So why bother censoring RT (fka Russia Today)?
To be honest, given the crap being broadcast on U.S. mainstream media in the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom, (cough, cough) it was refreshing.
There I was, stuck on the futon 23 hours a day, barely able to hobble to the bathroom and back so I was held hostage by the whiz-bang wall-to-wall warmongering of our mainstream media. I knew Colin Powell was lying. All the people I knew — and I don’t run in circles of international geopolitical experts — understood that everyone from the President to the, ahem, Paper of Record was lying.
People were marching and canvassing and calling and writing to their so-called representatives to stop the illegal invasion of a sovereign nation, Iraq. It didn't make a bit of difference. The money in the United States had already determined what it wanted and the will of We The People was completely irrelevant.
So being housebound, in pain, and inundated with red-white-and-blue propaganda it was a glad day when I stumbled across Russia Today. I became a regular viewer. For years after I had recuperated and could walk out of the apartment any time I felt like it, I still watched that RT as it rebranded itself. And the only time I can remember seeing any stories about Russia was when their nightlife correspondent would rate various nightclubs in Moscow. Real Russian culture there!
Eventually, I lost interest in seeing that much coverage of the United State's neverending shenanigans — too depressing — and then when the cheapest cable package skyrocketed to something stupid like $75 a month I ditched television altogether.
Imagine my surprise to find that my old friend, Russia Today, now RT, is considered a bad actor in today’s ridiculous media environment. Our vigilant nanny state — with our best interests at heart, of course — has banished RT as well as other purveyors of any information that goes counter to the current narrative. In case you’ve been under a rock somewhere on the outskirts of Alice Springs, Australia, that narrative goes something like this: Russia = Evil / Ukraine = Good. Anyone putting weapons into Ukrainian hands = Super Duper Good.
And woe to anyone who questions "our" version of events in Ukraine. Ask journalist, Chris Hedges, whose six-year archive of his Emmy-nominated television show was deleted by YouTube. Why? It was hosted on that dastardly villainous RT America. In fact, it’s nearly impossible to find any media outlet that isn’t dutifully parroting the party line these days. But not entirely impossible. It can be done. In fact, we did it. We found RT and watched it for about twenty minutes the other night.
What a load of crap.
Different crap than what MSNBC, CNN, and Fox are vomiting every day and night, but not that different. The RT narrative simply flips the script: Russia = Good / Ukraine = Evil Nazis Backed By Imperial Western Buttheads. And they lay it on thick. But then so do we. Swelling cello music, check. Closeups of left-behind pets, check. Crying children and sites of atrocities, check.
I have no idea where any actual news can be found these days.
Whatever is really happening over in Ukraine right now only seems to be reported through the lens of an agreed-upon narrative. Anything that doesn’t fit the officially sanctioned narrative doesn’t make the video clip (I almost said nightly news, but that just shows you that I’m old).
So, no, Virginia, we are not going to learn any real, hard truths from jumping through seven flaming hoops to get to RT online. We’ll just see that same garbage but from their POV.
Why are we censoring this media outlet again?
What exactly are Daddy and Mommy worried we’ll learn by watching the other side trash the truth?
Comments / 1