The affluent Mrs. Potatohead was talking to her son one evening, “Spuddy, what do you want to be when you grow up?” He replied, “I want to do what Howard Cosell does, you know Mama – tell everyone about the game.” Upon hearing this, Mrs. Potatohead erupted into hysterics. “NO, NO, NOOOOO! Oh… say it isn’t so!” she wailed. Mr. Potatohead came running into the room, “What is going on in here?” Mrs. Potatohead continued to cry her eyes out, but was finally able to answer, “Spuddy wants to be a common-tater!”
When I was in fourth grade, we thought this was a funny joke. It was funny because it was a play on words, but also, because we all thought it would be cool to be a commentator. Commentators were smart, truthful, famous and probably rich. Perhaps we were naive… or perhaps now we are living in an era when honor and honesty matter less than they did before and when character and integrity are so easily feigned.
This modern Potato head is no longer grounded.
Over the last six or seven months, we have been asked many questions about Ukraine that are often based on propaganda from the Kremlin. When I asked about the origins of the questions, we found them directly linked to certain supposedly conservative commentators. Some of the questions asked included, “Is it true Ukraine is losing its religious freedom?” or “Is it true Zelensky is using the war to stomp out opposition?” and even, “Isn’t Ukraine a hotbed of human trafficking?” All these questions and more were being asked because Putin’s propaganda was being parroted by evening talk show hosts.
In the last paragraph of Putin’s 2021 manifesto, Vladimir propagandizes, “Russia has never been and will never be ”anti-Ukraine“. But if this is true and Russia is actually on Ukraine’s side, one would shudder to think of how much more terrible this war of Russian aggression would be if Russia had actually been against Ukraine.
What do Nazis, human trafficking and money laundering have in common in Ukraine? These are all Putin’s propaganda points parroted by talk show hosts and debunked by Eric last year. Click here to read the article.
On Saturday, March 4th, of this year, 2023, the Guardian reported that Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, was ridiculed at an international conference in India for lying with these words, “The war, which we are trying to stop, which was launched against us.” Now everybody knows that Russia is the aggressor in this war and that it was not America nor Ukraine that attacked Russia. Lavrov is no idiot, but maybe he thought the people of India are.
These things are no surprise. We know that Putin and Lavrov lie. However, recently I forced myself to listen to a nine-minute, anti-Zelensky/anti-Ukraine, rant by a conservative evening talk show host (who shall remain nameless) and was genuinely surprise by what I heard. During those nine minutes, I took copious notes and when it was done, I counted nineteen false statements about Ukraine. NINETEEN!!!
Putin lies and people die as a direct result.
Lavrov’s lies make him an accessory to mass murder.
The commentator lies and weakens the resolve of his native country and strengthens the resolve of a powerful country run by a fascist dictator with evil ambitions. As a result, more Ukrainians die… Russians too.
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
John 8:44 ESV
Eric Yodis has served through WorldVenture in Ukraine since 1995. After nineteen years in eastern Ukraine with his wife, Beth, they fled the war of Russian aggression in June 2014. Since 2015, they have lived in the Kyiv Oblast, but have once again been forced to evacuate due to the continuing war of Russian aggression against the peace loving people of Ukraine.
Eric Yodis 