Not me, which would be useless because I speak no Russian, but Robert Coalson.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/04/i-watched-russian-state-television-for-a-whole-day/360286/
QuoteI Watched Russian State Television for a Whole Day
Here's what I learned.
Have you heard about the nefarious Polish general who made Napoleon invade Russia? No? You must not have been watching Rossia-1 television on March 31.
According to a documentary aired on Russia's main state-run channel, General Michal Sokolnicki's goal was the dismembering of the Russian Empire and the establishment of a Greater Poland extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea, buffered from a rump Russia by a series of garrison states.
"From the report of General Sokolnicki: 'Cut back thus to its natural limits, cut off from the shores of the Baltic and the Black Sea, separated from the Great Empire [editor's note: Napoleonic France], watched over by buffer states, and constantly in the sights of an army that is always ready to give a decisive response to aggression, Russia will be forced to give up greedy plans and any temptation to try any kind of usurpation forever.'"
The text of Sokolnicki's report, which Rossia's investigators visited in a military archive near Paris, scrolls over a graphic of Europe in flames as the narrator reads it. The documentary, called The War of 1812: The First Information War, notes that part of the Polish design against the Russian Empire was to stir up ethnic conflicts, including with the Crimean Tatars and the peoples of the Caucasus.
March 31 was a relatively staid day on Rossia-1. None of Russia's most aggressive spokesmen—Dmitry Kiselyov, Aleksei Pushkov, Aleksandr Dugin, for example—was anywhere to be seen. Even President Vladimir Putin was only fleetingly present. Nonetheless, certain themes and moods ran through the entire day: Russia is an oasis of calm good governance in a world of chaos. Fascism is on the march in the world and Russia must be vigilant. The motif of "Europe in flames" plays out repeatedly through the day.
In the early evening, there is an hour-long, non-journalistic talk show called On Air Live devoted to events in Ukraine. A range of guests representing positions from the rabidly anti-Maidan to the extremely rabidly anti-Maidan argued on the theme of "the morals of the new Ukrainian elite" while behind them large screens played loops of the burning tires of the Kiev demonstrations last month.
In passing we learn such "facts" as that former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko finds domestic and foreign enemies "no worse than Stalin did." That the radical nationalist Right Sector activists are "her storm troopers." That "hundreds were killed, thousands were crippled, and downtown Kiev was destroyed" by the Maidan protests.
At one point a man introduced as a psychologist connects Tymoshenko with the figurehead of the White Brotherhood, a bizarre cult that began in Donetsk and swept through the newly independent countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The psychologist says he "noticed" from his research that people who were involved in this sect went on to become "national socialists."
Toward the end, Sergei Khizhnyak, identified as the head of the NGO Stop Maidan, tells how he had to flee the Kiev suburb of Boryspil and how his apartment was allegedly looted in this exchange with program moderator Boris Korchevnikov.
Korchevnikov: "What happened to your apartment?"
Khizhnyak: "I came here, evacuating my family. My neighbors called me and said that some people came in masks with guns. They cut down the door and the apartment was completely looted. Everything was removed."
Korchevnikov: "How can this be in this day and age in the center of Europe?"
The program ends with a priest denouncing the Femen protest movement as "devilish" and saying that Maidan actually began on August 17, 2012, when a topless Femen leader Inna Shevchenko took a chainsaw to an Orthodox cross in support of the Russian performance-art group Pussy Riot.
* * *
In many ways, the 8 p.m. news broadcast brings the themes of the day together. It is a masterwork of mentioning controversial points as if they were indisputable facts. What is unsaid is as important as what is said: Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spent four hours discussing "the federalization of Ukraine" in Paris. President Vladimir Putin criticized the "economic blockade" of Moldova's Transdniester region. The United States "firmly backs terrorists" in Syria.
What was not said was that Kerry told Lavrov there would be no discussion of Ukraine's domestic affairs without the participation of Ukraine; that Moldova, Ukraine, and the EU deny there are any problems or delays on Transdniester's borders; and that Russia politically and militarily supports the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, which has killed tens of thousands of its own citizens over the last three years. It shows Putin and Sberbank head German Gref discussing the creation of a new Russian electronic-payments system in the next six months. What was not said was that the move is necessary because U.S. sanctions over Crimea prevent Visa and MasterCard from working with Russian banks.
