Talk:Patrick Lancaster

Sources

• "Russian propaganda efforts aided by pro-Kremlin content creators, research finds". NBC News. 2022-06-08. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

The most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers identified by researchers is Patrick Lancaster, a Missouri-born Navy intelligence veteran and self-described independent crowdfunded journalist embedded with the Russian army. Since December, Lancaster’s YouTube channel has grown from 57,500 subscribers to more than 500,000, with daily dispatches from Russian-occupied Ukraine. His videos are often breathless reports with graphic footage of dead bodies, violence for which Lancaster claims Ukraine is responsible. The scene in at least one video was reportedly staged. Lancaster often appears on Russian state media and on the Texas-based conspiracy theory radio show “Infowars.” Below Lancaster’s YouTube videos, he posts, “I show what the western media will not show you.”

• Schogol, Jeff (2022-04-19). "How a former US Navy sailor became a Putin propagandist". Task & Purpose. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

Navy veteran Patrick Lancaster describes himself on Facebook as “an independent crowdfunded journalist,” but critics argue that he is a foot soldier in the Kremlin’s information war against Ukraine...

Christopher Paul, who researches information operations and psychological warfare, said Lancaster’s reporting “feels like Russian propaganda” by repeating Kremlin talking points and conspiracy theories. Lancaster’s videos repeat Russian propaganda themes along with conspiracy theories, said Paul, a senior social scientist with the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization... Lancaster’s videos have often appeared on Russian state-run media, including Russia Today and Zveda, a television channel owned by Russia’s defense ministry, reporters Jason Paladino and Anya van Wagtendonk with Grid, an independent news site, revealed on Monday.

Not only is Lancaster able to travel through Russian-controlled territory at will, but in one video he wore a white band on his arm and leg, which is a method that Russian troops use to distinguish friends from foes, Grid reported. Shortly before Russia’s attack on Ukraine, Lancaster reported on an alleged Ukrainian roadside bomb attack inside territory held by Russian-led separatists. The Russians claimed three people were killed in the attack, but Grid as well as the investigative website Bellingcat subsequently noted that the incident appears to have been staged. The charred remains of one person whom the Russians claim was killed by an explosion had deep cuts to the skull, indicating that the body had undergone an autopsy procedure before it was placed at the scene.

During his video about the event, Lancaster said that he was “investigating on what really happened,” but never challenged the official Russian narrative that three civilians had been killed by a Ukrainian roadside bomb.

“It’s not possible to know if in this incident he’s knowingly involved with producing propaganda, but he has a long track record of biased reporting when it comes to pro-Russian separatists and Russia itself,” Eliot Higgins, founder and creative director of Bellingcat, told Task & Purpose...

He served in the Navy from 2001 to 2006, during which he became a cryptologic technician — a job that involves using “high-power jamming signals to deceive electronic sensors and prevent enemy attacks,” according to the Navy.

He was trained at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center in Dam Neck, Virginia, and he served aboard the now decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from 2002 until 2006, according to his official service record. His rank when he left the Navy was petty officer third class.

Lancaster’s military awards include the Navy Unit Commendation Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, four Sea Service Deployment Ribbons, and four Navy and Marine Corps Overseas Service Ribbons...

His videos — which contain factual errors, misinformation and in the case of the video involving the alleged IED, have been accused of being outright fabrications – have the potential to reach a wide audience. His YouTube channel has 408,000 subscribers and he has also been featured on InfoWars, a website owned by radio host Alex Jones that passes off conspiracy theories as news. During a Feb. 25 interview with Jones, Lancaster said the people in eastern Ukraine controlled by Russian-led separatists were “in tears of happiness” over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

• Bright, Sam (2017-07-24). "The communist soldier using charity sites to fund his war". BBC News. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

Phillips works with a third pro-separatist video maker - American-born Patrick Lancaster. Lancaster also describes himself as an independent journalist, and says his work is entirely funded through crowdfunding. Despite this, he seems to have raised less than $6,500 in the past eight months.

Lancaster's videos have been featured by mainstream media outlets and he has contributed to The Telegraph and Sky News.

However, some of his reporting has been openly hostile towards Ukraine and the West. Speaking on RT in February 2015, Lancaster said that the Ukraine's current president, Petro Poroshenko, is an enemy of the people.

