Russian TV (RT), is here. Deal wit’ it.
I just realized last night that my cable service DirecTV, had added a whole new channel that I’d never gotten before. For free even!
“RT” might be a familiar name to some, not so much as a popular news network but as a downstage supporting character in the Trump/Russia investigation.
Well, it’s here now, broadcasting it’s unique point of view. I’ve got it on channel “123”; either a happy accident or an admirable job of “market positioning”.
If Sr. Mueller’s suspicions turn out correct, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the RT producers know a whole lot about American-style market positioning…
I’m usually not one to immediately dismiss an opportunity to evaluate a network with a new point of view, so I’m still watching it this morning. So far I’m gaining at least a good look at an outsider’s point of view of issues and events happening here that we find critically important, as I had enjoyed from Al Jazeera before they got chased off the American airwaves.
There is definitely a directed point of view, that takes little time to tell. Folks looking for military mistakes or questionable discrepancies in foreign policies from the U.S. or our global “partners” will find a satisfying meal there; have some fun verifying what is “so” and what is simply “POV”.
To be noted though is that so far they don’t seem to have an overall pro-Trump bent. Nope, they’re using him throughout their programs as an evergreen example of what is wrong with American policies and behavior. They are unfortunately reasonably good and pretty determined, at using his voice and behavior to make us look stupid. (“The gift that keeps on giving”, Russian style!)
We’re also though being portrayed as dangerously foolish, as well. Aside from the expected global threat of “Trump’s swiftly developing nuclear expansion”, they’ve got on constant cycle a report of “tens of thousands” of previously American-backed Syrian terrorists all forming an organized army under the “Al Nusra Front”, they say another previously American-backed group.
Has anyone heard of any such major developments from our own news networks? I had to note the surprize and lack of preparedness emanating from a U.S. Foreign Service representative shown being questioned about this development. Was he simply a recently appointed “FNG” there, or have our “best & brightest” just been caught seriously blind and deaf? Well they surely mean to have us wonder, and wondering I am.
Over a year ago one of the many things I’d warned friends about was the distinct possibility that under a Trump regime, one way or another we would inevitably come to hold the most politically fatal position any nation could have; that of being “The Bad Guys”. Most certainly, RT is making efforts to herd global perceptions about us in this direction, right here in front of us.
While I am appreciating a break from our usual “us or them” division in production agendas, I believe that in time I might come to find cumulatively irritating the aura of cynicism that overlays the various hosts conversational tone, no matter what American issues they’re covering at the moment. I feel like a father having to patiently endure a child going through his or her “sarcastic phase”.
One aspect I do have to chuckle about, is their persistent use of program anchors who speak with a British accent, on a Russian network. I guess they’re as aware as anyone else that to Americans, a British accent is a catchall for “foreign”. Has anyone ever seen a movie about the Roman Empire in which the cast spoke in a “Roman” accent? I rest my case.
Before anyone begins to get too riled about their chutzpah in invading our society in such a bold and direct manner, remember that we’ve been force-feeding them “Voice of America” since 1942 and “Radio Free Europe” since 1949 in every format available to us.
“IMHO” We should be surprised at their patience actually, and heck even courage, to be timing this introduction the way they have. Should we be alarmed? Heh, what on earth could we possibly have left to be alarmed about, that we haven’t already seen or imagined?
Perhaps their timing is not just smart, but actually brilliant.
“Russia’s RT Network: Is It More BBC or K.G.B.?”:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/russias-rt-network-is-it-more-bbc-or-kgb.html
“LONDON — The London newsroom and studios of RT, the television channel and website formerly known as Russia Today, are ultramodern and spacious, with spectacular views from the 16th floor overlooking the Thames and the London Eye. And, its London bureau chief, Nikolay A. Bogachikhin, jokes, “We overlook MI5 and we’re near MI6,” Britain’s domestic and foreign intelligence agencies.
Mr. Bogachikhin was poking fun at the charge from Western governments, American and European, that RT is an agent of Kremlin policy and a tool directly used by President Vladimir V. Putin to undermine Western democracies — meddling in the recent American presidential election and, European security officials say, trying to do the same in the Netherlands, France and Germany, all of which vote later this year.
But the West is not laughing. Even as Russia insists that RT is just another global network like the BBC or France 24, albeit one offering “alternative views” to the Western-dominated news media, many Western countries regard RT as the slickly produced heart of a broad, often covert disinformation campaign designed to sow doubt about democratic institutions and destabilize the West.”
