U.S.-&-Allied ‘News’-Media Pack Their Reports With Lies

24 December 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

A typical example is the December 23rd Politico’s 1,265-word ‘news’-report, headlined “‘This is shattering’: Europe reels from Trump’s new world order”, which will be quoted from and analyzed here, and the following italicized 451 words of excerpts from it summarize that article [accompanied by interspersed comments from me, between brackets, and not italicized]:

President Donald Trump’s first year back in office shattered any remaining illusions among European leaders that he can be managed or controlled.

His open hostility toward the European Union has strained a transatlantic alliance that’s endured since World War II and deepened rifts between Europe’s national leaders and within the bloc, imperiling its ability to respond to Trump’s threats and taunts with the kind of unity and strength he respects.

That’s left Ukraine’s fate hanging in the balance heading into 2026, not to mention unanswered existential questions about European security at a moment when many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial aims extend further westward beyond Ukraine. …

“The Europeans cannot afford to cut ties and to hand in the divorce papers because they are still too dependent, especially when it comes to security and an American military commitment to defending Europe,” said Jana Puglierin, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations [funded 32% by the American mega-billionaire neoconservative George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and the rest mainly by European and Japanese Governments and the foundations and corporations of other U.S.-and-allied billionaires who benefit from increased military spending, since most of the EU’s armaments are purchased from U.S. corporations, which will increase their profits by the increased military spending of EU Governments]. …

“We need to be pretty clear-eyed,” she said. “In the old days, there was a clear mainstream understanding of the old transatlantic relationship enshrined by the Western values and norms and principles, the rules based international order.” [which are the U.S, Government’s international rules replacing the U.N’s international laws.] …

The administration is clear-eyed, too, heading into the new year. It sees a continent losing its values and identity, beholden to liberal ideals that are doing far more to imperil European security than any missive from the White House. The act of a friend, the White House argues — as it pushes Europe to spend more on its own defense, restrict immigration and end the war in Ukraine — is to set it straight. …

The EU’s submission on trade, accepting a new tariff of 15 percent, limited the short-term economic damage. [That trade deal, signed by the EU, allowed 15% tariffs to be imposed by the U.S. against EU products, but eliminated the EU’s existing tariffs against American products. Furthermore, “the European Union intends to procure US liquified natural gas, oil, and nuclear energy products with an expected offtake valued at $750 billion through 2028. In addition, the European Union intends to purchase at least $40 billion worth of US AI chips.” Furthermore, “The European Union plans to substantially increase procurement of military and defence equipment from the United States.” The deal included no commitments nor intentions by the U.S. to any purchases from the EU. It was entirely one-sided; and basically expresses the EU’s intentions to spend around a trillion dollars in the U.S. by no later than the end of Trump’s second term. The EU’s signing of this document was a groveling acknowledgement of the enslavement of each of those colonies to the arrogant imperial regime in Washington DC.] NATO [which was created by America’s President Truman in 1949 and remains controlled by America’s Presidents — Trump actually controls it now] appeased Trump with its pledge to boost defense spending by 5 percent over the next decade, cemented at its June summit … Instead of abandoning Ukraine, Trump agreed in July to provide additional defense aid [Politico’s euphemism for the perhaps additionnal hundred billion dollars of sales of products by Lockheed Martin etc.] for its [the EU’s] war with Russia as long as Europe pays [mainly American arms-manufacturers] for it [that “aid,” to presumably the EU but actually instead the U.S.]. …

Trump is also ending the year by reminding Europe of his brazen desire, outlined in his first term and again shortly before his second inauguration, to seize control of Greenland from Denmark, a reliable NATO ally whose per capita defense spending is among the highest of all member nations. On Saturday, he appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland, a job that Landry said would focus on efforts to “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

“This is shattering for a lot of the countries who thought that there was nothing safer than their bilateral relationship with the United States,” Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe at the [neoconservative] Brookings Institution said.

That article is anti-Trump (it is Democratic Party against Republican Party), but it isn’t anti-empire; it is anti-Trump in the way that Joe Biden and the Democratic Party billionaires are, which is for the U.S. empire to be controlled by themselves, not by the other Party’s billionaires — and ALL billionaires are pro-empire; supporting continued growth of the U.S. empire is bipartisan amongst them.