In November 2016, Lancaster set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise $2,000 for his reporting in eastern Ukraine. Donation incentives included a guided trip from Russia into the battle zone, which would have violated the Ukrainian border crossing l

aw, although there's no evidence that anyone took up the offer. Lancaster recently removed this perk, after BBC Trending contacted both him and Indiegogo.

On the same crowdfunding page, Lancaster offered military souvenirs from the Ukrainian war, including pieces of shrapnel or rubble from Donetsk airport. Yet, in an email to Trending, Lancaster distanced himself from Bentley, and said that he is not a fighter or an activist in the conflict.

• "Putin-Propaganda: Wie deutsche und internationale Influencer die Blockade russischer Medien unterlaufen". stern.de (in German). 2022-06-09. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

The most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers identified by the researchers is Patrick Lancaster, a Missouri-born US naval intelligence veteran and self-proclaimed independent crowdfunding journalist embedded in the Russian army, according to NBC. Since December, Lancaster's YouTube channel has grown from 57,500 subscribers to over 500,000 with its daily reports from Russian-held parts of Ukraine. His videos are often dramatic reports with gruesome images of dead bodies and violence for which Lancaster blames Ukraine. In at least one of the films, the scenes shown were reportedly staged. Lancaster appears frequently on Russian state media and on Infowars, a far-right Texas radio and online conspiracy-telling channel.

• Rabiega, Hubert (2022-06-12). "Głos Rosji w internecie. Wpływowi youtuberzy szerzą na Zachodzie propagandę Putina". Polska Times (in Polish). Retrieved 2022-06-27.

One of the most popular pro-Kremlin influencers identified by ISD researchers is Patrick Lancaster, a Missouri-born US Navy intelligence veteran, currently active as a self-proclaimed freelance crowdfunding journalist with ties to the Russian army. Since December 2021, Lancaster's YouTube channel has grown from 57,500 to over 500,000 subscribers. Such a leap in growth was due to Lancaster's daily reports from the territories of Ukraine occupied by the Russians. "His films are often dramatic accounts of gruesome images of dead bodies and violence for which Lancaster blames Ukraine," notes stern.de. Lancaster appears frequently in the Russian state media.

• ""Information Dumps": From the Kremlin to Your Screen". bywire news. 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

Since 2014, there is a group of Western journalists channelling the point of view of the Russian occupiers in Ukraine, for example, the UK Graham Phillips, Patrick Lancaster, and many French and Italian bloggers and podcasters, who do not have any professional training. Many such journalists and media personalities get indignant if confronted and claim that they simply cover all points of view.

• "Kto wierzy Lancasterowi? Nachalna ustawka rosyjskich służb". Wiadomości z Polski i ze świata (in Polish). 2022-05-31. Retrieved 2022-06-27.

Russian media present him as "the only Western journalist" who reaches various forbidden places on the front in order to show - as they argue - the truth about Ukrainian crimes. In Patrick Lancaster's reports, everything is presented not only in reverse - all Russian atrocities and lawlessness are shown as Ukrainian - but also in a comic version, by showing the unreal realities of the war.

One fact from Lancaster's life is enough, which disqualifies him as an observer of the Russian invasion - he himself admits that for years, with his family (wife and two children), he has been living in Donetsk - i.e. in the territory occupied by Russia with the help of hybrid units - "Separatists" from the unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic. This alone shows that this American is breaking international law and, in addition, must enjoy the operational support of the Russian services. Over the years, it showed more peaceful content, which kept the mythology of Moscow alive - and this is the prosperity of life in Russian-occupied Crimea, and these are tourist curiosities from the territories occupied by Russia. With the full-scale invasion, his popularity has grown and he is considered a nonconformist on the Internet who opposes Ukrainian, American and - yes - Jewish propaganda...

Lancaster also talks with the inhabitants of the occupied territories in a manner that is inadequate to reality. The villagers tell him, for example, from which side the rocket came - Ukrainian, of course - that hit the building. This would fit perhaps in "Star Wars" where bullets are visible as brightly lit lines that fly from weaponry to target - in real life the average person has no chance of seeing where the missile is coming from. The American builds a mirror image of responsibility for war crimes - he attributes Russia's crimes to Ukraine. However, the mirror image has a number of disadvantages - in the sad reality of war, civilians are so afraid of criminals that they rarely talk about them in front of the cameras. For Lancaster, every randomly encountered civilian is ready for anti-Ukrainian stories with a smile... The American is quoted in "Russia Today", and Internet trolls with a strangely non-Polish or non-English syntax repeat comments in various places on the web in which the media is "not believed" and prompted by an "independent" journalist.

