RT

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RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian 24/7 English-language news channel that launched in December 2005. The network aims to present the world with a Russian point of view to "to become Russia's version of the BBC."[1] The results come across more like a State-sponsored Fox News.

RT was allocated government funding in 2012 of 11Bn Roubles (approx. $365 million) in addition to advertising revenue[2] and is the number one source of popular news videos on YouTube.[3][4]

Contents

[edit] Objectives

RT's self-described objective is to "show you how any story can be another story altogether".[5] Margarita Simonyan, RT's editor-in-chief, has specified that the station was born out of the desire to present an "unbiased portrait of Russia".[1] Ironically (though not unsurprisingly for anyone who knows about what "unbiased" usually means), most critics share the opinion that the channel's main objective is to present a very biased portrait of other countries.[6][7]

[edit] Criticism

Russian sociologist and political commentator Boris Kagarlitsky described RT as a "continuation of the old Soviet propaganda services".[6] The channel is also accused of having close ties with the Russian state authorities[8][9] and of helping the Kremlin to project an overly positive image of Russia by refraining from criticizing the government, particularly Vladimir Putin.[9]

Other criticism includes claims that RT is deliberately and incessantly engaging in US/NATO/EU-bashing through "interviews" in which only Russian ultra-nationalists or highly critical, anti-western "experts" are interviewed--without any probing questions or challenges by the RT reporters, and without even bothering to hear opposing points of view.[6] The following RT's "news" titles may provide some examples of this:

Some Western interviewees[10] have found the experience of an RT interview weird. They fish extremely hard for the quote they're looking for and are prone to just completely making shit up in the resulting story. Other Russian networks (e.g. NTV) don't weird interviewees out like this.

[edit] Conspiracy theories

Although Fox News has supported conspiracy theorists including Birthers, Russia Today is the only international news organisation that promotes conspiracy theories on an industrial scale. For example there is a compilation of, originally no less than 56 Russia Today You Tube videos on 9/11 (7 now deleted).[11] The majority publicise, and clearly support, conspiracy theories. The remainder involve other criticisms of the United States.

RT regularly features interviews with conspiracy theorist cranks as experts on various subjects. The conspiracy theories that it gives publicity to are generally those that portray the US as deeply amoral, malicious and/or doomed to failure but, as a government mouthpiece of the world’s No.1 fossil fuel supplier, RT has also featured global warming conspiracy theory proponents e.g.: Piers Corbyn[12] Christopher Monckton[13][14] and Patrick Michaels[15] . Other examples are in a compilation of 7 videos on “Climategate[16]

Uber-conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been interviewed on numerous occasions by RT[17][18][19][20], and the following is a list of other conspiracy theorists that have appeared as guests on his radio program and been interviewed (in most cases several times) by RT (as have two referenced above): Mike Adams[21], Mark Dice[22], David Ray Griffin[23], Jesse Ventura[24], Lyndon LaRouche[25], Gerald Celente.[26]

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Russia Today to be 24-hour, English TV station
  2. http://lenizdat.ru/a0/ru/pm1/c-1105568-0.html - 1 Anatomy of nonresistance
  3. http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/thread-765568-1-1.html Russia Today top news producer – Pew Study
  4. http://www.usgbroadcasts.com/bbgwatch/2012/07/31/broadcasting-board-of-governors-being-unnoticed/ Broadcasting Board of Governors Being Unnoticed
  5. RT: About us
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Journalism mixes with spin on Russia Today: critics
  7. Russia: New International Channel Ready To Begin Broadcasting
  8. Russia Today Built on Kremlin Ties
  9. 9.0 9.1 Russia Pumps Tens of Millions Into Burnishing Image Abroad
  10. in this case, one RationalWikian and people he's asked
  11. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUmGvyUIU_E&list=PL172C9CC073815D38
  12. RT interviewing quack climatologist Piers Corbyn on climate change
  13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKrw6ih8Gto RT interviewing Lord Christopher Monckton on his climate change denial
  14. http://rt.com/politics/climate-change-warming-moncktonthe/
  15. http://www.cato.org/multimedia/video-highlights/patrick-j-michaels-discusses-climate-change-national-security-russia-today Patrick Michaels on climate change
  16. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFt07eAAQ94&playnext=1&list=PL539FC8169CB0FC17&feature=results_main
  17. http://rt.com/usa/news/army-manual-camps-citizens-593/ RT interviewing Alex Jones (Info Wars) on FEMA camps conspiracy theory
  18. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZKGNTN63uw RT interviewing Alex Jones on oil spill conspiracy
  19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1qlB61mmFg RT interviewing Alex Jones on theory that CIA created Al-Qada
  20. http://www.infowars.com/rt-interviews-alex-jones-at-bilderberg-2012/ RT showing Alex Jones demonstrating against Bildeberg conference
  21. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h7T6VSzChc Mike Adams on e-coli conspiracy theory – suggesting that the US Government may have deliberately started it
  22. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXgMcXvu3Ec Mark Dice on secret think tanks to further “American Imperialism”
  23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9kEwQud4Ek David Ray Griffin on 9/11 conspiracy theory
  24. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzhdMgI3Z9I Jesse Ventura on American Conspiracies
  25. http://rt.com/politics/interview-with-lyndon-larouche/ Lyndon LaRouche alleging that the Russian Georgian war was a “British-American operation intended to crush Russia”
  26. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFlKJmE4gVE 'America lives in a fascist state' - Gerald Celente
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