RT

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Every single day we're lying and finding sexier ways to do it.
—Former RT reporter Sara Firth[1]

RT (formerly, and still popularly, 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."[2] The results come off as a state-sponsored Fox News, prone to coverage slanted against "the West" (and the U.S. in particular) and outrageous lies in general, while giving way too much air to conspiracy theories and other fringe beliefs.

Contents

[edit] Funding and objectives

RT was allocated government funding in 2012 of 11 billion rubles (approx. $365 million) in addition to advertising revenue.[3]

RT's self-described objective is to "show you how any story can be another story altogether."[4] In this, at least, they do not disappoint. 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."[2] Ironically (though not surprisingly 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.[5][6]

[edit] Influence

RT promotes itself heavily on YouTube and has achieved a significant following. A survey published in 2012 by the Pew Research Center's Journalism Project found that RT has the largest percentage of "top videos" from all the other news organization surveyed:[7]

Russia Today has developed a large online following through a combination of factors. The network has actively promoted its online content. The RT YouTube channel has more than 280,000 followers and the videos in its official channel have been viewed more than 740 million times, a number far greater than many other well-known sources such as Al Jazeera English (380 million views), Sky News (52 million) and Fox News (23 million). Other prominent news organizations have far fewer followers, such as ABC News (111,000), the New York Times (78,000) and ITN News (54,000).

[edit] Political bias

Globally, you're probably the most popular man in modern history... you are looked on as a savior of sorts.
—RT's Peter Lavelle to Putin[8]

Russian political dissident Boris Kagarlitsky described RT as a "continuation of the old Soviet propaganda services."[5] The channel is also accused of having close ties with the Russian state authorities[9] and of helping the Kremlin to project an overtly positive image of Russia by refraining from criticizing the government, particularly Vladimir Putin.[10][11]

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 exuberantly 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.[5] The following RT's "news" titles may provide some examples of this:

Some Western interviewees[12] 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.

RT was also the only network to broadcast The World Tomorrow, aka The Julian Assange Show, considering it as "rallying a global audience of open-minded people who question what they see in mainstream media." The irony is not lost to anyone.[13]

[edit] Conspiracy theories

Although Fox News has supported conspiracy theorists[14] including Birthers,[15] 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 YouTube videos on 9/11 (7 now deleted).[16] The majority publicise, and clearly support, conspiracy theories. The remainder involve other criticisms of the United States.

RT regularly features interviews with 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,[17] Christopher Monckton,[18][19] and Patrick Michaels.[20] Other examples are in a compilation of 7 videos on “Climategate.”[21]

Uber-conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has been interviewed on numerous occasions by RT,[22][23][24][25] and other conspiracy theorists that have appeared as guests on his radio program and been interviewed (in most cases several times) by RT include Mike Adams,[26] Mark Dice,[27] David Ray Griffin,[28] Jesse Ventura,[29] Lyndon LaRouche[30] and Gerald Celente.[31] It's a needle-thread away from Scopie's Law status.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. Another RT Reporter Publicly Quits Her Job, Gawker
  2. 2.0 2.1 Russia Today to be 24-hour, English TV station, CBC
  3. Anatomy of nonresistance, Lenizdat
  4. About Us, RT
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 Journalism mixes with spin on Russia Today: critics, CBC
  6. Russia: New International Channel Ready To Begin Broadcasting, RFE/RL
  7. YouTube Video Creation – A Shared Process, Pew Research Center
  8. Might be regretting saying that in a few years.
  9. Russia Today Built on Kremlin Ties, Kommersant
  10. Russia Pumps Tens of Millions Into Burnishing Image Abroad, Washington Post
  11. "No country can legally invade another country without UN approval" Oh.
  12. In this case, one RationalWikian and people he's asked
  13. Assange TV Presented by the Kremlin, New York Times
  14. Fox News' conspiracy theory obsession, Media Matters
  15. "Fox Promotes Birther Myth In At Least 52 Segments", Media Matters
  16. A playlist
  17. RT interviewing quack Piers Corbyn
  18. RT interviewing the Lord!
  19. "The great climate change swindle: global warming is not manmade!"
  20. Patrick Michaels on climate change
  21. Another playlist
  22. RT interviewing Jones on FEMA concentration camps
  23. RT interviewing Alex Jones on Gulf oil spill conspiracy
  24. RT interviewing Alex Jones on CIA creating Al-Qaeda
  25. RT showing Alex Jones demonstrating against Bildeberg conference
  26. The US government deliberately created e-coli!
  27. Mark Dice on secret think tanks to further “American imperialism”
  28. David Ray Griffin on 9/11 conspiracy theories
  29. Jesse Ventura on American conspiracies
  30. Lyndon LaRouche alleging that the Russo-Georgian War was a “British-American operation intended to crush Russia”
  31. 'America lives in a fascist state' - Gerald Celente
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