The only view I prefer to have
Props to
RT News (slogan - Question More) for admitting they report the news with a point of view. I was greeted Saturday morning with
this editorial/news piece being broadcast on one of the digital channels of a local PBS affiliate (I'm pretty lucky, I have access to three affiliates each with multiple digital streams). Other news viewpoints available on this station include
Arise News (Global news and entertainment. Every culture. Every angle.),
Ukraine News,
CCTV (The media crossroads where news and "views" about the world’s two largest national economies intersect and sometimes collide),
NHK News,
France24 News as well as various world-view and country specific programming both in English and native languages. Please join me below our morning croissant for what led to this admission and some thoughts about what it means about news consumption and production in the US.
Russia Today's, perhaps justifiable, outrage and subsequent admission came as the result of a statement made by the Broadcast Board of Governors CEO Andrew Lack.
The Board (BBG) is composed of nine members with expertise in the fields of mass communications, broadcast media, or international affairs. Eight members are appointment by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The ninth, the Secretary of State, serves ex officio.
and
(The) mission (of the BBG is) To inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy.
You know the BBG through their public faces
• Voice of America (VOA)
• Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)
• Radio Free Asia (RFA)
• Office of Cuba Broadcasting
(OCB; Radio and TV Martí)
• Middle East Broadcasting Networks, Inc.
(MBN; Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television)
I don't know about you, but I always viewed these broadcast outlets as American propaganda, and it never bothered me because... Democracy! I did view, especially Radio Free Europe during the Cold War, as the West's counter to the barrage of controlled information being disbursed behind the Iron Curtain.
Well the Iron Curtain is pretty much gone now yet the "freedom and democracy" media arm of the US government continues. Yup, I still don't have a problem with it, that's just me. There are so many ways to get or reject information now that a pro-US stream of information is just another voice in the ceaseless babble trying to inform and sway opinion.
So what did Mr. Lack say that so offended RT (and by extension the Russian government and Mr. Putin)?
“We are facing a number of challenges from entities like Russia Today which is out there pushing a point of view, the Islamic State in the Middle East and groups like Boko Haram,” Lack said.
RT, now promoting the hashtag #NewsIsNotTerror claims journalistic integrity in their broadcasts which cannot be said of broadcasts and other media releases from ISIS and Boko Haram.
But the bigger question is when is news, news? And when is it propaganda? Is news with a view still news, or is it like Paul Harvey, News and Comment? Is it news if some of the facts are left out and others are emphasized to maybe sway the story line? Is it news if you believe it? Is it news if a supreme leader or your religious text tells you it is true? Is it news if it promotes democracy?
I'm still not a fan of RT or most of the other state-sponsored news outlets because they are news with a view. Often though it is useful to view the news like those outside of the US view it. We look pretty darned silly sometimes. And it is pretty apparent that pieces of news stories are missing (or emphasized) to control the narrative and the best thing about noticing that is that we can look right here at home to even the MSM and notice the same thing. At the least we can look at Fox News and know that they control the narrative; they, unlike RT, just don't have the integrity to embrace and announce it.
Turns out the title of my diary is also the title of a 2012 book. I haven't read the book, nor am I a scholar on journalism other than to appreciate it as consumer and mourn the lack of it in what passes for most daily and especially local news.