Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
The Murder of Iryna Zarutska | Media Bias, Ideology & Selective Outrage
Video Essay at Quillette
Quillette, the Australian-based online magazine has become one of my go-to current affairs news sources. I really appreciate the care Quillette writers take to analyze and articulate these cultural phenomena. The founder Claire Lehmann was presented here back in March this year in an interview with Freddie Sayers at UnHerd about the threat to free speech from the right.
Today’s feature examines the disturbing silence surrounding the brutal murder of a Ukrainian refugee in North Carolina, United States – and what that silence might reveal about shifting media priorities, ideological bias, and cultural taboos. Was this case overlooked because it didn’t fit the dominant narrative? Are journalists making editorial choices based on ideology rather than truth? And what does this say about how we collectively process injustice?
I Skied Down Mount Everest (world first, no oxygen)
Video presentation at Red Bull
This is one of the most exhilarating and spectacularly filmed sporting adventure videos I’ve ever seen. From the moment I pressed play to the very end, I found myself agasp and bewildered – not only at how Andrzej Bargiel had the stamina to complete this world-first ski mountaineering feat without supplementary oxygen, but also at how it was filmed so exquisitely (by his brother, no less) at such altitude. I’ve seen my fair share of Everest climb videos, but this presentation captured the mountain from an entirely different – and utterly unexpected – perspective. Quite simply this video contains the best shots of Everest I’ve ever seen – and it’s not even close.
Ski mountaineer Andrzej Bargiel becomes the first person to climb Mount Everest and ski back to Everest Base Camp without supplementary oxygen. After nearly 16 hours climbing in the high altitude “death zone” (above 8,000m where oxygen levels are dangerously low), Bargiel clipped into his skis on the summit of the tallest mountain on earth and started his descent via the South Col Route.
How We Figured Out an Asteroid Killed the Dinosaurs
Video presentation at PBS Eons
Nearly all of us are familiar with the most cataclysmic natural event in Earth’s history – the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. But do we really know why this hypothesis for their extinction has become so widely and resoundingly accepted by scientists as fact? What’s the evidence, and how did it all come together in such a relatively short span of time? This video goes a long way toward answering those questions, and I found it to be a fascinating learning experience.
Video description:
66 million years ago a giant space rock crashed into our planet and killed the dinosaurs. In the span of just four decades, we’ve gone from not knowing there was a space rock at all to knowing exactly where that planet-killer came from.
That is all. Thank you for reading.
“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand
Observation Blogger 
The Iryna situation is continuously heartbreaking. I am afraid this is hardly the end with the media silence over people getting murdered in cold blood. Especially from a country that has sent billions of dollars to Ukraine for the war effort, so it felt even more heinous.
I love watching Red Bull’s videos. Truly exhilarating what humans decide to put themselves through lol The POV videos are top notch!
Thanks for commenting on my Monday segment, Ashley. I hope you had a great weekend.
Like you, I have no words to express my anger and dismay over the coverage of this abhorrent crime – or rather, the lack thereof from large parts of the media because it didn’t fit their ideological narrative. These moral exhibitionists and virtue signallers are, paradoxically, often among the most deplorable and resentful people you could meet. Their silence in the face of this crime – and even their attacks on the right, including Charlie Kirk in response to this incident — only underscores the wretchedness of their stance.
I’m not usually an adrenaline or Red Bull-style video junkie, but this one – with that drone and POV footage – was out of this world.
Of course!
I have had to emotionally and spiritually distance myself from world political news. Due to feeling sick from the anger. It is literally acting from all sides pretty much. Revolting, crying out only when the cameras are rolling, if even that.
I am one of those people who would not search out these activities, but if I was offered certain opportunities, like skydiving or riding roller coasters, I would probably take them up on it.
I concur with everything you said. And as we speak (and you may have seen this), senior BBC editors — from a state-funded enterprise, no less — have just resigned over their role in presenting a blatantly biased redaction of Trump’s speeches and related coverage. Now that’s scandalous, and thank Gosh they’re being held to account. I only hope the same happens with the Australian Broadcasting Service, which has been just as, if not more, one-sided.
Overall, I find that limiting my exposure to such media outrages — and instead viewing them through the lens of reputable public intellectuals like Ben Shapiro, for instance, in his segment today “MELTDOWN: BBC Leadership Resigns After SLANDERING Trump” – helps keep perspective. The pendulum does seem to be swinging back toward something resembling responsible journalism. Yippee!
I heard about the BBC thing! I also heard another anchor for a US based news station was silenced due to her saying “pregnant woman” instead of what the teleprompter said, “pregnant person”. Absolutely delusional.
I absolutely agree! It should not be this difficult to figure out if a governmental funded employee is to be trusted or not. Everything feels very dystopian.
Oh yes, I did catch the ‘pregnant woman’ fiasco — poor lady. Crazy stuff.
Government-funded media outlets like the BBC and Australia’s ABC need to be held accountable for presenting news that’s balanced and impartial. They represent all taxpayers, not just the progressives. But they’ve been getting away with this heavily slanted, opinion-driven reporting for decades – until now.
For real, slander is still very much a crime, and the fact independent journalists are held to this standard, the legacy media should honestly be held at a higher one since they reach so many more people and are getting the bigger bucks.
You hit the nail on the head Ashley (as usual!).
excellent Matt, the media here is more like propaganda, the skier is amazing and the dinosaur thing is very interesting…
I’m glad you liked the links Tom.