Ukraine, of course, is the center of attention and the newsreader betrayed obvious distress when introducing the segment by highlighting the alleged unfair application of justice in southern Ukraine.
"A major scandal in Odessa. Supporters of the new government held a public demonstration in the center of the city. The press secretary of the local office of [Vitali Klitschko's] UDAR party brazenly burned several St. George ribbons in the eternal flame. And she was not punished. At the same time in Odessa, and also in Kharkiv and Donetsk were reported more detentions and criminal investigations of local residents who liberated government buildings from Nazi groups and who disarmed the outsider Banderites." Russian sources often refer to Ukrainian activists as followers of World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera.
Vesti even skirts delicate issues that could evoke unpleasant comparisons with Russia if viewers stopped to think. In one segment, Ihor Massalov, head of an NGO called Honor and Dignity in Kharkiv, complains of harassment from police and security forces, about bias and propaganda in the media, and about the "right" of Ukrainian citizens to hold unauthorized mass demonstrations against the authorities. "People come here to learn the truth and to express their views," he says. "That is their constitutional right."
Vesti's coverage of elections in France again evokes the theme of "Europe in flames" and a looming fascist threat to Russia even beyond Ukraine's horizon. The coverage emphasizes the showing of the rightist National Front and says Europe's right-wing parties are poised to make a big showing in the next European Parliament elections. The successes of rightist forces across Europe is attributed to the social tolerance of Western governments, including the legalization of same-sex marriage.
That segment provides an excellent segue to allow the day's broadcasting to end where it began—in Napoleonic Europe. March 31, we are told, is the 200th anniversary of the Russian Army's triumphal entry into Paris after chasing Napoleon back all the way from Moscow.
"Today in Russia we are marking the 200th anniversary of the entry of the Russian Army into Paris. On March 31, 1814, the Russian Empire brought an end the epoch of the bloody Napoleonic wars and became the leading military and political power on the continent. The events that took place in the capital of France laid the foundation for many years of peaceful development in Europe."
After that, the dulcet tones of the theme song to "Good Night, Little Ones," followed by a short, animated bedtime story. Then an evening mix of Russian-made serials, an episode of Law And Order, and a documentary about the effort to extend human life.
It has been a long, exhausting day. But the flames of the outer world have not breached Russia's stronghold. And in six months, Rossia-1 says, the Motherland will even have its own credit card.
I hope it was an older Law and Order. The ones past '96 or so get too preachy.
Yeah, the feeling of helplessness watching the brazen propaganda is depressing. What's more depressing is that all indications are that it's working very well. It's kind of hard not to have disdain for ordinary Russians when they eat up the propaganda without noticing how many major facts of life suddenly changed over the space of several months.
Then again, how many of us in US can say that the propaganda drive and self-censorship before the Iraq War did not affect us at all?
:lol: All of us I figure.
Yes, Russian State TV shows the other side of the coin.
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 09:16:44 AM
Then again, how many of us in US can say that the propaganda drive and self-censorship before the Iraq War did not affect us at all?
Well it did increase my contempt of the media and the government to levels not yet seen and I was not altogether opposed to the war. I do not recall being self-censored though.
Not even the most insane US news agency acts like the US is an island of goodness and light in an ocean of evil though, surely.
They did find a rusty gas shell from the 80s so Saddam was in fact 45 minutes from nuking the West.
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 08, 2014, 09:25:25 AM
Yes, Russian State TV shows the other side of the coin.
The other side of what coin?
Quote from: The Brain on April 08, 2014, 09:33:13 AM
They did find a rusty gas shell from the 80s so Saddam was in fact 45 minutes from nuking the West.
Dude some nutty right wing idiots were trying to convince me that we did, in fact, find weapons of mass destruction because of some chemical weapon traces. I mean supposedly Saddam had dozens of dozens of fully operations mobile nerve gas factories producing stockpiles of that crap (which wasn't much of a threat to us anyway) but it seems so long as you can find a few chlorine atoms someplace the nation was indeed in mortal danger.
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 09:35:47 AM
Quote from: The Brain on April 08, 2014, 09:33:13 AM
They did find a rusty gas shell from the 80s so Saddam was in fact 45 minutes from nuking the West.
