No theory for the success of Brexit was too far-fetched–as long as the right people were blamed. (Telegraph, 6/21/16)
The referendum results in favor of Britain leaving the European Union seemed to have caught most Western media off guard. Betting markets and the pundit class had heavily favored a vote to keep the UK in the EU, but at around midnight on the US East Coast, it became increasingly clear Britain would be supporting “Brexit” by a roughly 52–48 percent margin. Per usual, the more cynical writers and pundits—no matter how contrived the task would be — would take the opportunity to take a story about a nationalistic British response to a pro-austerity EU, and make it about Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin.
First up was the idea that Brexit resulted from Obama not adequately invading and bombing Syria, namely having not overthrown the “Assad regime” in 2013. The Washington Post‘s Josh Rogin insisted that Obama’s “neglect” of Syria had prolonged the conflict, which thus caused more refugees and thereby provoked more racist backlash:
Obama neglected Syria, allowed the crisis to spill over, driving migrants to Europe, pushing #Brexit over the edge.
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) June 24, 2016
If you’re counting at home, that’s four causal links needed to blame Obama for the UK leaving the EU, despite the fact that Obama had actively lobbied against it. To say nothing of the fact that Obama has done anything but “neglect” Syria, having armed and funded anti-Assad and anti-ISIS forces for years, as well as assisting the Saudis, Turks and Qataris in doing the same.
This sentiment was repeated by Ruth Sherlock, US editor for the Daily Telegraph:
Globalised world: If #UK #US hadn’t paid lip service to removing #Assad in Syria, the fostered subsistence war; no refugees: no #Brexit?
— Ruth Sherlock (@Rsherlock) June 24, 2016
On Andrea Mitchell Reports (6/24/16), Chuck Todd echoed this canard as well. Note that this claim is based on the assumption that not bombing and invading countries is what causes violence—putting aside the assertion that arming and funding proxy wars for almost four years is equivalent to “neglect.”
But blaming Obama is never enough. One has to contrive a reason to somehow use the Brexit to further demagogue against Russia—another favorite pastime of Western media. The most popular way of doing this was to insinuate that Putin was pro-Brexit based only on vague notions of aligned interest, rather than citing any statements by Putin himself:
- Russia Says Brexit Opens Door for New UK Relations but US Blasts Vote as ‘Putin’s Victory’ (Express, 6/24/16)
- Brexit: Few Will Be Happier Than Vladimir Putin (Sky News, 6/24/16)
- Putin Will Be Rubbing His Hands at the Prospect of Brexit (Guardian, 6/5/16)
Consistent Russia critic Daily Beast (6/8/16) published a 1,400–word piece suggesting Russia was secretly pushing Brexit, without an ounce of primary source evidence—only a smattering of secondhand assumptions and hearsay.
The day after Thursday’s referendum, Putin would blame the exit on the “arrogance” of British leadership, but the Kremlin, much to the disappointment of professional cold war pundits, still had yet to make a value claim either way.
Indeed, last week Putin was confused why the UK held the vote at all, and expressly withheld sharing an opinion on the matter (Reuters, 6/17/16):
“If it’s such a problem, why did he initiate this, if he is against it himself?” Putin said of Cameron at a meeting on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Putin said that he had a view on whether Britain should leave the EU but that it was not appropriate for him to voice it because it was Britain’s internal affair.
The Telegraph (yes, the same Telegraph whose editor blamed Obama not invading Syria for Brexit) would take this tactic one step further, writing what has to be one of the goofiest headlines in the history of Russia panic, two days before the vote (6/21/16):
Is Vladimir Putin Orchestrating Russian Football Hooligans to Push Britain out of the EU?
So Putin’s elaborate soccer-hooligan psyop was designed to push Britain out of the EU? The causes of Brexit are complex and will be dissected over the coming weeks, but it’s fair to say Putin’s sinister “hybrid warfare” — or even Putin’s alleged support — had little to do with it.
“Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” Rahm Emanuel once said. The same is true for large global shakeups like the exiting of Britain from the EU. Those who already dislike Obama or want to criticize Russia will shoehorn in a breaking story like Brexit to suit their own tangential agenda. By blaming Obama’s lack of a direct Syrian invasion and Russia’s lack of express support, these pundits are letting Britain’s own homegrown demagogues, nationalists and xenophobes off the hook—not to mention the EU’s own anti-democratic structures and pro-austerity policies that made staying with Europe a less appealing prospect.
But attributing Brexit on British rightists and European neoliberals calls into question corporate media’s leading ideologies. Better to put the blame on two individual leaders who had little or nothing to do with it.
Adam Johnson is a contributing analyst for FAIR.org. Follow him on Twitter at @AdamJohnsonNYC.
Let me get this straight.
When a British company employee kills people in Orlando, we investigate his links to Syria.
When the British vote to leave the EU over austerity and immigration, we investigate Russia
There is so much wasted energy built into our propaganda blind spots
Blame? Or credit?
-The EU will lose a uniformly bad influence on policy within -essentially Washington’s agent in the EU will now leave the EU.
-The grip of the central bankers will weaken, as other countries will be encouraged to assert their rights to self-determination against the choking rule of globalization and austerity
-Scotland and maybe even Northern Ireland may well secede from the UK, meaning the British Empire will finish its disintigration into its component pieces at long last.
-Markets are in turmoil, the pound is in freefall, which means that a lot of billionaires lost an *incredible* amount of money on making bad bets on currency and stocks
-The despicable David Cameron resigned! That alone was worth it.
-There may even be an early election, which could give Jeremy Corbyn a chance to become Prime Minister
In other words… there’s no downside!
Obama started the conflict in Syria. That’s what did it.
Hillary and Victoria Nuland were major button pushers for the war on Syria.
The key issue in Brexit was not immigration. Surely, for over 70% of voters went to the polls over wealth and the fact that the democratic hearts of the democratic voting majority, the 51% most wealthy, surely they love to hoard all the land and wealth.
THE ELITE OF ENGLAND — IS THEIR NUMBER UP?
The ruling elite, the rich nobility that have lived in mansions for thousands of years, being such a criminal High Society as to create laws from days of old that allow the upper half of society to own all the land and wealth, laws that enslave by poverty the laboring-class lower half, what could society ever do to take away their wealth, power and glory?
What Brexit is all about, for Brexit is a brand new game.
The lesson of history is that Europe acting together = peace, Europe divided = war. If Britain actually leaves, there will be one more loose cannon in Europe. If France follows (polls suggest they won’t), then all four major European powers will be at each others throats. Germany fears encirclement. Currently, it is allied to France against Russia. If France turns its back on Germany, the latter has little choice but to ally with Russia, creating a behemoth stretching from the Bering Strait to the North Sea. France fears an overmighty Germany, so it has to fight the behemoth. Britain fears a single power dominating the continent, so it too has to fight. Thus, Britain leaving the EU brings Europe one step closer to war. By the way, the idea that a street-brawling gang was infiltrated into the Russian fans to create a fight between British fans and the French police is certainly plausible and would be a tactic typical of a former secret policeman.
Plausible?
Name me, please at least one similar operation (involving a big team of participants) that was effected by Putin. Of course, not taking into account ridiculous polonium (which will be the most expensive and more stupid way (directly leading tp killer) to kill anybody in the whole human history.)
Putin is that stupid, you think? One good thing, to me, is that reveals your ultimate non-knowledge that the West is proud of. Continue in this vein. More!
Bigger and greater governments, this only inflates the pride among the ruling elite and causes bigger and more deadly wars.
You clearly don’t know the first thing about the EU or contemporary Europe. Stick to your history books or commenting on U.S. issues.
Hard to say who wins with the Brexit although US banking houses would find it far more homey in Canary Wharf than anywhere else in Europe. If that door slams closed the disappointment could be great. And that could bode well for Russia – already paying duries to trade with the EU that America and Britain can, by and large, dodge. The competition there could be increased and US lng not be the challenge it was thought to be.
Is Putin drinking champers to celebrate? I would doubt it. His essential troubles with US-imposed sanctions aren’t changed and he still has a herd of idiots on his southwestern border
It is untrue any of this caused Brexit.
