Cable news' coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine has been familiar, yet unfamiliar

The New York Times

"If you are more than a few decades old, the invasion of Ukraine was horrific but familiar. It was what TV had taught you to expect since childhood," says James Poniewozik, noting that the Russian invasion was a reminder of the Cold War and its 1980s pop-culture depictions. "This was the worst kind of nostalgia programming," he adds. "This was the background chatter in the first act of a Very Special TV Movie, just before the whistle overhead and the blinding flash in the distance. At the same time, especially if you grew up with Cold War TV specials and bomb drills, this was also nothing that you had expected to see. Some of the differences were technological — smartphone video, discussions of cyber warfare. But above all, you would not expect to see programs on an American news channel, if not taking the side of the Russian aggressor, at least giving a platform to its excusers and sophists. You certainly would not have expected that one of those apologists, even as the blitz began, would be the previous American president. But there was Donald Trump on Wednesday night, ushering in the world’s new war the way he began his political career: Calling in to Fox News."