Russia Today Anchor Resigns, Admits To Spreading 'Lies' For Putin

a reply to: SubSea

The U.S. and the Russian media are all state controlled. There is no real truth or real journalism

I agree with you about the state of journalism, but US media is not state controlled it is corporate controlled. Now, as it may be, those same corporate influences also own members of the government. So it's fairer to say Corporate America owns both the media and the government.

It differs from how it is in Russia, where the government, specifically Putin, controls both the media and corporations.

originally posted by: yeahright

originally posted by: blupblup
But so is the BBC, by the UK Government.

And that's a valid analogy if you can't draw a distinction between the Russian Government and the UK government.

IMO

Well yes.... Western Media is anti-Russian and Russian Media is anti-western.

Quite simple really.

I don't believe for a minute that RT is a bastion of free speech and totally impartial journalism.... but then nor would I completely discredit and rubbish every single story, article or piece they do just because it's on RT.
To do either is frankly ignorant and stupid.

originally posted by: mbkennel

And the BBC has a very strong independent charter and cultural institutional abhorrence and throughout its existence has often significantly criticized the governments of the U.K. and has successfully resisted pressure of the government. The historical examples are clear and this is how the U.K. public expects it to be.

Don't believe the false claims of equivalence---- there is NO equivalent in Western media to the complete propaganda of RT.

I believe the argument was about being state funded.
As I've pointed out, that in itself is not really a criticism.

Well if this anchor announcing what is blatantly obvious, isn't propaganda from or for the west...I don't know what is. What a farce!

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
a reply to: SubSea

I agree with you about the state of journalism, but US media is not state controlled it is corporate controlled. Now, as it may be, those same corporate influences also own members of the government. So it's fairer to say Corporate America owns both the media and the government.

It differs from how it is in Russia, where the government, specifically Putin, controls both the media and corporations.

I beg to differ.

The only difference is that, in the USA, there is an illusion of separation, but it's all controlled by the same elite.

a reply to: Realtruth

I agree yet disagree with that statement, we have a greater corporate, aka "elite" control over media but we don't have the level of direct government involvement in planting fake news the way RT and Russia does. But we are getting there, as long as we continue to blindly allow corporate billionaires and their dark money to influence both government and media alike. Fox News is the most guilty of this corporate allegiance, and championing things like Citizens United.

I don't agree that US media like Fox, CNN, or MSNBC is akin to RT, as RT is propaganda aimed at a Western audience. The closest we have to that is Voice of America, which target foreign nations with pro-western propagandist stories.

I believe that is the prime motivation for Putin to create RT, to counter Voice of America and overall western bias, but he is doing it in the crudest way that harkens back to the days of the KGB and WWII style propaganda.

RT has no merit as a valid news agency. Even knowing there is bias in the likes of American cable news networks, they have a tendency to balance out.

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

It differs from how it is in Russia, where the government, specifically Putin, controls both the media and corporations.

Exactly.

It differs from how it is in USA, where the Corporations, controls the media, the government and both side of the Politicians....

originally posted by: SkepticOverlord

originally posted by: aLLeKs
I have to say RT is always worth a look to get another perspective.
The truth lies between both sides.

Russia Today is indeed much worse than other news sources as it's charter owes to the Russian government, and it's completely funded by the Russian government.

And this is the reason I don't come to ATS as often as I used to. When the owner of the site makes a statement this stupid the reason is clear.

Skeptic, seriously. Are you actually sitting there and telling us (the rhetorical us) that ALL of the news media outlets are not funded by governments, whether through direct channels or though corporately connected ones?

Shame.

a reply to: JRCrowley

US media receives its funding primarily through advertising. With multiple news outlets it's harder for the US government to plant false stories, in spite of all the hyperbole, they don't own the media. The corporate influence works to shift public opinion with bias, and really only recently has it become more aggressive in creating news rather than reporting it. Even so, corporate media is not the government. We also have more than one corporate media bias, covering the spectrum from right to left.

This is not the same as, say, the government releasing falsified information to the media, such as Lee Harvey Oswald's faked photographs, or claims of a ship being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Yes, that was propaganda generated by the US government, but it relied on a non-government agency to disseminate it. RT is, for all intents and purposes, a government agency of Russia.

Just foreign agents working for RT, then "exposing" the outlet on their real bosses orders. Soon to be working for CNN/BBC.

And for those who think that Western journalists can expose their own mainstream outlets for being State puppets without being disappeared, I've got two words for ya:

"MICHAEL HASTINGS"!

Nuff said.

