in the platform’s Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy, amidst Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
According to internal memos from the platform, which regularly censors mainstream conservative content, Facebook will “allow praise of the Azov Battalion when explicitly and exclusively praising their role in defending Ukraine OR their role as part of the Ukraine’s National Guard.”
Examples of speech that Facebook now accepts include “Azov movement volunteers are real heroes, they are a much needed support to our national guard”; “We are under attack. Azov has been courageously defending our town for the last 6 hours”; and “I think Azov is playing a patriotic role during this crisis,” noted The Intercept, which was the outlet that obtained the company memos.
“For the time being, we are making a narrow exception for praise of the Azov Regiment strictly in the context of defending Ukraine, or in their role as part of the Ukraine National Guard,” a spokesperson from Facebook’s parent company Meta explained.
“But we are continuing to ban all hate speech, hate symbolism, praise of violence, generic praise, support, or representation of the Azov Regiment, and any other content that violates our community standards,” the spokesperson added.
The entire conflict in Ukraine is not about what most Americans think it is.
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