March 15, 2022

Wendy Bell's "Research" Is STILL Spreading Russian Disinformation

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The good folks at Wendy Bell Watch posted this yesterday:

Before I continue, let me say that you really should take a peek at that entire thread.

It starts with The Angel of Death quoting this:

The propaganda out of the Ukraine/Hollywood association is continuing unabated.   In a Twitter video today, pushed by Buzzfeed Journalist Christopher Miller {SEE HERE}, the claim is, “President Zelensky walked to a hospital today to visit wounded Ukrainian soldiers and award them with state honors for their sacrifices.” [Emphases of various types in original.]

And ends with Jon finding Politifact's debunking (dated March 13, the day before Wendy quoted The Conservative Treehouse):

  • There is no evidence that Zelensky’s video of him visiting a military hospital was pre-recorded or staged.
  • The woman who appears with Zelensky in the video and in photographs of his visit is Tetiana Ostashchenko — not Inna Derusova, who died in February. 

    • Before you go all "he said/she said" let me fill you in on Politifact's, um, facts:

    The claim at the heart of the posts is wrong. BBC disinformation journalist Shayan Sardarizadeh, the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, and fact-checking organizations from Spain and Ukraine each verified the identity of the woman in the video. 

    PolitiFact could not confirm exactly where or when the video of Zelensky’s hospital visit was filmed. But the video does not show Derusova, a combat medic who died in a February artillery attack, and who was honored posthumously with a Hero of Ukraine title. Instead, the woman shown beside Zelensky in the video is Tetiana Ostashchenko. She is a military doctor and the commander of the medical forces for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

    Feel free to check the links. There's a curious bit o' info from the second link: 

    On March 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited wounded soldiers at a military hospital to award them “orders and medals for courage and dedication.” Both Ukrainian and Western media outlets covered the visit, while the only Kremlin-owned news outlet to do so was Radio Sputnik.

    The pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Война с фейками (“War On Fakes”), a propaganda channel that masquerades as fact-checkers, suggested that Zelenskyy pre-recorded his visit. As evidence, the channel claimed that Sergeant Inna Derusova, a woman they allege is visible in footage with Zelenskyy, died on February 26, implying that the event was previously recorded and that Zelenskyy had left Kyiv. While it is true that Derusova, a senior field medic from Sumy, died on February 26 during a Russian artillery strike, she is not the same woman in the footage. The woman seen during Zelenskyy’s visit shares some visual similarities with Derusova, but there are also notable differences. First, the woman in the footage has a differently shaped nose and appears to be younger; second, she is wearing a name tag ending with the letters -enko.  Stopfake.org, a Ukrainian fact-checking organization, verified that the woman in the footage is Tatiana Ostaschenko, Commander of Medical Services for Ukraine’s Armed Forces, rather than the late Sgt. Derusova. [Emphasis added.]

    See that? Wendy Bell is spreading Russian disinformation. Still.

    Wendy, don't you (or Brock, if he does your homework for you) ever check the sources of your public comments?

    And let me correct your first sentence from that first tweet:

    The propaganda out of Russia is continuing unabated and is being delivered to southwestern Pennsylvania by The Angel of Death, Wendy Bell.
    If they keep this up, I might have to give the good folks at Wendy Bell Watch a desk here at 2 Political Junkies.

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