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Brian Lehrer: It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. Good morning again, everyone. For the next few minutes, we'll take a step back in the context of Ukraine war coverage, and talk about how to untangle stories from Russia's invasion. We're going to do that with none other than Brooke Gladstone host of WNYC's On The Media.

Now, those of you familiar enough with On The Media may be aware of the fact that they have what they call their Breaking News Consumer's Handbook. It's a practical media literacy guide with tips to help you evaluate all the media coverage during any big news event.

Well, there's a new edition that's been updated for this moment from Brooke and her team when the violent scenes emerging from Russia in the continued attacks, I should say, from Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine are happening alongside an information war and deluge of deeply upsetting content, some of which may be real, some of which may not.

Now, spoiler alert, the first bullet point in this nine-point breaking news consumer's handbook is a note about how older images from earlier conflicts, even video clips, are often shared and stripped out of context. Brooke, thanks for joining us for this. I'm sure with the fog of war, as they call it, this is going to be really helpful to our listeners.

Brooke Gladstone: I think you did an amazing job with that previous guest you had, Fred Kaplan, talking about how to end the conflict. I think that's one of his best columns if I do say so myself.

Brian Lehrer: I guess this is a full disclosure moment for you as a media critic.

Brooke Gladstone: Yes. I've been married to Fred since 1983, and he just gets better. Enough of that. Enough of me. Let's talk first of all about the old images because we know that Putin, in particular, loves to use chaos. He creates chaos in a way that was later picked up by our former president, or maybe he just had a similar affinity. In any case, what you find is that if you get a lot of your news online, you will get old images. You might get old images from the conflicts in Donetsk from eight years ago.

You'll know that because they had barricades then, there was a lot of street fighting. There isn't a lot of street fighting right now. You'll know, there have been bits pulled from really good video games that suggest that there are amazing air battles going on which-

Brian Lehrer: [unintelligible 00:02:51] from video games.

Brooke Gladstone: Right, absolutely. Another thing is that when you look at something that claims to be live or streaming, you really need to know what time it is in Ukraine. Most sorties happen after dark. If it's happening during the day, it's probably not there. If it's happening in a desert, it's probably not there. If you're seeing something and it isn't time-stamped, it's not there.

If it's incredibly short, just a few seconds, there's everybody in Ukraine is documenting what's happening to them now, you should be able to get almost everything from a bunch of different angles.

The point here is that, especially when looking at video, you really need to tread carefully. We said this in our very first breaking news consumer's handbooks many, many years ago, and frequently in them since, and we've done them for everything from airplane crashes to coups, and outbreaks, and health scares, and everything else, a lot of this misinformation is on you. Be careful before re-tweeting. Wait and check. Don't pass on the last bit of flotsam you just saw, even if it's fascinating because it can create damage in the media sphere.

Brian Lehrer: How about the jetsam? Can I pass on the jetsam?

Brooke Gladstone: I've got a soft spot for that.

Brian Lehrer: For the jetsam. Number one is these video clips, out of context, that might be from earlier conflicts, or that were never real. In other words, those are the ones that came from the video games, and being passed off as something that's happening in Ukraine. Number two, you just touched on your number two if the video is very brief, that's a red flag. Let's go to number three, check out local time in Ukraine. Why do you put that on your list?

Brooke Gladstone: Precisely because a lot of things that purport to be live streams are not. It's very easy when it's day there and it's night here or vice versa, to check that. That's one of the easiest things to check, and yet it is something that is often passed off as real when it's not. The expert that we spoke to did mention also, desert landscapes and things like that. That's not what Ukraine is. Yet, if you have a tight enough shot, you might see a tank and think it's anywhere they say it is. The local time is very important. Google Translate is not that great.

Brian Lehrer: This is your point number four on your consumer's handbook. Google Translate is not so fluent in Ukrainian.

Brooke Gladstone: Right. Even official statements in Ukrainian can be misconstrued. However, certainly, Zelenskyy and his government is very aware of how much he needs the public with him, the global public, so they are providing better translations. Don't use Google Translate when you can get a translation that's official. Also, there are certain in-English-language publications or media outlets that you can consult like the Kyiv, K-Y-I-V, Independent, and The New Voice of Ukraine.

Another thing that's very important is Russian narratives. It makes me even uncomfortable, makes my skin crawl to think, if it comes from Russia, don't believe it, and yet all the evidence suggests that is what you have to do. You have to make sure it's not a Russian source because their narrative bears no, no, no relationship to reality.

Brian Lehrer: How do we know a Russian source when we see one?

Brooke Gladstone: That is very, very tricky. You may be reading and re-tweeting established purveyors of hogwash. For instance, Russia Today or Sputnik. If you're not up on what the names of the latest publications are, that you can just google. Often, when they're masked, you have to look for clues in the content. Like there was a film of a man standing and saying, "Buried under here are victims of Ukrainian genocide," from three weeks ago, in Donetsk.

The ground wasn't even disturbed, but nevertheless, there's no record. There's no evidence of any such thing. It is a continual Russian talking point. It reminds me when everyone was saying when you heard constantly, and it was flooding New York, back in those days, email boxes all the time, or especially your mother's and grandmother's, that Barack Obama wasn't born here. Just the continual repetition makes you think, well, there's smoke, maybe there's fire.

There is no fire, there's no genocide, there's no picture of it. There are videos of Russians helping the local population, but those were not made in Ukraine. I just have to say that this is one of those cases where it isn't that, Ukrainians, everything they say is true. They have a great interest in not talking about their dead, and not talking about the defeats, and so forth. This is the typical editing that happens in war, but whole-cloth narratives, Nazis--

Brian Lehrer: Likely to be Russian.

Brooke Gladstone: Yes. I think the most important thing I've learned in the time that I've been doing this coverage, the biggest refutation of this Nazi thing that the Russians have been going with is that only 2% of the Ukrainian population, during the last election, voted for a far-right candidate. That is far less than any other established democracy you can think of. Germany, France, the Netherlands, the United States, you name it. There's tons more. This is a country that is glorying in its democracy.

Brian Lehrer: It might be a little tip-off that President Zelenskyy is Jewish, enough authentication of that it's not a Nazi regime. You've been going over in the narrative you were just giving us, your point five on the news consumer's handbook, check your source. Your point six, be alert to clues in the content. We have time for one more in this segment. You did mention it briefly but I think it's a really interesting one for our listeners, spelling the capital as Kiev, K-I-E-V, rather than Kyiv, K-Y-I-V. Why does that matter?

Brooke Gladstone: Well, because Kiev is the Russian way of spelling the capital city. It's the one we all grew up with obviously when it was in the Soviet bloc. It's just like The Ukraine. Why did we grow up saying The Ukraine? Because, in Russian, Ukraine means Borderland, and that was what it was considered, the Borderland of Russia. Now we drop the article and we say Kyiv because we let the Ukrainians themselves describe themselves.

Brian Lehrer: Brooke Gladstone, host and managing editor of On The Media has now released the latest edition of their Breaking News Consumer's Handbook. It's the Ukraine edition, obviously. Brooke, thanks for talking through some of this with us. It's so illuminating. Spoiler alert, folks, Brooke isn't going anywhere.

Brooke Gladstone: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Stay with us.

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