The US media has long established that Lancaster is a veteran of the US Navy, in which he served from 2001-2006. There, he dealt with disrupting the enemy's communication signals, i.e. also ... disinformation. The American himself is a certain axis around which additional disinformation aids revolve, although no one "independent" reporter asks about strange scenes in his recordings. However, the aura of nonconformity and anti-systemism gives the Russian agent of influence credibility for those who have been fashioned before against the plots of this world.

BobFromBrockley (talk) 09:14, 27 June 2022 (UTC)

EvergreenFir, do any of the additional sources listed by Bobfromrockley pass muster in your opinion? If the article is in fact kept, it would be good to have more than three in the article.--Ermenrich (talk) 19:44, 13 July 2022 (UTC) Oops, trying again EvergreenFir Bobfrombrockley.--Ermenrich (talk) 20:14, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

BLP violation

This edit was a violation of WP:BLP rules that forbid using self-published sources in biographies of reliable persons.--Ermenrich (talk) 16:02, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Good point to remind us that WP:BLP allows self published sources if it is from the subject themselves! Thus we can include anything in the article that is direct from Patrick Lancaster himself. Mathmo ^Talk 17:23, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Depending on what it is, that's true. But we have to balance whatever Lancaster says about himself with what RS say about him - such as there are.--Ermenrich (talk) 17:34, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

I've never heard of tasikherbal.com or Ivan Farrell. It's not even a self published article by Lancaster so its not reliable for anything. IntrepidContributor (talk) 17:36, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

You mean you've never read sterling journalism in impeccable English like "How A lot Does the US Owe in Reparations for the COVID-19 Bio-Assault?]"?! To quote Farrell Usually nations don’t should pay reparations till they badly lose a warfare. They certainly don't should, he's absolutely right.--Ermenrich (talk) 17:40, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Use of the term propgandist

RE: Ermenrich

• Warned Both editors have violated WP:BLP by using less-than reliable sources to make contentious claims about a living person with attributing those claims. Do not use tabloids like The Mirror or Vice Media as sources to make claims about living people (see WP:RSP). To claim someone is a propagandist, you need rock-solid sources.[1]

666hopedieslast (talk) 19:25, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for copy-pasting this. I'll add: a single source cannot be used to support such a contentious claim. You can/should attribute that claim to NBC. If, say, BBC, NBC, NPR, and NYT all say someone is a propagandist, then it would not need to be attributed, just cited. EvergreenFir (talk) 19:28, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Ok. 666hopedieslast (talk) 19:31, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

NBC News

The most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers identified by researchers is Patrick Lancaster, a Missouri-born Navy intelligence veteran and self-described independent crowdfunded journalist embedded with the Russian army. Since December, Lancaster’s YouTube channel has grown from 57,500 subscribers to more than 500,000, with daily dispatches from Russian-occupied Ukraine. His videos are often breathless reports with graphic footage of dead bodies, violence for which Lancaster claims Ukraine is responsible. The scene in at least one video was reportedly staged. Lancaster often appears on Russian state media and on the Texas-based conspiracy theory radio show “Infowars.”

Below Lancaster’s YouTube videos, he posts, “I show what the western media will not show you.” He did not respond to a request for comment.--Ermenrich (talk) 19:32, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Good source. The attribution currently in the article is good. EvergreenFir (talk) 19:35, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

@Ermenrich you are still not getting it, do you? - GizzyCatBella🍁 19:36, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

GizzyCatBella. No, I'm not "getting it". If the RS say he is "pro-Kremlin", why do you keep removing that? There is no argument among any RS that he supports the Kremlin's line. At any rate, I've attributed it and quoted it in the lead. That should satisfy whatever objection you have.--Ermenrich (talk) 19:38, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Thanks EvergreenFir. As these edits show: [2] I added the 2 articles in this 1st few edits of the article. 666hopedieslast (talk) 19:42, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Admin edits so they are not lost in future edits

