(PatriotWise.com)- Last week, MSNBC aired a report on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine that featured an infamous neo-Nazi group training civilians for combat.
In a segment that aired during last Monday’s “Morning Joe,” NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel reported on some civilians who are “are taking matters into their own hands.” The segment showed a group of uniformed militants training a room filled with civilians, which included a 79-year-old “great grandmother” learning how to use a rifle.
Investigative report Aaron Maté was quick to point out that the militants featured in Engel’s report belong to the Azov Battalion, a far-right volunteer force that is barred from receiving US foreign aid over its ties to neo-Nazis. The group’s logo features the Wolfsangel, one of the symbols used by the Nazis during World War Two.
Maté blasted NBC’s Richard Engel, accusing him of “doing PR for a neo-Nazi militia without any shame.” He called out the network’s hypocrisy for perseverating on “fascism” and “extremism” within the United States while at the same time “doing straight-up propaganda for a neo-Nazi militia.”
Whoops.
Yes, it is ironic that the network that hears racist dog whistles coming from someone like Glenn Youngkin would run a feel-good report on a neo-Nazi group fighting the Ruskies in Ukraine.
The same militants got pride of place in reports that aired during “The Rachel Maddow Show” and “The 11th Hour.” Only this time, the shot of the Azov Battalion’s insignia featuring the Nazi Wolfsangel was edited out.
Engel’s report on the Ukrainian great-grandmother getting trained by the militants also made its way on the NBC Nightly News.
Sohrab Ahmair, the contributing editor of The American Conservative, also noted that the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Library ran a story that same day titled “Ukrainian Children and Pensioners Get Ready to Defend Their Country” that also featured the neo-Nazi militants. The source of that article came from the Associated Press.
The story was quickly deleted and republished under the new headline “Far-Right Ukrainian Military Unit Teaches Children and Pensioners to Defend Their Country.” The updated version included the neo-Nazi connections of the Azov Battalion.
