Retiring BBC presenter: As with all conservative media, facts mean little in Russian media [View all]

[pampango]

The BBC Russian Service’s Seva Novgorodsev: ‘Putin panders to the lowest common denominator.

Novgorodsev says, “the tonality of Russian media has gone down tremendously. It is all patriotic in a hysterical way and the facts are the last thing they think of.”

He adds: “Putin panders to the lowest common denominator. The propaganda says that, of course, Britain is in cahoots with America and all they think about is to downgrade Russia, destroy it, change the government etc. It reached a fever pitch, whereby logic and common sense [were] no longer present and that is a dangerous situation.”

Novgorodsev’s shows brought in Russian figures unpopular with the regime, such as Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya, both since murdered. However, his airtime has been much reduced in recent years and, after the closure of the Russian radio service in 2011, restricted to just a downloadable podcast.

He says media organisations such as the BBC have “a lot of work to do” to combat the gulf between Russian and British perceptions of each other. “It needs to be explained on a human level because you cannot fight facts with facts because they distort them the way they like,” he says.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/04/bbc-russian-seva-novgorodsev-world-service-putin

The fact-free, fear of 'others' mentality is similar to that of the republican party. Patriotism, emotion and conspiracies predominate.