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James Kirchick: Why I ambushed Russia’s news network with rainbow suspenders [View all]
I was two days into a pleasant Baltic Sea vacation when the request from RT arrived in my inbox. Formerly “Russia Today,” RT is Moscow’s multilingual, global cable news network.
RT is not your babushka’s Soviet-style propaganda; it broadcasts sophisticated conspiracy theories and “anti-establishment” attitudes to push a virulently anti-American and illiberal agenda. The network relies on a pool of talking heads, including “9/11 Truthers,” anti-Semites and other assorted extremists, who espouse the sort of views found where the far left and the far right converge. It has amassed more YouTube hits than any other global news channel.
Resting in my Stockholm hotel room after a tour of the Swedish royal family’s residence, Drottningholm Palace, the idea of appearing on Russian state television to talk about the sentencing of leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning — the topic of the panel onto which I had been invited — was the furthest thing from my mind. Obsessive and one-sided coverage of the Manning case is typical of RT, as with any story that can be used to paint the United States in a negative light. What’s more, I had sworn off appearing on RT or any news channel funded by an authoritarian government, after Iran’s English-language broadcaster deceived me by posing as a Danish network to book me on a panel about the 2008 vice-presidential debate.
But suddenly an idea popped into my head: I could use the opportunity to publicize the abominable anti-gay laws passed by Russia’s lower house of parliament that essentially forbid public expression of pro-gay views. The measures — and anti-gay statements by various Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin — have encouraged harassment of and attacks on gays. The situation for gays in Russia has become so dire that some have compared next year’s Sochi Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Games, when the world stood in silence as Hitler’s Germany ramped up its oppression of Jews, gays and other minorities....
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i-ambushed-russias-news-network-with-rainbow-suspenders/2013/08/22/237ba62a-0b2d-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html
RT is not your babushka’s Soviet-style propaganda; it broadcasts sophisticated conspiracy theories and “anti-establishment” attitudes to push a virulently anti-American and illiberal agenda. The network relies on a pool of talking heads, including “9/11 Truthers,” anti-Semites and other assorted extremists, who espouse the sort of views found where the far left and the far right converge. It has amassed more YouTube hits than any other global news channel.
Resting in my Stockholm hotel room after a tour of the Swedish royal family’s residence, Drottningholm Palace, the idea of appearing on Russian state television to talk about the sentencing of leaker Pfc. Bradley Manning — the topic of the panel onto which I had been invited — was the furthest thing from my mind. Obsessive and one-sided coverage of the Manning case is typical of RT, as with any story that can be used to paint the United States in a negative light. What’s more, I had sworn off appearing on RT or any news channel funded by an authoritarian government, after Iran’s English-language broadcaster deceived me by posing as a Danish network to book me on a panel about the 2008 vice-presidential debate.
But suddenly an idea popped into my head: I could use the opportunity to publicize the abominable anti-gay laws passed by Russia’s lower house of parliament that essentially forbid public expression of pro-gay views. The measures — and anti-gay statements by various Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin — have encouraged harassment of and attacks on gays. The situation for gays in Russia has become so dire that some have compared next year’s Sochi Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Games, when the world stood in silence as Hitler’s Germany ramped up its oppression of Jews, gays and other minorities....
Read More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-i-ambushed-russias-news-network-with-rainbow-suspenders/2013/08/22/237ba62a-0b2d-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html
Edited to add: In case you missed it, the awesomeness is below.
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