RT
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 Question more, like RT and the Kremlin, for example.
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RT (short for its former name Russia Today) is a Russian news network owned and operated by ANO TV Novosti. It was launched in December 2005 and is intended to rival other international news channels, like BBC and Al Jazeera. The networks have a large reach on the internet, with a combined total of over 10 billion views on YouTube.
Disclaimer
While this is not a good source of news and shouldn't be used as your first-hand account, it is still important to watch this at times. Remember that one should consider all sides of an argument before forming their political opinion, and reading different sources to see/hear what they're saying will help you.
We also do not want to use this page to promote the interests of the US, Ukraine, or any other targets of this network.
Why It's Relentlessly Terrible
- RT is owned by an agency of the Russian government. Russia knows how effective operating a news channel can be to further its goals, so it's no surprise that RT is used to push its propaganda.
- They frequently shoehorn an anti-western agenda whenever they can, which can get very annoying very quickly. It's littered all over the place in their advertising, with their method of reeling in viewers is acting like they're the voice of the resistance when they are almost anything but.
- In addition, they seem to take a very similar approach to American right-wing media in advertising themselves, with slogans like "Question More," as well as ads that paint them as targets of censorship.
- Speaking of which, sometimes their agenda isn't clear, because they seemingly try to get both left-wing and right-wing audiences with them. These can be seen with them giving a show to former CNN correspondent and Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes, as well as to famed actor and Green Party candidate Jesse Ventura.
- Never once is Russia's President Vladimir Putin questioned, which is unbalanced considering how often Western leaders like US President Joe Biden are criticized but to be expected.
- They have been a voice for several conspiracy theories, such as denying climate change. It shouldn't be surprising that Alex Jones has been interviewed on multiple occasions and reposts articles from RT onto InfoWars.[1] These conspiracies include (but are not limited to):
- The September 11th attacks were an inside job by the US.[2]
- Climate change is a hoax created to control the masses.[3]
- The Boston Marathon bombing was perpetrated by the US.[4]
- 5G has serious negative health effects.[5]
- The 2020 US Presidential Election was stolen by Biden, who is a member of a corrupt crime ring.[6]
- Their editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, is a corrupt woman who has pocketed millions of dollars for herself that was supposed to be used for funding the network.[7]
- Working for them is pretty much a death sentence to a journalistic career. They also seem to try to target various reporters who had previously made a great name for themselves, like the late former CNN reporter Larry King. (His shows were produced independently, though, and were then syndicated to the channel.)
- Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, much like Fox News, they have spread lots of misinformation about the disease[8], to the point that RT DE's channel was terminated on 3 occasions.
- This is a rather hypocritical move on their part, because not only is Putin a supporter of vaccines, but RT's Russian feed called anti-vaxxers "imbeciles".
- RT (and by extension, the Russian government) cannot take negative criticism.
- As mentioned in WIRT#9, they made attempts to revive their German-language channel on YouTube despite being taken down for violating their COVID misinformation policy, which violated another policy that termination of an account prohibits the owner from creating another one.
- When their former anchor Liz Wahl resigned on air, their response claimed it was a self-promotional stunt.
- Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT, threatened lawsuits against Emmanuel Macron for calling them propaganda.
- When the app NewsGuard (an app dedicated to determining the reliability of news outlets) listed them as an unreliable source of news, they accused them of being in bed with the US government and being an attempt to brainwash American children.[9]
- Concerning this, they seem to be suspiciously proud of being labeled a foreign agent and having a category for it on their shop's official merchandise, including T-shirts, umbrellas, and patches.
- During the current invasion of Ukraine in 2022, RT has taken measures that, as expected, sought to defame Ukraine. For example,
- The invasion of Ukraine is still referred to as a "special operation", which is what President Vladimir Putin refers to it as, and what Russian citizens are supposed to refer to the invasion as.
- Whenever Ukrainian cities or regions are brought up, they deliberately deadname them with the Russian version of the names, such as Kiev for Kyiv, Kharkov for Kharkiv, Lugansk for Luhansk, and Zaporozhzhye for Zaporizhzhia.
- They continue to frame Volodomyr Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian military as all being neo-Nazis, despite Zelenskyy not only being Jewish but descended from Holocaust survivors.
- They frame attacks that Russia commits as Ukrainian acts of aggression, such as a blast against a kindergarten school.
