OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens went viral this week over her email response to a reporter from the New York Times.
Owens took to social media and shared a screenshot of an email she received from a New Times reporter who seemed to suggest Owens was repeating Russian talking points when she suggested there’s corruption in Ukraine.
“Hi there, I’m writing from The New York Times,” an email from the reporter said. “We’re working on a story about Russian messaging that includes some of your comments.”
“We note that you advanced the idea that Ukraine was a corrupt country, which matched comments we’ve seen from Russian state media,” asserted the reporter, whose identity was protected by Owens.
“I’m wondering if you have any context or further comment to add about this corruption,” the email closed.
“I’m very confused by this email,” Owens responded via email, a screengrab shows. “I learned about ‘the idea that Ukraine was a corrupt country’ from The New York Times. You guys have covered the corruption in Ukraine extensively.”
“As just one example, here is a piece from the NYT Editorial Board titled, ‘Ukraine’s Unyielding Corruption,’” the conservative host wrote, linking to the Times piece.
“I educated myself about both the neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine and the unyielding corruption by reading your newspaper, not Russian state media,” she continued. “Is there something specific I said that was different form what you guys have written in the past?”
Received an email from The NYTimes asking for comment regarding me “advancing ideas that Ukraine is a corrupt country”—similar to Russian state TV.
I replied informing them that I actually got my ideas from the New York Times, and provided them links to their past articles. 😂 pic.twitter.com/Zy6a7Btih4
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 21, 2022
Owens didn’t stop there.
She then sent the reporter 5 additional links — two of which were from the New York Times — to stories from mainstream media outlets reporting on the alleged corruption in Ukraine.
“For more good measure, here are some more past articles written from reputable sources over the past few years about the corruption and neo-Nazi problem in Ukraine,” Owens wrote in the email.
“For clarity, are you now suggesting that what the western media covered extensively over the last few years is now just Russian propaganda?” she asked. “Are you suggesting all of these articles were sponsored by Russia state media?
Owens also shared screenshots of those stories to her Instagram:
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian government rejected an ultimatum by the Russian government for its fighters to lay down their arms and allow Vladimir Putin’s forces to occupy the port city of Mariupol, which has essentially been surrounded and cut off from the rest of Ukraine for several days.
The decision to reject the ultimatum means that invading forces will likely continue bombarding the city and will not allow trapped civilians to escape through a corridor the Russian military creates.
“There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
“I wrote: ‘Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open the corridor,’” she added.
“What Russia is trying to get Ukraine to do is to get us to give up our right to freedom,” Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said during an interview with NPR on Monday morning in response to the Russian ultimatum. “There’s nothing that Ukrainians value more than freedom. Life without freedom is no life for us.”
