Andrew Callaghan and Channel 5 brought their gonzo journalism to Ukraine
Wow, we, uh... really did not see this one coming.
Aux Features Andrew Callaghan
Taking a pause from Miami spring breakers, Flat Earth conventions, and QAnon rallies, Andrew Callaghan and his Channel 5 crew apparently decided to give themselves an easy one by…heading into the literal war zone of Ukraine. Much like his excellent coverage of Minneapolis protests and unrest, Callaghan’s newest dispatch sidelines his surreal skewering of society’s weirdest and most depraved elements for a somber, honest documentation of uprooted lives and communal aid.
Check out the full episode below:
While Callaghan doesn’t ask particularly complex questions of his interviewees (one would assume the language barrier played a part), he still gives a vital platform and voice to those currently fleeing one of the worst atrocities in modern history. The switch from the roar of Talladega engines to air raid sirens is particularly jarring, as is seeing how everyone in Lviv has accepted it as the new norm. Channel 5 manages to fit a lot of interviews into the 12-minute segment, including those with anarchist aid volunteers, an adorable rock-climbing toddler, and the actual mayor of Lviv, all of whom offer unique looks into the ongoing crisis.
But perhaps most unsettling of all (to American viewers) is seeing the mirror images of our QAnon cultists and MAGA true believers reflected in the victims of Putin’s propaganda machine. Much like their unlikely partners here in the States, pro-Putin Russians see the whole war as a faked Western plot to undermine their country, and it’s likely no amount of evidence could ever dissuade them. It doesn’t help that we have sentient mops like Tucker Carlson repeatedly serving as an unwitting Putin mouthpiece, as Callaghan makes sure to remind his viewers towards the end of his latest dispatch.
Kudos once again to Channel 5, but please hear us out: Give yourselves a break on your next project.
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17 Comments
This kid is going places. Mainly places that I would never want to go. Andrew and crew from Channel 5 are some of the finest journalists working today.
I mean, he’s 25, not really a kid but he’s definitely going places. I really like his work.
We’re you’re nearing 40, 25 seems downright youthful.
I turn 30 in two months so I guess that explains our different views lol. Personally, I don’t feel like a kid, but I don’t really feel like an adult either. It’s a weird mix of both.
I’m 50 this year. You are all adults from 18 onwards. Adults who fuck up a lot. When I was 25 I was invincible and knew everything. I’m still apologising and always will be. Great work from Callaghan and Channel 5. I am so happy to be introduced to them.
I even fail to proofread like an old person now.
25 is a fetus
He’s everything Vice wishes they could be.
Andrew Callaghan keeps it 55th St
love this kid. apparently there’s a whole movie coming soon from him produced by tim & eric.
Mason is almost literally the “I am not good with computer” cat.
I thought that was the cutest thing. “What’s your favorite kind of animal?” “Mason!”
“It doesn’t help that we have sentient mops like Tucker Carlson repeatedly serving as an unwitting Putin mouthpiece,”Unwitting? Er? He knows what he’s doing.
“Kudos once again to Channel 5, but please hear us out: Give yourselves a break on your next project.”Honestly, he spent so much time following around MAGA chuds with the Freedom Convoy, the anti-mask protests, Talladega, etc. that it seems like Ukraine actually was a break for them. In the convoy video he actually “breaks character” if you will and admits to getting really tired of talking to those psychos (like the ones featured at the end of the above video, who were in the Convoy). Gotta be taxing mentally when people are so disconnected from reality like that.I think one of his biggest strengths is he talks to children as much as he can in these videos. Not only cuz they “say the darndest things” but they often say some simply pround things (the boy in the Ukraine video saying he wants to be a doctor so he can “buy a car for his mother” is fucking heartbreaking). The only downside to this video is that no one freestyle raps in it.
“Protests and unrest”
Uh… thanks for the Cyrillic alphabet words? Was I the only person who had to translate those before I could figure out what the article was saying? Does everyone else who read this article speak Ukrainian or Russian or whatever that was? It’s like watching a foreign movie without subtitles. But if nothing else, I’ve proven to myself that my Google Translate skills (or “skills”; it’s not that hard) still exist.