Dude some nutty right wing idiots were trying to convince me that we did, in fact, find weapons of mass destruction because of some chemical weapon traces. I mean supposedly Saddam had dozens of dozens of fully operations mobile nerve gas factories producing stockpiles of that crap (which wasn't much of a threat to us anyway) but it seems so long as you can find a few chlorine atoms someplace the nation was indeed in mortal danger.
Hansmeister and Hortlund made similar arguments.
Quote from: Syt on April 08, 2014, 08:52:09 AM
Not me, which would be useless because I speak no Russian, but Robert Coalson.
.....
Finally sometime to make FoxNews shine in comparison? :unsure:
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 09:30:32 AM
Well it did increase my contempt of the media and the government to levels not yet seen and I was not altogether opposed to the war. I do not recall being self-censored though.
I'm talking about media self-censorship.
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 09:50:07 AM
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 09:30:32 AM
Well it did increase my contempt of the media and the government to levels not yet seen and I was not altogether opposed to the war. I do not recall being self-censored though.
I'm talking about media self-censorship.
The bigger media outlets kiss up to people for access, which makes them pretty much worthless as a source of journalism. Well ok there are other considerations like advertisers and such. You do not want to hammer the US government too hard or you look extreme.
All the counterarguments for going to war were presented to me by kiss-ass, self-censoring US media. This is a myth of the American left.
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 09:33:34 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 08, 2014, 09:25:25 AM
Yes, Russian State TV shows the other side of the coin.
The other side of what coin?
The World coin. The Cold war is not ever, it never was. It was on hiatus because Elstine was a poor Russian leader.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 08, 2014, 09:57:04 AM
All the counterarguments for going to war were presented to me by kiss-ass, self-censoring US media. This is a myth of the American left.
Arguments are not enough, you also need facts.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 08, 2014, 09:57:04 AM
All the counterarguments for going to war were presented to me by kiss-ass, self-censoring US media. This is a myth of the American left.
I was only there at the time. What do I know? I was appalled by the idiocy by both sides. It was amazing. That was when I checked out, for the most part, on the big media outlets. Given their ratings these days a lot of people have joined me.
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 08, 2014, 09:58:38 AM
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 09:33:34 AM
Quote from: Grey Fox on April 08, 2014, 09:25:25 AM
Yes, Russian State TV shows the other side of the coin.
The other side of what coin?
The World coin. The Cold war is not ever, it never was. It was on hiatus because Elstine was a poor Russian leader.
He might have been an amazing leader while sober. The world will never know.
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 10:01:51 AM
Arguments are not enough, you also need facts.
Facts are lovely. Were there available facts that US media didn't report at the time?
Whatever happened to the truthful Pravda? Now that it's gone Russian media standards have clearly gone out the window! :D
Quote from: KRonn on April 08, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Whatever happened to the truthful Pravda? Now that it's gone Russian media standards have clearly gone out the window! :D
:lol:
Pravda is still around but became a tabloid reporting on Aliens and crap I thought.
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 10:28:32 AM
Quote from: KRonn on April 08, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Whatever happened to the truthful Pravda? Now that it's gone Russian media standards have clearly gone out the window! :D
:lol:
Pravda is still around but became a tabloid reporting on Aliens and crap I thought.
Oh how the mighty have fallen!
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 10:28:32 AM
Quote from: KRonn on April 08, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Whatever happened to the truthful Pravda? Now that it's gone Russian media standards have clearly gone out the window! :D
:lol:
Pravda is still around but became a tabloid reporting on Aliens and crap I thought.
I think they always did that. The Soviets never managed to separate bullshit news and real news.
Quote from: Admiral Yi on April 08, 2014, 10:08:42 AM
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 10:01:51 AM
Arguments are not enough, you also need facts.
Facts are lovely. Were there available facts that US media didn't report at the time?
Define "available" here.
No.
:lol:
So much for the Myth of the Left then.
Quote from: Valmy on April 08, 2014, 10:28:32 AM
Quote from: KRonn on April 08, 2014, 10:26:02 AM
Whatever happened to the truthful Pravda? Now that it's gone Russian media standards have clearly gone out the window! :D
:lol:
Pravda is still around but became a tabloid reporting on Aliens and crap I thought.
