International- 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.
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—Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 8, 2022
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.
Gutfeld in response asked whether he should respond to the "cheap attack" on him or move on.
—Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) March 8, 2022
"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.