This kind of thing happens in the United States all of the time, anchors resigning or being fired because they can no longer continue to tell lies. Ask yourself why you always see new faces on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Most probably don't remember the lady from CNN who resigned after her in depth report on the massacre by Bahrain against its own citizens was disallowed because the US didn't want the Arab Spring to be successful in this country that hosts an important US base. Where is Rick Sanchez? You only know about the Russian anchors because it is the agenda of US state run media to let you know. You never hear the truth from US media. You only need to look at what is going on right now. There is an ongoing war in eastern Ukraine with shifting front lines in which a missile was fired from an area where battle is occurring, but US media knows exactly that the freedom fighters did it, even though the freedom fighters managed to capture one of these systems while the Ukrainian government has 27 of these systems in the conflict zone. We have been told from day one that Russia is supplying weapons to the rebels and even has troops in Ukraine. Both of these assertions have never been proven true, not one bit of evidence has been provided. If you listen to the Kiev government propaganda, it is like Baghdad Bob. These are the people that CNN tells you to trust. There were never weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. After it was evident that there were no weapons, the media told us that US intelligence believed that there was. This is false. The US government and the media knew from the beginning that there were no WMDs and no threat from Iraq. Do you understand what this means? This means that the US government invaded and overthrew a sovereign government that never attacked the US and did not threaten to attack the US for the sole purpose of benefitting companies run by friends of Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, and the US media helped them do that. Everyone should ask themselves one simple question: Do you trust the media and the government?

a reply to: Blackmarketeer

Ridiculous, cliché argument.

If they are so diverse, then why they are all parrotting the exact same messages everyday!? It's about who's owning and running these outlets, not about the advertizers. Mainstream media in the West has been drastically monopolized over the the last 15 years, where all the mass outlets are controlled by only 2-3 conglomerates in every country, when it's not bluntly the government. That is today's media. There's only a few exceptions, like through British or German media, where you got about one or two major outlets (like the Guardian or Der Spiegel) that aren't aligned with larger corporate interests tied to the State.

Your vision of a diverse, plural media world applies to the '80s.

a reply to: neo96

From SlashDot: link

originally posted by: Blackmarketeer
a reply to: JRCrowley

US media receives its funding primarily through advertising. With multiple news outlets it's harder for the US government to plant false stories, in spite of all the hyperbole, they don't own the media. The corporate influence works to shift public opinion with bias, and really only recently has it become more aggressive in creating news rather than reporting it. Even so, corporate media is not the government. We also have more than one corporate media bias, covering the spectrum from right to left.

This is not the same as, say, the government releasing falsified information to the media, such as Lee Harvey Oswald's faked photographs, or claims of a ship being attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin. Yes, that was propaganda generated by the US government, but it relied on a non-government agency to disseminate it. RT is, for all intents and purposes, a government agency of Russia.

I don't think I've ever witnessed a human being in as much denial as you are in. Corporate media is the government. The United States is an oligarchy run by powerful corporations. The United States is not a democracy, not when the voting can be totally engineered by money, manipulating voting laws, and totally manipulating the information that voters receive and thus their beliefs. It is not a democracy when corporate money controls every single United States congressman, senator, supreme court justice, and president. Vladimir Putin wishes he had the dictatorial powers that the oligarchy possesses in the United States. The US government has TOTAL control over the US media. It doesn't matter whether the President is Republican or Democrat. The foreign policy is always the same and not influenced by the President. If you want to know what is going on in the world, you have to watch foreign media including Russia Today. You will not have a clue what is going on if you only watch Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC and read US and UK newspapers and websites. You can discern the truth by reading between the lines if you watch both US media and foreign media.

Now she could come here and work for CBS, NBC, ABC or CNN, MSNBC or Fox news and spread Obama's lies.
She'll make more money

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

People: it should be treated no better than Sorcha Faal or websites that do nothing but spout UFO hoaxes.

Don't follow Russia Today

You're right, I stopped following them after these stories:





Oh snap my bad - those are American news outlets!

It always amazes me when you militantly attack Russia Today. Yes they lie for Putin, do you doubt that the American media has never lied for a presidential administration? You would be naive to think not.

People should be able to make up their own minds on which news sources they want to read, they don't need the owner of a site that they frequently visit commanding them not to view RT.

I've always been the first to admit that some of the stuff that they put out is garbage but they are still more credible than any mainstream USA news source - this is difficult to dispute and to think that anyone might do so is quite alarming. US outlets are still parroting the official story of 9/11 - Harry potter is more believable FFS!

So if someone were going to tell me that an outlet that actually seeks the truth in regards to the official story of 9/11 is far worse than those who lie to us on a daily basis about it - I would call them a deluded hypocrite.

The only difference between RT and Western outlets is that RT doesn't pretend to be something that it's not. And let us please NOT forget that this could all be a setup as other members mentioned - this seems wayyyy to convenient - almost scripted even. I'm thinking there has been incentives for these RT employees coming forward with these "revelations".

Perhaps you're the one falling for the bait and switch

Not even a day later she goes live on CNN... How ridiculously hilarious...

Jus sayin...

If only more honest reporters would speak up....

a reply to: Adaluncatif
And yet when MSNBC tears into Citizens United or the dark money influence over Congress from the likes of Koch Industries you think that is the "controlled message" from our corporate masters? Such monied influence has been trying to KILL that message, and the only place it really seems to have been working is over at Fox. Corporate Interests want to crush the vote. Make corporations people. Deregulate.

If you think it's "all the same," then watch Ed Schulz of Maddow and compare it to Fox. You'll see polar opposites at work.

A perfect case in point in how corporate money and corporate domination of the airwaves can lead to them gaining control of the government is how the Koch's got Cantor dumped in favor of of a Koch-backed Brat.