Anderson Cooper Highlights ‘Incredible Image’ From Russia That Shows Putin’s Weakness
CNN’s Anderson Cooper said a video from Russia that has gone viral amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine perfectly sums up the weakness of its president, Vladimir Putin.
Appearing on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” live from Lviv, Ukraine, on Monday, Cooper recalled the footage of Russian riot police arresting a woman in her 80s for protesting the war with handmade signs on the street.
“To me, it was the most incredible image because I thought Vladimir Putin, who likes to appear half-naked riding around on a horse or in his black belt doing judo as a tough guy, is scared of an 80-something-year-old woman who is simply standing on a street holding up a sign protesting a war,” Cooper said.
He added that Russia’s new law criminalizing media reports that contradict the Kremlin’s version of events in Ukraine — including such videos and photos — was a “sign of weakness” and “fear” and “of the reality of the disinformation campaign that Russia wages.”
Watch the interview here:
Joshua Zitser
Wed, March 9, 2022
Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, left, and "The Five" co-host Greg Gutfeld, right.
Fox host Greg Gutfeld suggested that reporters are exaggerating the scale of disaster in Ukraine.
Reporter Benjamin Hall, who was in Kyiv, hit back and said the catastrophic picture is accurate.
Hall described how cities have been flattened and 2 million Ukrainians fled Russia's invasion.
A Fox News reporter in Kyiv openly challenged comments by his colleague Greg Gutfeld, who on Tuesday claimed that the media was exaggerating the scale of disaster caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking on "The Five" on Tuesday night, Gutfeld claimed that the media was trying to create "some sort of emotional response" which in turn "creates a profit for news companies."
Gutfeld compared the coverage of the invasion of Ukraine to the reporting on police brutality in the US, suggesting that the media creates a "galvanizing narrative" to elicit a reaction from the public.
"If you try to counter the drumbeat, you're seen as an inconsiderate, cold-hearted pussy," Gutfeld said.
Fellow host Geraldo Rivera responded to the comments by bringing attention to a photo published by The New York Times of a mother and her two children moments after being killed by a Russian shell.
But the real disagreement came from reporter Benjamin Hall, speaking live from Kyiv, who went on to describe what he had seen in Ukraine.
"Speaking as someone on the ground, I want to say that this is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response," Hall said. "This is absolutely what is happening."
He described how cities are being "absolutely flattened," and described the huge numbers of people evacuating for their safety.
At least two million people had fled Ukraine as of Tuesday, according to the United Nations. The Independent reported that Gutfeld's own mother-in-law is among them.
In the city of Mariupol, Hall continued, people were drinking puddle water because the Russian forces aren't allowing them to get out.
People were being shelled while fleeing, he said, a reference to the repeated failure of attempts to provide so-called humanitarian corridors to get civilians out of the city.
"It's an absolute catastrophe and the people who are caught in the middle are the ones who are really suffering," Hall said.
The reporter then played a clip of people trying to flee, who described how they had left everything behind. "There is more video than we know what to do with," Hall said.
ITS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU
Gutfeld in response asked whether he should respond to the "cheap attack" on him or move on.
HUH?
"My concern has always been when a narrative creates a story that bolsters one side, that is out of its element, we create more suffering," Gutfeld said.
Last week, in an emergency session of the UN's general assembly, a vast majority of member states voted for a resolution deploring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for the withdrawal of its forces. 141 of the 193 countries voted for the resolution, with only five voting against it.
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