The biggest give-away that the article is propaganda instead of news-reporting was its phrase “at a moment when many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial aims extend further westward beyond Ukraine.” Politico there was insinuating that the answer is “yes” to the question “Has Putin ever said that if he takes Ukraine, he will invade NATO?” (While it may be true that, in Europe, “many fear Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial aims extend further westward beyond Ukraine,” lying ‘news’-media there would explain that, but the reality of Putin definitely woud NOT, as I shall document here.) I have never encountered any such statement from him, but always only contempt from him against those allegations by U.S.-and-allied propaganda media, and by government officials throughout the U.S. empire. So, I was wondering what the U.S. propaganda organization, Google, which was created by the CIA and Pentagon, would deliver from their Web-search, “Has Putin ever said that if he takes Ukraine, he will invade NATO?” And at the very top of the finds there was:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not explicitly stated that he will invade NATO countries after taking Ukraine. On the contrary, he has repeatedly dismissed the idea as “complete nonsense” and a “lie”.

However, these denials are met with skepticism by Western leaders and intelligence agencies, especially since Putin made similar denials about invading Ukraine right up until the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The first of those two paragraphs are true. In other words, the insinuation by Politico is a lie.

As regards the second paragraph, where it says “Putin made similar denials about invading Ukraine right up until the full-scale invasion in February 2022,” that word “similar” is ‘intended’ by the Google algorithm to be (mis-)understood to mean that Putin said essentially the same thing but not in the same words; however, that understanding of it is false. I had read every one of Putin’s statements on this matter prior to the invasion on 24 February 2022, and NONE of them was like that. My article “Documentation that U.S. and EU Support Ukraine’s Nazis” documents that Putin in the lead-up to the invasion was in the identical geostrategic danger from the U.S. that the U.S. under JFK was in during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis and needed to prevent Russia from getting its nuclear missiles posted so close to America’s central command in DC as to be able to carry our a successful blitz decapitation-strike of America’s Government; but, now, instead, Russia faced this danger from the U.S., with the only difference being that though Khruschev was willing to reach a compromise with JFK over the matter and therefore JFK didn’t need to invade and take over Cuba, Biden refused to reach any compromise with Russia; and, so, Putin DID need to invade and take over Ukraine.

I shall quote from Chapter 1 of my 2022 book AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL:

On 10 January 2022, RT headlined “US tells Russia NATO won’t stop expanding”, and reported that “US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman has told reporters that Russia’s proposed limit on the expansion of NATO further into Eastern Europe is a ‘non-starter.’” However, few Americans got to know that news. For example, the Democratic Party propaganda site, The Hill, didn’t report it. They headlined, instead, “US, Russia have ‘better understanding’ following meeting”.

Later that day, RT bannered “Russia warns US of possible military response”, and reported that Russia’s chief negotiator said, right after the meeting, “that ‘significant’ effort has been made to persuade the Americans that ‘playing with fire’ is not in their interests,” and said continuing to ignore Russia’s demands “will inevitably and unavoidably damage the security of the US and its European allies.” This news, likewise, was not reported in Western ‘news’-media. Neither Russia’s argument, nor its warnings, were presented to Western publics. Instead, those media reported such distortions as that “Russia forestalled a new invasion or imminent military strike on Ukraine,” and as referring to “Putin’s grievances” without saying what Russia’s ‘grievances’ (those demands) actually were, much less why they were being demanded. Those media treated their respective publics as being fools. And January 12th Russia-NATO ‘negotiations’ were also a total failure, no progress.

The U.S.-and-allied regime were denying Russians’ sovereignty over their own land — denying the Russian Government’s right to mobilize its forces however it wished on its own territory. The empire demanded “Your forces are too near ours!” This is Truman’s empire — not FDR’s democracy.

