The propaganda mouthpiece of the oil magnate Dictator in Qatar - Al Jazeera America

[Violet_Crumble]

99. I'm a new LBN host, and I've got some questions for you about RT...

especially when it comes to equating it to the BBC and Al Jazeera...

My understanding of RT is that it was set up and is being run by the Russian government as a propaganda outlet so that things like Russia's slaughter of Chechens a few years ago have a 'balanced' counterweight when it comes to the world's media showing images that Russia didn't want people to see. And that RT is controlled by the Russian government. You won't see anything critical of the Russian government from RT. I was really disturbed when I looked at it for the first time the other day and found articles highly supportive of Russia's anti-gay laws.

So have I got that wrong? I'm open to being corrected on that if I'm wrong...

One thing I have noticed mainly from yr post to Skinner in ATA is that you appeared to be trying to draw no distinction between government owned and controlled media (RT) and government owned media (the BBC, the ABC here, etc) where the government doesn't have editorial control. I think it's important to draw that distinction, because both BBC and the ABC are very reputable news outlets, and there's no government control over their content, and I know the ABC has regularly been critical of the government of the day. My problem is that I can't call a government owned and controlled news outlet balanced or independent when the fact that there is government control over what they report says otherwise...

btw, I think yr using the term 'censorship' when it comes to LBN incorrectly. Censorship applies at a government level, not at DU where Skinner owns and runs the site and has the final say in what is and isn't posted here. As an LBN host who knew little to nothing of RT before the other day, I'm all for RT articles being treated on a case by case basis in LBN as long as the same applies to sources like Press TV, which even though I've asked several times, no-one has been able to explain the difference when it comes to government control...