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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is the guy Putin hand picked to run RT.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, tightened control over his country's media on Monday by dissolving the main state news agency and replacing it with an organization aimed at promoting Moscow's image abroad.
The move to abolish RIA Novosti and create a news agency to be known as Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today) is the second in two weeks strengthening Putin's hold on the media, as he tries to reassert his authority after protests against his rule.
In case there weren't enough red flags already, Putin named Dmitry Kiselyov as the head of the new media outlet. (The new agencys directors will be directly appointed by the president's office.) For those unfamiliar with Kiselyov, he's made a career as a pro-Putin propagandist who sees foreign conspiracies against Moscow almost anywhere he looks. His most infamous comments, however, were made last year about gays and lesbians. "I think it is too little to fine gays for homosexual propaganda," Kiselyov said during one of his TV appearances. "They should be forbidden from donating blood, sperm. And in the case of an automobile accident, their hearts should be buried in the ground or burned."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/12/09/ria_novosti_russia_today_putin_replaces_a_state_run_news_outlet_with_a_state.html
As the space for independent journalism shrinks, the propaganda apparatus is working at feverish speed. Dmitry Kiselyov, a television host and media executive who represents the id of the state propaganda machine at its most grotesque, blamed this same fifth column for the sanctions imposed against more than thirty Russian and Ukrainian officials by the European Union. Kiselyov, who was among those sanctioned, cited Putins speech as evidence to blame the fifth column for compiling the blacklist. Putin legalized that term in the political language of Russia, he said. We know their names. We know how they wrote our names and sent them to these Western embassies. On another segment, he identified two of the fifth columnists: Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader now under house arrest, and Sergei Parkhomenko, an editor and civic activist who called for sanctions against those responsible for state propaganda.
In Russia, the will of the state is expressed with signals of varying subtlety; the invocation of national traitors is among the less oblique examples of the genre. A new Web site called predatel.netthe word means traitorhas recently launched, featuring a list of public figures that the sites anonymous creators deem to have betrayed Russia, whether by criticizing the annexation of Crimea or by supporting Western sanctions. As the sites short manifesto puts it, We believe that Russian citizens who insult our soldiers and who cast doubt on the need to fight neo-Nazis are traitors, no matter whether they are talented journalists, writers, and directors. The site has a form for users to suggest a traitor.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/putins-new-war-on-traitors
The airwaves are filled with assaults on the treachery of Russian liberals and American manipulations. Dmitri Kiselyov, the head of Russia Today, Putins newly created information agency, and the host, on Sunday nights, of the TV magazine show News of the Week, is a masterly, and unapologetic, purveyor of the Kremlin line. With his theatrical hand gestures and brilliantly insinuating intonation, he tells his viewers that Russia is the only country in the world that can turn the U.S. into radioactive dust, that the anti-gay-propaganda laws are insufficiently strict, and that Ukraine is not a real country but merely virtual. When I remarked on his delivery, during a recent visit to his offices, Kiselyov was pleased: Gestures go right to the subconscious without any resistance.
Putin, Kiselyov has said on the air, is comparable among his predecessors in the twentieth century only with Stalin. He meant it as a compliment.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/11/watching-eclipse
He sneers at Russia's liberals and denounces them as traitors,he sneers at gay people,he repeats fantastical Alex Jones type conspiracy theories as if they're real news reports,he brags that Russia can turn the U.S. into nuclear ash and there is absolutely no comparison in the U.S. short of Fox News and right wing sources,none of which are hand picked by the POTUS.An apt comparison would be a POTUS choosing Glenn Beck to pick and choose which media outlets Americans will have access to.It's beyond ridiculous to see RT defended here,the powers that control Russian media have no love for liberals.They are the Russian equivalent of America's Tea Party.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)Threedifferentones
(1,070 posts)Obviously the American news media can be criticized for serving the interests of our own rulers.
But this shit is at least one step up from even Fox News. It would be like the president choosing the next head of Fox News and then banning all the other networks from cable. Compared to RT most American news outlets are scholarly fucking journals!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Duckhunter935
(16,974 posts)where anyone can start a news site on the internet unlike Russia that is blocking that and going with only the government run state news like North Korea.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)media sources,Russians have zero sources for information that doesn't conform to the Russian government policy. Pretending that there is some sort of equality of information available here and in Russia is beyond stupid.
frazzled
(18,402 posts)If a is not a duck and b is not a duck, it does not mean that a=b
The reductive, facile thinking on this board sometimes amazes me.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)Who controls our media? Who controls our government?
In this case, a=b, without a doubt.
elzenmahn
(904 posts)...C being Corporate America.
So the resulting equation would be, in my way of thinking = C = A (Media) + B (Government)
frazzled
(18,402 posts)Unless you don't operate by the rules of logic that have been established for several millennia. Which I can see you don't, so there's no need for further discussion.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)And welcome to ignored.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... and the crap we get served in 'Murica is so very *independant*!
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Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)it so...just like N.Korea for some propaganda addled Americans.
The homogeny of American mass media is legendary.
The only difference between American major network news casts is the order in which they all report exactly the same corporate approved, corporate sponsored "news".