On January 17th, I headlined “CIA trains Ukrainian nazis how ‘to kill Russians’” and reported that the U.S. Government and U.S.-and-allied ‘news’-media had been covering-up for 8 years the U.S. Government’s providing this training to armed nazis in Ukraine, Ukraine’s “paramilitaries.” Those were the same forces that the U.S. Government had hired to perpetrate the 2014 coup in Ukraine. Some of them were then brought into Ukraine’s public schools, to teach children. The U.S. regime is blinded by its hatred — bigotry — against countries that resist it, and relies heavily upon its fools in order to wage its wars. On January 18th, Alexander Mercouris provided a deep history of the German Government’s efforts since America’s take-over of Ukraine in 2014 to free itself from the American Government’s control. But Biden seemed to have decided to pre-empt any breakup of the U.S empire, by bringing on WW III. U.S./NATO were rushing weaponry to Ukraine’s Government. On January 20th, the Wall Street Journal bannered “U.S. Allows Baltic NATO Members to Send Arms to Ukraine”, “in the face of growing Russian aggression.”

RT bannered on January 22nd, “Russia not insisting on Ukraine ‘sphere of influence’ – Lavrov”, and quoted him answering U.S.-and-allied charges that Russia’s motivation wasn’t really national security but empire-building: “We don’t lay claim on spheres of influence, but what NATO does regarding Ukraine definitively shows that NATO perceives Ukraine as part of its zone of influence. Spheres of influence exist first and foremost thanks to the policies that colonial powers adopted after decolonization happened. ... They invented different ways to hold those territories.”

A top-of-front-page ‘news’ (propaganda) headline in the January 23rd Sunday New York Times was “Russia Is Said To Plot For Ally to Rule in Kiev”, based on this transparent UK lie.

By the time of February 2022, the identities of the U.S. billionaires who were being especially enormously enriched by this soaring propaganda against Russia were becoming clear.

On February 24th, Sputnik News bannered “Putin Authorises Special Military Operation in Donbass”, and presented Putin’s speech explaining its purposes: protecting Donbass residents, preventing inclusion of Ukraine in NATO, and killing Ukraine’s nazi battalions, such as Azov. He said “Those who aspire to global dominance have publicly designated Russia as their enemy. They did so with impunity.” But no longer. On March 2nd. Mark Sleboda’s keen analysis described the coming consequences — the new world in which all of us are now living.

On 11 January 2022, “The Duran” issued a 26-minute video in which Alexander Mercouris detailed the then-current state of the negotiations that the Biden Administration had reuctantly paticipated in with Russia over Ukraine. Headlining “Russia exposes Biden White House confusion during Geneva talks”, Mercouris said, at 11:30, “The U.S. has in effect admitted that it will not fight for Ukraine; the Russians have said that they will fight to prevent Ukraine joining NATO.” The invasion of Ukraine was STRICTLY due to America’s aggression; NOT to Russia.

Politico simply lied. Russia NEVER threatened NATO unless NATO would invade Russia. Russia had — and has — no intention of invading ANY other European (or ANY) country — it ISN’T like America is. In this entire mater, Obama had seized Ukraine via coup in 2014 intending for the U.S. ultimately to become enabled to position there a nuclear-armed missile to decapitate Russia; and Russia ultimately did what it needed to do in this situation: it invaded Ukraine in order to prevent that danger from the U.S.; this war in Ukraine is a proxy-war between the U.S. and Russia, and the EU are merely the U.S. Regime’s slaves in it. They AREN’T its targets (except to the extent that they remain slaves to the deadly U.S. regime).

The U.S. sanctions against nations such as in the EU for buying energy pipelined-in from Russia instead of compressed, canned, and trans-Atlantic shipped from the U.S. at three times the price, were complied with by the U.S. regime’s European slave-regimes; and, so, already on 28 September 2022, I headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe”, and documented the de-industrialization of Europe and transfer of jobs from Europe to America that already was apparent, and which continues to this day and will continue unless and until Europe recognizes America as its enemy and Russia as its friend.

The U.S.-and-allied billionaires’ media have been lying throughout. How much longer willl Europeans believe them?

On December 24th, Mercouris, in a 20-minute video, headlined “Collective West TRASHES international rules based order”, reporting additional U.S.-and-allied seizures of oil tankers; and, so, “the rules based international order,” which are the U.S, Government’s international rules replacing the U.N’s international laws, are now being replaced by Trump himself, who determines the ‘rules’ and now changes them on the fly. When will THIS heir to Hitler be put down, and will that be done in World War Three and take the entire world down with him?

If he will now have a trillion dollars coming in from Europe, and $150 billion in tariffs paid to the U.S. Government to use however he decides, how much of that money will go to fund political campaigns of him and his friends? Is this to be a cancer upon the world?

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.