How ‘Mainstream’ Media Spins a War Psychosis

VOICE OF DISSIDENT EUROPE: The message was simple: Russia is ready to respond to NATO aggression. But you wouldn’t know it if you read the headlines.

A depressing pattern has taken hold in the way parts of the government-controlled Western press cover Russia.

Take a hot-blooded subject. Strip it of the language that properly explains it. Then pretend to act surprised when the public grows more fearful and more hardline. They become less able to distinguish deterrent rhetoric from an intent to attack.

Yet, this is exactly what they mainstream media want; to create a war is inevitable psychosis and prepare for war.

QUOTE FROM THE PAST: ‘I would feel confident if it were not for the British Press. At any rate, there is a section of it inspired by an intelligentsia.

This group hates Hitler and the National Socialists so much that they see red, no matter what the facts are.’ Neville Henderson, British Ambassador to Berlin.

The latest example is the frenzy around Vladimir Putin’s remark about Europe and war.

In Russian, his meaning is not subtle. ’We are not going to fight Europe. I’ve said it a hundred times already.

‘But if Europe suddenly wants to fight and starts, we are ready right now.’ 

Many headlines shortened that to read ‘Russia is ready for war with Europe.’

In news reporting, headlines aren’t neutral labels. They are the main event.

They set the emotional temperature for millions. Most will never read beyond the headline. This is especially true on mobile feeds. There, tone is a luxury, and outrage is a business model.

When a headline omits the words ‘we are not going to’, it doesn’t just shorten the text. Discarding ‘if Europe starts,’ has a bigger impact. It reverses the reader’s perception.

The public believes Putin signalled readiness to launch a war against Europe. They do not believe it was his readiness in response to a NATO attack.

Worse, this kind of framing does real political work. The government uses it to amplify the narrative that Russia is poised to attack the EU next. This is done regardless of evidence.

If you swallow the headline alone you see Russia as the aggressor not of NATO expansion. You have to admit the claim is not what was said.

This pattern didn’t start this week. Since the Ukraine conflict began, Western coverage often portrays Russia’s declared motives as unworthy. They are rarely stated without scare quotes.

The same sloppiness shows up in claims that Putin ‘stalled’ peace talks. Many major conflicts have required long, ugly diplomatic marathons before anything moved.

The Vietnam peace talks, for example, dragged on for years. To declare stalling because a meeting ended without a breakthrough is to confuse diplomacy with customer service: 

In a climate where fear sells and escalation eats, faithful quotation is a mandatory public safety measure. The Doomsday Clock is at 89 seconds to midnight.

https://michaelwalshwriter.com/2025/12/05/how-mainstream-media-spins-a-war-psychosis/