Russia has always preferred government propaganda over corporate propaganda, it is a historical thing.
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Russias President Vladimir Putin approved a new Internet law Tuesday, further tightening the governments stranglehold on free and open Web access. The so-called bloggers law, borrows from Chinas censorship law and requires all Web-based writers with at least 3,000 daily page hits to register with the government. Chinas benchmark is slightly more lenient, with a 5,000 page view limit or 500 shares for negative posts.
Russian bloggers, and even people with popular social media accounts, must now follow the same rules as mainstream news outlets: fact-checking and removing inaccurate information thats posted. Bloggers also arent allowed to defame another person or group in their posts, and cant obfuscate or hide facts to further an agenda. By grouping in everyday citizens who typically make up the blogosphere with journalists, the law gives the Russian government even more opportunity to curate whats said on the Internet and ostensibly determine whats factual or defamatory. The move also puts even greater pressure on the already strained Russian media, which is already under strict government guidelines.
Russia remains in the lowest tier (148 of 179) when it comes to media freedom, according to the Press Freedom Index. Reporters Without Borders wrote that the country may have dropped in the ranking if it werent for citizens strong resistance. The Russian government has banned over 2,000 websites, supposedly targeting illegal drugs, spam and pornography. In the past, bloggers who oppose the Russian government have had their websites blocked. Also, during this years Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, there were multiple deaths, dozens of attacks and police arrests as a result of a government crackdown on reporters who focused on corruption or were critical of the government.
But Russias blogger law goes further in attempting to curtail free speech online in the country. Starting in the fall, the Russian government will use software to scan the Internet for undisclosed curse words, putting greater scrutiny and restrictions on the countrys bloggers. Curse words in the media were banned in 2013 but Putins new law censors profanity mainly pejoratives referring to genitalia or women with loose morals in books, poetry, films and music among other things. This mandate may target conversation surrounding punk protest group Pussy Riot, whose imprisonment incited worldwide outcry. The law, effective Aug. 1, also requires Internet companies such as Google store servers housing Russian users data inside the country.
http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/05/07/3435292/what-its-like-to-use-the-internet-in-russia/
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)simply can not or refuse to understand.
Maybe if it was America that had half its land occupied by Nazi Germany things would make more sense to Americans.
NuclearDem
(16,184 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)Gays, minorities and other oppressed groups? You can vomit forth as much hate speech as you'd like.
stonecutter357
(12,697 posts)zappaman
(20,606 posts)I did nazi that coming!
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)zappaman
(20,606 posts)Which they have.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)reorg
(3,317 posts)Now that is a truly terrifying concept. Not allowed to defame? Required to check facts and remove misinformation, even?
These Russians may be a bit late in the game, but they quickly caught on, it seems. Regulating the Internet just as the Western countries, these despicable fucks.
Bloggers also aren't allowed to defame another person or group in their posts
msanthrope
(37,549 posts)reorg
(3,317 posts)Last edited Sun Sep 28, 2014, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)
Would you kindly elaborate on your above analogy and explain how the head of Rossiya Segodnya "picks and chooses" which media outlets Russians have access to.
It is my understanding that a number of foreign-owned/produced programs are available on Russian cable TV and it would be news to me that the foreign press is no longer available in Russia. On radio and the Internet, the old CIA propaganda tool RFE is still very busy in many languages, I saw its lies cited even here on DU recently.
The reshuffle of several old and new state agencies into one seems to have been concluded already, readers of the VOR website were already months ago relayed to RIA's (which is alive and kicking, looks better now, too).
I'm not sure why anybody should get excited over this? Or did you just become aware of this "big news" from almost a year ago?
valerief
(53,235 posts)SidDithers
(44,228 posts)It boggles the mind.
Sid
zappaman
(20,606 posts)I read it on DU!
LiberalLovinLug
(14,176 posts)I do not listen to RT on any kind of regular basis. But that doesn't mean I dismiss them entirely. They had some very good coverage of Bradley/Chelsea Manning debacle at the time devoid of all the nationalism hogtied corporate press bias in the US.
They can be deadly accurate when reporting civil or military abuses by the US government, and report stories about the US that will be virtually ignored on American networks. Why??? Because it serves Putin's propaganda war against America. Any story that paints America in a bad light = good for Putin. Of course they love Snowdon.
I would dismiss stories about Russia or its military intentions of course.
But I thank gawd they have protected Snowden, if only to use as a weapon against the global Big Brother that, yes, Putin is advancing, but so is the NSA. It all gets convoluted, but it comes down to; the news enemy of my news enemy is my journalistic friend. In the same way we here in the west, controlled by anti-Putin forces, are able to read about atrocities within Russia like its anti-gay discrimination laws, or its advancement into the Ukraine that we would not hear about on RT.
This kinda reminds me of the practice of putting people on "ignore" on DU. Why would anyone do that? I have never put anyone on ignore no matter how ignorant, insulting or abusive they are to me verbally, on any message board I belong to. I am open to ALL opinions. At times it can actually solidify my own points of view. But also I am open to be persuaded to change my own opinions with a well thought out argument that I would never have heard if I just got into a huff and self censored my reading material.