Statement: admin action; do not re-add

RE:

https://zaborona.com/en/from-the-lancaster-family-the-story-of-an-american-reporter-who-settled-in-the-dnr-was-a-friend-of-givi-and-uses-morgue-bodies-for-fake-news/

666hopedieslast (talk) 19:42, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

In this edit, I did not restore the contentious propagandist claim. On what grounds was the source and non-containtesious claim removed? IntrepidContributor (talk) 19:52, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

I think it's unclear if Zaborona is a good source to many people editing here (including me). I wouldn't cite Ukrinform of Ukrainska Pravda on Lancaster if they had written on him, after all. As for the rest, I guess ask GizzyCatBella.--Ermenrich (talk) 19:54, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Are you disputing the use of Zaborona for establishing the notability of the Lancaster and what he is known for? If so, please say so in the discussion about this on the reliable sources noticeboard. IntrepidContributor (talk) 19:59, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

I am disputing Zaborona. It does not indicate who the editor is. Or any staff really. You'd need consensus from RSN to use it. EvergreenFir (talk) 20:07, 13 July 2022 (UTC)

Article links to YT

Don't work for me atm. Has he been moved or something? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 08:50, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

[3] works just fine, but for some reason I can't see, the link in the infobox/refs doesn't. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:08, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

@Alexis Jazz, perhaps you know? It seems the infobox link etc should work, but they don't. Could it be a Wikidata thing? Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 09:40, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Gråbergs Gråa Sång, umm, confusing stuff, but yeah I messed around with the relevant template some time ago.
UCbjTWVaRx6jMN5ZYgbqe2_w is the channel_url (/channel/) for Patrick Lancaster. The channel_name is what comes after /user/ which I don't know for Patrick. The /c/ channel name isn't directly supported by {{Infobox YouTube personality}} unless you enter c/PatrickLancasterNewsToday for channel_direct_url.
YouTube is really confusing with this. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 16:58, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Hmm, a bit like adding a imdb-EL template. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 17:49, 14 July 2022 (UTC)

Use of Dutch language regional newspapers as sources

Are regional newspapers Leeuwarder Courant, BN DeStem, and Dagblad van het Noorden really the best sources for this article? I'll note that while these three all have headlines about how "remains from "malaysian airlines flight 17" have been found, the headline from NRC (newspaper) is more cautious: "Mogelijk weer menselijke resten MH17-ramp naar Nederland" ("Possible human remains of MH17 disaster to the Netherlands again"). All of the articles are unfortunately behind a paywall, but the NRC one, according to its WP page the paper of record of the Netherlands, is also the one that includes accusations that Lancaster is spreading pro-Russian disinformation.

I highly suspect that Lancaster somehow framed these remains, whether they were really from the crash or not, as a way to claim that Ukraine shot down MH17 or that the passengers were already dead when it crashed, which we for some reason don't mention and is established as Russian disinformation (see [[4]]).--Ermenrich (talk) 13:35, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Ermenrich, I added some more details and sources about this. The headlines from July 2017 say that remains were "possibly" found, the Netherlands Forensic Institute analyzed them and confirmed in November 2017 they found remnants of 7 passengers in the remains Lancaster found.
Two thirds (193) of the victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were Dutch so naturally the subject got more attention in The Netherlands. 43 victims were from Malaysia so perhaps some sources in Malaysian Malay would also exist, but I don't speak that.
Not everything is behind a paywall, you might be confusing the mandatory cookie wall they all have with a paywall. (try pressing "Akkoord", "Accepteer", "Selecteer alles" or whichever button is green to eat the cookies) NRC mentions "Lancaster" 7 times, the fact you refer to is "Lancaster wordt er door de Oekraïense autoriteiten van beschuldigd propaganda te bedrijven voor de pro-Russische separatisten in het oosten van het land." (source) — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 16:31, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Thank you. My concern is mostly that the newspapers are regional rather than national in scope.--Ermenrich (talk) 17:05, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Stern article

I notice that, despite having different authors, the Stern article's information on Lancaster is a word-for-word translation of the NBC article. Compare:

