‘Legitimate Target’: Mainstream Media Justify Russian Envoy’s Assassination

“I, for one, am shedding no tears for Andrei Karlov,” Gersh Kuntzman wrote in an article published by The New York Daily News.  He called the murder of the Russian diplomat an “act of justice.”

“[Karlov] wasn’t a diplomat, but a soldier, and his death is the same whether it came on a battlefield outside Aleppo or in an art gallery in Ankara. His killer was a soldier — not a terrorist, mind you, but a soldier. Soldiers kill their fellow soldiers,” Kuntzman wrote.

Cheerleading squad

The New York Daily News was not the only one that blamed Moscow for what happened in Ankara. Media outlets that had earlier published materials about alleged Russian “crimes” in Syria readily quoted the last words Karlov’s assassin shouted before killing the ambassador.

“Remember Aleppo!” – these words immediately went viral and made international headlines.

The ABC and CNN accompanied their reports about the ambassador’s assassination with images of Russian warplanes allegedly bombing civilians in Aleppo.

By combining their coverage of the Russian ambassador’s murder with calls to end “Russian atrocities” in Syria and cancel Russia’s military operation in that country, mainstream television channels played right into the hands of terrorists who are always eager to win media attention and get their message across to as many people as possible.

“Not surprising”

Another idea mainstream journalists are trying hard to make their readers believe is that the assassination of the Russian envoy was “logical” and “expected” because any active role in foreign policy “comes at a price.”

“Russia’s rise in the Mideast creates enemies,” The Wall Street Journal wrote, adding that Moscow’s role in the Syrian conflict has earned it many enemies in the region.

The journalists thus describe the terrorist attack as “not surprising,” a logical act and a “lesson” to be learned by Russia.

CNN correspondent Mathew Chance wrote that the ambassador’s assassination came as a direct reminder also to Moscow that “there are consequences for Russia's military intervention in Syria, as that conflict spills out into the neighboring countries, and, of course, elsewhere across the world as well. And that's something that's a concern to the Kremlin. "

Through the eyes of a terrorist

Some materials are an open attempt to understand and justify the assassin and look at the situation through his eyes. The New York Times wrote that the words shouted by the killer might hint at his motive to shoot the Russian envoy.

“The Russian Air Force was a key part of the Syrian government’s successful assault rebel-held parts of Aleppo, which included widespread attacks on civilians.”

The Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom was equally understanding of the assassin’s motives.

“Russia and Syria attacked east Aleppo with airplanes and bombs, showing no mercy on civilian homes, hospitals or schools. In five years of war, around half a million people have been killed, and half the Syrian population, 80% of whom are Sunni, have been expelled from their homes,” the newspaper wrote.

“The Russian ambassador in Ankara was therefore a legitimate and primary target under the Sunni modus operandi, and it is no wonder he was killed,” it added.

Interestingly enough, there have been no attempts by mainstream media to explain the terrorists’ actions in other tragic events of the past months.

In their coverage of Monday’s tragic events in Berlin, they kept mum about the possibility of jihadists avenging the German role in the Syrian conflict as part of the US-led coalition.

After Chancellor Angela Merkel described the Berlin tragedy as a terrorist attack the media stopped asking any questions.

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