The Media Battle For Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s charm offensive is working in Washington but not everyone is a fan.

“The photo was taken in Prague city in August 2019. We haven’t given up. Ukrainians will never give up their freedom.” (Photo by Yura Khomitskyi on Unsplash)

“Ukraine unites Americans like little else,” waxed Juan Williams poetically for the Hill on December 26.

Not everyone agrees.

“Putin’s Useful Idiots: Right Wingers Lose It Over Zelensky Visit,” quipped The Bulwark on December 22. “The anti-Ukraine right can’t stand America standing as the arsenal of democracy.”

While many progressive media outlets lobbed insults nearly identical to The Bulwark’s take and made much of what Donald Trump’s son said about Zelensky’s speech, conservative media weighed in with equal ferocity.

“Volodymyr Zelensky Plays Our Corrupt Elites Like A Fiddle,” clapped back John Nolte of Breitbart News. “If Volodymyr Zelensky ever gets tired of being president of Ukraine, Breitbart News should hire him to decode just how corrupt, dangerous, and grotesque America’s self-appointed elites are.”

“I have no issue whatsoever with Zelensky,” prefaced Nolte. “He’s facing an existential threat from Russia and doing everything he can to save his country. Good for him. I wish Joe Biden and the rest of the establishment loved America even half as much as Zelensky loves Ukraine.”