What does the NSA, alien life, Justin Bieber, and the RNC yearly meeting have in common? They were the things I learned about while trying to find out some news about the Ukrainian protests on Fox and CNN. Now, trying to watch cable news for an entire hour is equivalent to twenty years in purgatory,* but I was willing to soldier through in an attempt to hear some facts or commentary about the massive riots and bloodshed in Kiev. But all I got were crickets. Or more exactly, all I got was the inane droning of the 24 hour news cycle. All of this led me to wonder, why does cable news, who went into ecstasies of joy during the “Arab Spring,” suddenly not even bother to mention the Slavic Winter? Are we just kind of burned out on protests, riots, and revolutions at the moment? Perhaps, but something in my gut warns me that it might be much more sinister.

The media and the government supported the Arab Spring because it was easy to do. Both the right and the left could get on board with it. It played into the right’s idea of exporting democracy, and the left made a feeble attempt at flattery with the Occupy movement. Throw in some EVIL dictators and a ragamuffin band of honest rioters, and you have everlasting gobstoppers for the news cycle. And what is so different about Kiev? Well, everything.

The Ukrainian people are not vaguely protesting tyranny. Rather, they have once very specific complaint, and one very specific desire. That is a problem. If there is one thing news channels hate it is specific facts. Let everything be fluid, and they will bill it as irrevocable; let anything be solid, and they will pretend not to see it.

And what are those facts? The Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has backed out of a free trade deal with the EU in exchange for closer ties with Russia. At least 1 million Ukrainians have taken to the streets and things are turning bloody. Yesterday I read reports of as many as 6 deaths and many injuries, and things are only going to get worse as the government has decided to ignore human rights in the cause of getting what it wants.

There is one word there that I think explains the media silence. Russia. After their absolute humiliation at the hands of Russia last year in the Syria, I think that nobody wants to go toe to toe against Putin. Not the White House, nor the media.

Reader: But what about Fox, they aren’t at Obama’s bidding.

Author: Oh, how sweet. Your naivety is quite endearing. Murdoch may attack the President where he can, but you don’t think for a second that his hatred is so pure that a deal can’t be made to keep something out of the press.

Now, I am no big fan of the EU. But I think it is usually best to avoid dealing with Russia, and I also think that that Presidents should pay attention to the will of the people. (Democracy and all.) All in all though, my deepest sympathies are with these brave souls, that are trying to bring the peace of Christ into a bloody and dangerous city. I don’t deny that violence is sometimes necessary as the last resort of Democracy, but I doubt that this yet meets the just war requirements.

Regardless, this protest deserves to be recognized in the media and in America. We may not have a vested interest in who is part of the EU, but we all should care when a government decides to ignore the humanity of its people in order to put down dissent.



*Number based on pre-Vatican II system of assigning times to indulgences.