Loud, Wrong, and a Mouthpiece for Empire

The media is a fascinating industry, populated by some equally fascinating individuals. Gemma Tognini is one of them.

Her latest column in The Australian, “It Feels Like a Moral Injury, the Screaming Double Standard World Leaders Apply to Israel and Ukraine,” is yet another example of Western media distorting geopolitical realities to fit a preordained narrative.

Tognini it seems lives in a world of delusion, again peddling factually incorrect, historically ignorant, and biased takes that serve as little more than an echo chamber for Western hegemony’s justification of war and imperialism. She’s the West’s town crier, rallying behind narratives that conveniently ignore the realities of global politics while pretending to champion morality.

Tognini claims Vladimir Putin is a “monster” who must be stopped, a textbook case of Western media manufacturing consent for war. Nowhere in her piece does she acknowledge NATO’s aggressive eastward expansion since the 1990s, despite explicit promises made to Russia at the end of the Cold War that such expansion would not occur.

Nowhere does she discuss how the US has actively fomented instability in Ukraine by backing the 2014 Maidan coup, overthrowing an elected government and replacing it with a pro-Western regime that immediately enacted anti-Russian policies, deliberately pushing the country into war.

Putin has consistently demonstrated he’s far from the tyrannical dictator the West portrays him as. Under his leadership, Russia’s resisted Western attempts to dismantle its sovereignty while offering a counterbalance to US-led global aggression.

The narrative Russia is merely a “gas station posing as a country” isn’t just inaccurate—it’s an insult to a nation that has played a critical role in shaping modern geopolitics.

Russia is a vast, resource-rich power that’s repeatedly demonstrated it won’t bow to Washington’s dictates. The insistence on demonising Putin is a deliberate distraction from the real aggressors: the US and its allies.

Tognini decries how Israel faces criticism while Ukraine is supported, yet she’s incapable of acknowledging how the US and its allies have long weaponised “freedom and democracy” as a cover for their true objectives: regime change, resource extraction, and economic dominance. Iraq, Libya, Syria—each thrown into chaos under the guise of liberation, leaving millions dead or displaced.

So, where was Tognini’s moral outrage when US-led forces obliterated Fallujah? When NATO bombed Libya into a failed state, unleashing slave markets? When the US occupied Afghanistan for two decades, only to leave it in the hands of the Taliban once again?

While the US claims it wants peace with Russia, its actions suggest otherwise. Washington has masterfully manipulated European nations into doing its bidding—arming Ukraine, prolonging the conflict, and further destabilising the region. This isn’t about European security; it’s about distracting Russia while the US shifts its primary focus toward China.

Europe, particularly Germany and France, has been coerced into a prolonged confrontation with Russia, despite the economic devastation it brings upon its own citizens. The US, unwilling to risk direct engagement with Russia, has instead ensured that Europe remains on the front lines, supplying endless arms and resources to a war that serves Washington’s broader strategic goals.

The US has a long history of using allies as pawns in its geopolitical games. But as its grip on global power weakens, both it and Europe are becoming increasingly desperate.

Tognini’s primary argument is that Israel is unfairly treated by the international community but ignores the reality Israel has enjoyed near-total impunity for decades, backed unconditionally by the US.

Israel has violated countless UN resolutions, expanded illegal settlements, and maintained an apartheid system against Palestinians—all while enjoying military, financial, and diplomatic cover from the West.

The narrative Israel’s merely defending itself like Ukraine is an absurd oversimplification. Israel isn’t under foreign occupation—it’s the occupying force. It isn’t resisting an invading army—it is the invader, the coloniser.

Since 1948, Israel has systematically displaced, oppressed, and brutalised Palestinians. October 7 didn’t occur in a vacuum; it was preceded by decades of military aggression, illegal blockades, and systematic violations of Palestinian rights.

Predictably, Tognini attacks the UN and humanitarian organisations, accusing them of tacitly supporting terrorism. It’s a tired talking point used by anyone who wishes to silence legitimate criticism of Israel’s war crime and genocidal behaviour.

The UN has long been hamstrung by US veto power, preventing any meaningful accountability for Israeli war crimes. Meanwhile, humanitarian groups operating in Gaza have been systematically targeted by Israeli airstrikes, exacerbating the suffering of civilians. Claiming these organisations are part of some grand conspiracy to support Hamas is absurd and dangerously irresponsible.

Tognini and others who cling to the idea of US supremacy fail to recognise the world has changed. The days of American unipolar dominance are numbered. The rise of multipolar alliances—BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, and other regional power blocs—has demonstrated that Washington can no longer dictate global affairs as it once did. It may believe it can, but it’s delusional to think so.

The West’s overreliance on war, economic sanctions, and military intervention has only accelerated its decline. The shift away from the US dollar in global trade, the strengthening of non-Western alliances, and the increasing rejection of Washington’s coercive diplomacy all point to a world where the US is no longer in control. It refuses to learn from history, doubling down on failed strategies while hastening its own irrelevance.

Tognini exemplifies the worst of Western journalism: selective outrage, historical amnesia, and blind allegiance to imperialist narratives while posing geopolitical experts. The world isn’t “upside down” because Israel faces criticism—it is finally waking up to the brutal realities of occupation and Western hypocrisy.

The double standards Tognini laments do exist—they aren’t against Israel. They’re against every country that’s dared to resist Western dominance, from Palestine to Russia to Iran to Venezuela.