RT is the Devil's news service!

[BainsBane]

85. RT is useful for knowing the POV of the Russian government

aka Putin. To take it as anything other than that is ridiculous. Al Jazeera is a reputable news agency, though certainly not a good source for analysis of Quatar. If one looks at the actual content of the news rather than what you think about who owns it, it helps. To pretend there is one singular news service that counters RT, as though it's one vs. the other, is a ridiculously false construction. You people pick the worst example of news that no self-respecting, educated person wastes time on and pretend that represents the totality of news information available in the US. It does not. There are thousands of news sources available today from all around the world, and if one bothers to learn some foreign languages one can actually read news that is not pitched to English-speaking audiences. To pretend it's either trash cable vs. RT is distorting and reductionist. If people choose to limit themselves to cable or network news or even waste time watching it at all, that is their fault entirely. It certainly doesn't excuse an uncritical approach toward a state news agency from Russia. A key step in examining a source is to consider their biases--since everyone and every source has them.

There is nothing leftist about Russia or RT. Anyone who claims otherwise doesn't know the first thing about what leftism is. Russia is characterized by unbridled capitalism, where a few rich oligarchs, including Putin himself, own everything and wield political power. Communism collapsed there decades ago. This absurd paradigm a few have created that imagines we are still in the Cold War and that Russia and the US represent left and right respectively is ridiculous. You might as well pick the House of Saud to champion. The idea that "corporate tools" or big money only have an influence in the US and not Russia is patently false. Just because you don't like something about America doesn't mean that Russia represents the polar opposite. Simplistic paradigms make it impossible to approach an understanding of the complexities of the contemporary world.