This week, Boston College Professor Matt Sienkiewicz and Interpreter Magazine’s managing editor James Miller discuss Right Sector, neo-Nazis, concentration camps and media wars, the battles in Slavyansk, the role of the Russian Orthodox Church, and public opinion on whether eastern Ukrainians want to become part of Russia. Articles discussed in this podcast: How Russia Conquered […]
Tag: RT
RT’s Abby Martin Takes False Equivalency to its Absurd Limit
False equivalency between the US and Russia was a gateway drug for RT host Abby Martin. She’s now moved on to the hard stuff: North Korea. On her April 22 program, in a segment entitled “A Visitor’s Guide to North Korea,” Martin interviewed Marcel Cartier, an RT employee whom she introduced as a hip hop […]
Russian TV’s Max Keiser: Blaming the Victims of 9/11
Conspiracy theorists have an unfortunate tendency to blame those killed in mass-murders for the attacks that killed them. Nothing about the 9/11 “Truth” movement is more disturbing than when it either says outright or just implies that the victims somehow deserved to die. Disgracefully, Max Keiser, whom RT provides a daily forum, does just this. […]
RT’s Manuel Ochsenreiter
Today we’re launching a new column, “Watching Russia,” focusing on Russian television propaganda and distortion, especially as pushed through the English-language news outlets like RT (formerly Russia Today) and Voice of Russia. Manuel Ochsenreiter is not a household name either in the United States or in his native Germany. He’s the editor of “Zuerst! German News Magazine” […]
The Russian Media and Ukraine | Interpreter Podcast March 11 2014
Last week several RT.com anchors, Abby Martin and Liz Wahl, criticized Russia’s intervention into Ukraine. Liz went further, quitting the Russian state-owned news/propaganda outlet and slamming both RT and the Russian government in the press. This week, Boston College Professor Matt Sienkiewicz and Interpreter Magazine’s managing editor James Miller examine the media coverage of the […]
The Massacre in Syria That Wasn’t
Updated January 10, 2014, 1255 GMT. See bottom for details. 80 civilians “massacred,” bodies thrown in ovens, and an international cover up of a horrific act of terrorism — these are just some of the striking claims made by the Russian network RT. On December 15th, the Russian state-owned media outlet formerly called “Russia Today” […]
Russian Media: Conspiracy Theories and Reading Comprehension Issues
The Russian government, and the Russian state media, have had a tough few weeks. The United Nations released their report on the August 21st chemical weapons attack in Damascus, Syria. While the UN mission in Syria did not allow the investigators to say who used chemical weapons, the team investigating the incident was able to unearth […]
Snowden, Putin, Geopolitics and Rhetorical Spin
The Russian government is facing a conflict in interest in their consideration of NSA leaker Edward Snowden. On one hand, Russia is reaping the benefits of the leak, as the NSA’s systems for gathering intelligence have been exposed. More broadly, the NSA’s practices have embarrassed the United States both at home and abroad, and has […]