Der beliebteste der von den Forschenden identifizierten kremlfreundlichen Influencer ist nach Angaben von NBC Patrick Lancaster, ein in Missouri geborener Veteran des US-Marinegeheimdienstes und selbsternannter unabhängiger Crowdfunding-Journalist, der in die russische Armee eingebettet sei. Seit Dezember sei Lancasters Youtube-Kanal mit seinen täglichen Berichten aus von Russland besetzten Teilen der Ukraine von 57.500 Abonnenten auf über 500.000 angewachsen. Bei seinen Videos handele es sich oft um dramatische Berichte mit grausamen Bildern von Leichen und Gewalt, für die Lancaster die Ukraine verantwortlich mache. In mindestens einem der Filme seien die gezeigten Szenen Berichten zufolge inszeniert worden. Lancaster trete häufig in russischen Staatsmedien und bei Infowars auf, einem rechtsradikalen, texanischen Radio- und Online-Kanal für Verschwörungserzählungen. Er habe ebenfalls nicht auf eine Bitte um Stellungnahme reagiert.

to:

The most popular of the pro-Kremlin influencers identified by researchers is Patrick Lancaster, a Missouri-born Navy intelligence veteran and self-described independent crowdfunded journalist embedded with the Russian army. Since December, Lancaster’s YouTube channel has grown from 57,500 subscribers to more than 500,000, with daily dispatches from Russian-occupied Ukraine. His videos are often breathless reports with graphic footage of dead bodies, violence for which Lancaster claims Ukraine is responsible. The scene in at least one video was reportedly staged. Lancaster often appears on Russian state media and on the Texas-based conspiracy theory radio show “Infowars.”

In fact, it cites NBC as a source.--Ermenrich (talk) 14:27, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

Ermenrich, you are right, I missed that. So as a source it's probably not that useful. I think the Stern article possibly still counts towards notability - not fully sure though. — Alexis Jazz (talk or ping me) 16:33, 15 July 2022 (UTC)

NPOV violation supported by unreliable sources

The dismissive tone of the lead is supported by references to Vice Media (which has itself been found to have published photoshopped images as real) and to Zaborona.com, a Ukrainian site which tries to discredit any voice which disagrees with the official Ukrainian narrative. Neither of these sources is reliable, and material which depends on them should be removed.

The lead-in calls Lancaster "a self-described 'independent crowdfunded journalist'". He is an independent crowd-funded journalist; Wikipedia does not call other reporters "self-described journalists". The implied smear is a NPOV violation in itself.

Lancaster clearly has opinions and a point of view. So do many, perhaps most, journalists. He has made mistakes; so have most journalists. His opinion is different from the editorial positions of the New York Times, the BBC, the Washington Post, the Guardian etc. That does not automatically make his reports less valuable, or Patrick Lancaster less of a journalist. It is all too easy, for those of us who live in NATO countries, to accept at face value the barrage of propaganda all around us, and imagine that everything we read in the mainstream media is unbiased and accurate. Anyone who has the slightest interest in seeing beyond official propaganda needs independent sources, of which Lancaster is one. Insulation2 (talk) 21:01, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

There’s nothing wrong with either source. Virtually all reliable coverage of Lancaster is hostile. The same claim is made by NBC news and can be sourced in the lede as well.—Ermenrich (talk) 22:00, 7 October 2022 (UTC)

This entire article reads with a cartoonishly propagandistic tone, I suspect that it's been written by hostile editors from the start. If Wikipedians are incapable of writing a neutral article about a living person, then perhaps it's better not to have an article on that person at all rather than be used as a vehicle to libel them. I'm surprised to find a Wikipedia article about this person of relatively low notability in the first place, it's almost as if the sole purpose of this article is to throw shade on a critic of the Ukrainian government. Honest editors should ask themselves this: if the subject's politics were reversed, would they have an article at all in the first place? 47.45.218.112 (talk) 22:32, 1 December 2022 (UTC)

Literally not a double agent.

The idea that he's a pro Ukranian or pro NATO 'double agent' is absolutely ****ing insane. Consider a narrative revision, call him a 'stupid' guy or consider that the Russians have made mistakes in letting him film XYZ, or that his videos have led to exposure of information.

If he were a "double agent", then the Russians would throw him out, or put him in jail and interrogate him. But if he's not a double agent in this sense, then what is he?

None of these 'revelations' appear to be intentional. The entire front is full of bodycam videos and footage that has verified thousands of claims, XYZ atrocity, whatever. He is not defeating the Russian war effort by showing a brief video of a car passing by. Absolutely insane claim that he is a double agent. Mister asdfjkl; (talk) 04:27, 22 March 2024 (UTC)