 Saturday Night Live's show last weekend started with Prayer for Ukraine performed by Ukrainian chorus Dumka of New York instead of its regular comedic Cold Open. The show never had any prayer for Yemen or Syria and when it dealt with Palestine it was a mockery of the struggle of the Palestinians and the trivialization of the issue. This is not just the case with SNL but a reflection of how the Western media perceives the Third World. For example, the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalist Association in a statement that came out on February 28th condemned the way some aspects of the situation in Ukraine were being reported. The statement was pointing fingers towards how journalists from the West portrayed American invasions in West Asia and Africa as something normal while comparing them to the conflict in Ukraine. The association said that it condemns and categorically rejects orientalist and racist implications that any population or country is uncivilized or bears economic factors that make it worthy of conflict. The statement was mainly talking about a host of media houses from the West who in a very racist manner portrayed the crisis in Ukraine. Here are some examples. Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the city, there will be many more. People are hiding out in bomb shelters but this isn't a place with all due respect like Iraq or Afghanistan that has seen conflict raging for decades. This is a relatively civilized, relatively European, I have to choose those words carefully too, city where you wouldn't expect that or hope that it's going to happen. I'm sorry, it's very emotional for me because I see European people with blue eyes and blonde hair being killed, children being killed every day with Putin's missiles. Meanwhile, Russian media professionals and journalists have also been facing attacks in cyberspace. On March 2nd, following Apple's suite, Google removed Russian state-funded media like RT, formerly Russia today, and Sputnik from its Play Store. RT has been taken off from YouTube and Europe as well. The European Union's earlier call for a ban on RT and Sputnik also came into effect on March 2nd. The channels have been banned in the European Union with immediate effect for allegedly spreading misinformation. It is quite clear that RT has been banned for being Russia's state-funded news agency rather than for a case of disinformation. But ironically, there was no ban on BBC. When the UK sent its troops to Iraq or Afghanistan or CBS, when Canada sent its troops to Afghanistan, RT in the US had to shut down its operations after being dropped by networks such as Direct TV and Roku. RT has been taken off air in South Africa as well because the global distributor of the channel stopped providing the broadcast, adhering to the EU ban on RT. Mikhail Solodovnikov, who ran TNR Productions, the Russia-owned media company that operates RT America, has also been removed from the board of directors of the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Also, journalists working for RT have complained of Twitter tagging their accounts with Russia state-affiliated media. Meanwhile, complaints of restricting the reach of Russian media have also been raised by multiple organizations. Roskomna Dzor, Russian media watchdog, found Facebook guilty of violating human rights and freedoms of Russians. The media watchdog reacted to the censoring of four Russian media outlets and called the act a violation of the principles of free dissemination and information and access to it. There have also been other instances of double standards by the corporate media. For example, media houses have been celebrating Ukrainians using Molotov cocktails for defense and President Vladimir Zelensky calling on prisoners with combat experience to fight Russia. And then we have Palestine, where people defending their land from Zionist occupation using sticks and stones are portrayed as terrorists by mainstream media. Apart from economic sanctions, there has been a call for a cultural and sports boycott of Russia too. The Cannes International Film Festival had earlier announced that it would not receive Russian delegations this year in protest. Munich Philharmonic, based in Germany, has sacked Russian chief conductor Valerie Gargib for his close relationship with Vladimir Putin. Major Hollywood studios, including Disney, Sony and Warner Brothers, have decided to hold the distribution of their movies in Russia. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Book Institute has called for a total boycott of Russian books in the world because, according to it, Russian propaganda is woven into many books. The Russian football team has also been banned from the FIFA 22 World Cup and from all international football competitions. Some of these bans are reaching ridiculous lengths with the latest being the International Cat Federation's ban on Russian cats from competitions. The United States, ever since its formation, has been orchestrating coups against democratically elected governments, bombing sovereign nations and invading countries. The same applies for its allies, including the UK, France, Canada and the likes. But none of them have ever been put on sanctions nor have their memberships been revoked from international bodies. In fact, these countries have been at the forefront, calling for sanctions on other countries. All these aspects clearly expose the double standards of countries like the US and its allies which, on the one hand, bomb countries on a daily basis and on the other, selectively talk about human rights.