May 17, 2022

Headlines for Truth


Headlines for Truth
War Makes it Easier to Cover up Failures in the Economy: Putin Must Go. He Unleashed a Senseless War and is Leading Russia into the Abyss.” Screenshot of Lenta.ru from Mediazona.

The editors of Lenta.ru, an independent journalism website, chose Victory Day as the time to reveal their true thoughts on the war and Putin by rewriting headlines and articles to reveal information that is not currently being reported in Russia. 

The morning of May 9 saw the frontpage of Lenta's website filled with anti-war sentiment. The editors used articles that had already been published and replaced them with their own headlines and changed the articles themselves to reveal the true cost of the war. Headlines included: “Vladimir Putin has Turned Into a Pitiful Dictator and is Paranoid,” “The Russian Elite is Sick with Nepotism and Sycophancy,” “War Makes it Easier to Cover up Failures in the Economy: Putin Must Go. He Unleashed a Senseless War and is Leading Russia into the Abyss.” 

All of the texts were preceded with a disclaimer stating that the opinions and facts expressed had not been passed through the outlet's highest leadership. The editors of the "Economics" and "Habitat" sections of the outlet took responsibility for the substitutions of the headlines and article information. The reason for their rebellion? Their consciences. 

The changed articles were later taken down, but were archived and can be read here.

 

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