Kerry vows to put the screws to Venezuela over Snowden

[MADem]

110. What position? This is a poorly sourced thread that is coming from a place of bias.

Forgive me if I treat it with all the weight it deserves, which is to say, none. People are way to easy to scarf up all the slop that comes out of RT, while refusing to acknowledge that it is Putin's PERSONAL propaganda arm.

When I disagree with people, I don't "fling barbs." I just state my case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)

After the 2005 announcement the station would be launched, the U.S. government-owned Voice of America (VOA)[107] interviewed Anton Nosik, chief editor of MosNews.com, who said the creation of Russia Today "smacks of Soviet-style propaganda campaigns."[108] A representative of Reporters Without Borders called the newly announced network “another step of the state to control information.”[109] In 2009 Luke Harding in The Guardian described Russia Today's advertising campaign in the United Kingdom as an "ambitious attempt to create a new post-Soviet global propaganda empire."[33]

In 2010 The Independent reported that RT journalists had revealed that coverage of sensitive issues in Russia is allowed, but direct criticism of Vladimir Putin or then President Dmitry Medvedev is not.[23] Masha Karp wrote in Standpoint magazine that contemporary Russian issues "such as the suppression of free speech and peaceful demonstrations, or the economic inefficiency and corrupt judiciary, are either ignored or their significance played down".[110] In 2008 Stephen Heyman wrote in the New York Times that in RT’s Russia, “corruption is not quite a scourge but a symptom of a developing economy.”[21]

Russians also have been critical of RT. Former KGB officer Konstantin Preobrazhensky criticized RT as "a part of the Russian industry of misinformation and manipulation".[111] Andrey Illarionov, former advisor to Vladimir Putin, has labeled the channel as "the best Russian propaganda machine targeted at the outside world. On the other hand, prominent Russian officials such as Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov are strong advocates of RT."[73]

James Kirchick in The New Republic accused the network of "often virulent anti-Americanism, worshipful portrayal of Russian leaders."[112] Ed Lucas wrote in The Economist (quoted in Al Jazeera) that the core of RT was "anti-Westernism."[113] Julia Ioffe wrote "Often, it seemed that Russia Today was just a way to stick it to the U.S. from behind the façade of legitimate newsgathering."[31] Shaun Walker wrote in The Independent that RT "has made a name for itself as a strident critic of US policy."[114] Allesandra Stanley in The New York Times wrote that RT is "like the Voice of America, only with more money and a zesty anti-American slant."[47] David Weigel writes that RT goes further than merely creating distrust of the United States government, to saying, in effect: "You can trust the Russians more than you can trust those bastards."[29]...