The refugees from “Syria” – many came from Africa and Afghanistan, have not really made it to Britain, remaining in the rest of the EU. The Migrant crisis which triggered Brexit was the flood of migrants from Eastern Europe to take Working Class jobs, while benefiting from Britain;s extremely generous Social Security system, from which by Family Credits they can receive to top up low wages. If you have a lot of kids this can be extremely generous. The Dutch foreign minister has just commented on his
Also we cannot cope with the predicted 6,000,000 people in ten years entering as migrants.
The result was a stampede by working class and working class voters, with shock results the next morning.
The political elites had foolishly failed to foresee this.
Blaming Brexit on Putin is just more of the lunacy that is seen every day out of the US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals.
who wins? the people in britain who get up and go to work everyday, and those that wish for the opportunity to. who wins if hillery gets elected? sachs goldman, foreign investors, wall street, the banking industry, and the clinton foundation (look what being sos did for it). who gets the shaft? Americans.
“Indeed, last week Putin was confused why the UK held the vote at all, and expressly withheld sharing an opinion on the matter (Reuters, 6/17/16)”.
This is hilarious. The EU has imposed sanctions on Russia and it is indifferent to its dissolution? I understand that Adam Johnson is a pro-Putin and pro-Assad spin doctor but this is ridiculous.
Russia may not be indifferent, but there’s no evidence that it actually did anything to meddle. This may be hard for Americans to understand, given America’s propensity to impose its will on other countries, but it is possible to simultaneously have an opinion about something in another country and not take action to meddle in their internal politics.
Firstly Obama CAUSED the war iagainst Syria. The order for it went out under his personal signature as you would need what iis .called a “Finding” signed by the president a “for Covert Operation”, which is what it was.
It was a Covert War of Aggression, but a War of Aggression none the less.
It’s just that Obama will not abandon “Plausible Deniability” as it is technically known, foe Overt War, which would make America the aggressor.
However,, both Obama and Kerry DID try to intervene in the Brexit vote , what a cheek !
“However,, both Obama and Kerry DID try to intervene in the Brexit vote , what a cheek !”
This is a really good point -and Americans are so conditioned by the corporate media that even someone who reads it with a critical eye like myself failed to notice it. Indeed! Putin does absolutely nothing, and the media rushes to look for his hand in it on the basis of vague conjecture that he probably maybe might have an interest. Meanwhile Obama blatantly, publicly interferes in another state’s affairs, going so far as to say that Britain would be “in the back of the queue for trade agreements” if Brexit passes, and this goes entirely unnoticed as an example of interfering.
Maybe that’s why people voted for it -they’ll be in the “back of the queue” for getting screwed over. If only it were so! The day after, Obama was quick to reassure everyone -everyone who mattered that is -the investor class -that the relationship would be as strong as ever.
As usual any time FAIR tries to comment on non-American issues, you make a fool of yourself with this article.
First of all, with your pathetic assertion that U.S. and a couple British media outlets equals “the Western press”. Frankly, you may be too ignorant to read any other languages, but that merely means you should refrain from making sweeping generalizations about European media responses.
Secondly, if you actually had a clue about the the UK or the Brexit debate, you would know both the Daily Telegraph and Sky News were among *the most consistent and vocal supporters* of Brexit, so this idea that they are somehow seeking a scapegoat for the result they in large part contributed for and lobbied is ridiculous beyond belief in the first place.
Thirdly the EU is neither “anti-democratic” nor in the business of “imposing austerity” – by repeating ad nauseum these *lies* put out by the pro-Brexit camp, you are actually playing right into the hands of those people you claim to oppose.
The only thing this post does is illustrate, once again, how deplorably ignorant Americans are about the rest of the world. Pathetic.
I’m sorry to have to disillusion you and explain things to American readers..
The powerful and arrogant EU establishment is committed to austerity through its Monetarist economic and financial policies which it will enforce throughout the EU by the European Commission.
it is committed to monetarism, “austerity” and the free market.
The EU institutions are wholly and notoriously undemocratic in their behaviour.
Finally we have had endless Orwellian propaganda from Remain campaigners, “The Truth is a Lie, Freedom is Slavery”.