Chrenkoff on Ukraine

Arthur Chrenkoff has a post on good news from Ukraine. He was born in communist Poland and knows the area and culture well, so his observations on Ukraine are particularly pertinent.

About the AP's coverage, he shows that it lacks historical perspective and, as is often the case with MSM, measures real results against an impossibly utopian outcome that no informed observer would predict or expect:

We're a long way yet before a happy ending, but the signs are good. Mind you, the world press is generally repeating after the Associated Press the line that "Nearly three hours of talks involving the two rivals for power in Ukraine's political crisis ended Friday night without resolving the stalemate", but God knows, surely no one was expecting that the first meeting would resolve a crisis of such magnitude.

About the Polish media he says: I'm struck by the role of the Polish media - "Gazeta Wyborcza", probably the most popular Polish daily has changed its bannerhead color from red to orange in solidarity with Ukrainian pro-democracy movement. It actually is sponsoring and promoting pro-democracy rallies throughout Poland. On Friday, it distributed 30,000 copies of its election supplement in Kiev.

We often complain about the politicization of the media in the West, but "Gazeta" puts the "New York Times" to shame. The difference is, "Gazeta" is on the right side of history.

The entire piece is worth your time.

Update: Yesterday's WSJ editorial on Ukraine is now on their public site.