- Several instances of what is believed to be false flag footage are used, which try to portray the people of the self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics as the victims.
- Infamously, on the Russian-language version, former presenter Anton Krasovsky stated that Ukraine should not exist and Ukrainian children who criticized the Soviet Union deserve to be burned and drowned! He even laughed hearing about the rape of an elderly Ukrainian woman! Thankfully, that was a step too far for them, as he was fired.
- They secretly made a propaganda video and passed it around to Russian Telegram pages, many of which had different claims about its origin. The video features Nazi-esque soldiers storming into a German home, robbing them, and shouting "Heil Zelenskyy!" See the point above for why this is offensive.
- On RT's official store, they sell pro-war merchandise, such as shirts saying, "Zа Наших!" "Это не блеф," and, "Держись, волод, всё будет хорошо," (meaning "For ours!" "It's no bluff," and "Hang in there, Volod, you're gonna be okay" respectively), and a book with many poems. These are all part of a giant Z collection. Speaking of deadnaming, they official sell a shirt that deadnames the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut (formerly Artyomovsk).
- An FBI investigation from September 2024 revealed that two RT employees stationed in the US were actively funding American right-wing group Tenet Media, a group owned by former BlazeTV host Lauren Chen and featuring figures such as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Laura Southern.[10]
- On their flagship program Crosstalk, commentators and host Peter Lavelle can interrupt each other at any time, which can turn it from serious discussions into incoherent shouting matches.
Redeeming Qualities
- There are times when they can cover events that are being overlooked, such as their Emmy-nominated reporting on Occupy Wall Street abroad and the Guantanamo Bay hunger strikes.
- While editorial independence is rare, there are some instances of it occurring, such as former Abby Martin criticizing Russia over the invasion of Crimea on March 4, 2014. This is more prevalent in shows that are syndicated, but not produced by the network.
- They also run a documentary network, and while there are many propaganda pieces, some of them can be informative and well-made.
Reception
Over the years, the channel has faced staunch criticism around the world by people on various levels. Articles have been written by The New York Times and The Guardian pointing out the various issues with their reporting. They have been denounced by various people in both the journalism industry and governments. CNN anchors and interviewers, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, & former Putin advisor have taken shots at the network. In late 2017, the US required RT America to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. They have been banned by Ukraine in 2014, Latvia and Lithuania in 2020, and the European Union & the British territory of Gibraltar since 2022. Their app was taken off Apple's App Store and the Google Play Store on 1 March of that same year, as well as being deleted from Roku devices. On 3 March, also in 2022, a mere two days after being taken off DirecTV, RT America closed down operations.
Trivia
- In early 2017, RT America's feed briefly intruded on C-Span's broadcast. Both sides concluded that this was an accident, with C-Span saying it was because of internal routing, while RT stated that they were testing systems to prepare for incoming President Donald Trump's inauguration.
- Their coverage of the 4th inauguration of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, spawned the "Wide Putin" meme, where a long clip of him walking would be stretched out so that his body fit the entire screen.
- In addition, their documentary The Congo Dandies spawned a meme featuring a man walking through a poverty-stricken district decked in orange.
- The logo uses the same font as the video game R4: Ridge Racer 4.
Videos
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- ↑ Judgment, Alex Jones and RT America: When Worlds Collide (substack.com)
- ↑ Russian TV Channel Pushes 'Patriot' Conspiracy Theories | Southern Poverty Law Center
- ↑ The Toxic Ten — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH
- ↑ Putin Fights War of Images and Propaganda with Russia Today Channel - DER SPIEGEL
- ↑ PolitiFact | Fact-checking a conspiracy theory about 5G and the coronavirus
- ↑ Two_International_Propaganda_Models_MOORE_Accepted30May2022_GREEN_AAM.pdf
- ↑ Made with nepotism Anti-corruption investigators say the chief editor of ‘Russia Today’ pilfered government money allocated to a romantic comedy about the Crimean bridge — Meduza
- ↑ Russian Disinformation Targets Vaccines and the Biden Administration - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
- ↑ 'NewsGuard' app gives news sites 'trust' ratings & targets alternative media. What could go wrong? — RT USA News
- ↑ Southern District of New York | Two RT Employees Indicted For Covertly Funding And Directing U.S. Company That Published Thousands Of Videos In Furtherance Of Russian Interests | United States Department of Justice