Their op-ed pages are hilarious.
"
America: Most corrupt democracy money can buyIt's official! Thanks to five reprobates-Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito, and Kennedy-who comprise a majority on the United States Supreme Court, America is now the most corrupt democracy money can buy"
"
Ukraine and Crimea - an Illegal Putsch and a Democratic ReferendumAt 6.05 a.m., (GMT) on Tuesday 1st April, a correspondent on the BBC's flagship morning news programme "Today" stated that Russia had "seized Crimea", faithfully following the rampant propaganda being hysterically stirred from Washington and Whitehall and by newspapers ranging from the Los Angeles Times to pick-your-favourite-news-outlet land."
"
Obama: 'Bordering' on HypocrisyRussia is doing no more and no less than the American people would expect of their own government if it was indeed run by an American. In what appears to be a media-led effort to resurrect the days of Khrushchev and Kennedy, America is pursuing a path that can only be described as economically, politically, and socially suicidal"
"
Barack Hussain's Legacy: The Top 10 Greatest Achievements and lessons to the worldThanks to the overdose of gay propaganda he established a solid base on which to build gay bashing. Side effect 1: Gushing over the openly gay couples, yet refusing comments on his own ambiguous past associations he facilitated the spread of rumours about his own sexuality. Side effect 2: He makes Vladimir Putin look even more macho."
"
America, minus the mask: First and foremost, a nation of killersThe entire American population is trapped in a self-delusion that they are heroes, fighting an endless string of evil enemies. But in fact their targeted enemies have always been innocent people, usually minding their own business, put in harm's way by their own valuable possessions, which Americans inevitably covet, and will kill anyone to get."
"
The loneliness of Russia and the revenge of HitlerHas the Fuehrer finally become the inspirer of the West? After the destruction of Iraq or various states of Central America, after the extermination of 4 million Vietnamese, it seems that the West, believing in its eternal and capitalistic force, omnipotent propaganda and humanitarian Messianism, wants its final war with the Russian bear"
Quite a few of these articles are written by Americans, btw.
It's nice that Cathy Sheehan found something to occupy her time.
Well, everybody laughed about Hitler and his schenangians until his propaganda machine of insane stories mobilised an entire nation for total war.
I do not believe that in 2014 the Russian population believes this propaganda. Do some Russians buy it? Sure. But do most? No. Russians knew their government was lying to them in soviet eras, and that was before the internet.
Remember it was just two years ago when 100,000+ protestors took to the streets in Moscow to protest Putin's re-election.
Quote from: Barrister on April 08, 2014, 11:46:55 AM
I do not believe that in 2014 the Russian population believes this propaganda. Do some Russians buy it? Sure. But do most? No. Russians knew their government was lying to them in soviet eras, and that was before the internet.
I don't think you appreciate how propaganda works. People can simultaneously believe that they're being lied to, and still buy into majority of propaganda points. I think the belief that access to Internet makes someone propaganda-proofed is deeply misguided.
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 04:41:46 PM
I think the belief that access to Internet makes someone propaganda-proofed is deeply misguided.
Yeah I mean snopes exists precisely because people don't critically look at what they see on the net.
Quote from: DGuller on April 08, 2014, 04:41:46 PM
Quote from: Barrister on April 08, 2014, 11:46:55 AM
I do not believe that in 2014 the Russian population believes this propaganda. Do some Russians buy it? Sure. But do most? No. Russians knew their government was lying to them in soviet eras, and that was before the internet.
I don't think you appreciate how propaganda works. People can simultaneously believe that they're being lied to, and still buy into majority of propaganda points. I think the belief that access to Internet makes someone propaganda-proofed is deeply misguided.
Yeah, we call it double-think.
Quote from: Barrister on April 08, 2014, 11:46:55 AM
Remember it was just two years ago when 100,000+ protestors took to the streets in Moscow to protest Putin's re-election.
Yeah. But that doesn't mean they don't necessarily have some of that world view. The corrosive element is that if that's the system you're from why would you believe the West is any different. Isn't the corruption and propaganda just a little bit better?
It's similar to the Arab world and conspiracies.