generalspeaking

The Media Wars Unleashed

"CIA Director Admits: U.S Foreign Policy Causes Terrorism."
"U.S. wants to make Ukraine a base to attack Russia."
"NATO breaks treaty to establish permanent forces in Baltic."
Russian RT television channel, 'breaking news' items

"I realize why I keep working at a channel which is alone facing thousands, tens of thousands of Western media outlets, telling the other side of the story, finding itself in the cross-hairs of those media and struggling to fend off their attacks. Because it's my Motherland."
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan

"If you follow the RT Twitter feed as I do to my eternal teeth-gritting annoyance, it's full of stories of racism in the U.S., police corruption in the U.K., gay propaganda in Sweden."
"The West is playing 19th-Century Victorian boxing while Russia is using karate."
Ben Nimmo, former NATO press officer

"They aren't concerned to prove they are right, but to muddy the information space so much that it's hard to get the truth through."
Adam Thomson, British ambassador to NATO

Public relations is one of the thorny issues confronting European Union leaders in their discussions at the Brussels summit. Russia's government appears to have spent thought and time in putting together an effective media machine to target its interior and to convince a foreign audience that all the news that's fit to print does not always reach them, and Russia's version of events give food for appetizing thought for those to care to know the truth.

They have enlisted some American media heavy-hitters in their campaign to air Moscow's version of world events. The murkier the relations become between Russia, the U.S. and NATO, the more persuasive the message becomes that Russia stands stalwart and unintimidated by powerful forces intending to bring it to its knees, and in the process creating a non-existent emergency, dividing former allies and creating hostility where none should exist.

Larry King has been enlisted to reach households around the world with his convincing good will through talking with celebrities and entertaining the worthy. Former governor and professional wrestler, once a member of the Navy SEALs, Jessie Ventura has added his intellectual and public relations heft to Russia's half-billion-a-year commitment to getting its story out, trumping the efforts of NATO states to explain to their constituents the strains and sanctions earned by Moscow.

Jesse Ventura featured "torture whistleblower" John Kiriakou stating the CIA "is run by lunatics", and that the U.S. Federal Reserve is an "illegal institution"; two claims that may have a modicum of veracity on the face of things, yet bear nothing as much scrutiny as Russian institutions of the same purpose bear for outright depth and commitment to corruption. AP also involves itself, providing text, photos and raw video footage to the English-language RT.

"Larry King, well, you and I know him. He's a chap of great broadcasting credibility", Lt.-Col. Simon West, a British Army specialist on strategic communications allowed, in speaking of RT's programming initiative meant to to gather audience trust. He is acting as a consultant at a Riga, Latvia-based facility initiated by NATO member states to address the flow of information from Moscow challenging the Western version of situational events.

"Russia's ongoing disinformation campaigns" have stimulated a draft EU "Action plan on strategic communication", calling for a group of measures to balance and hopefully surmount the Russian plan. Witold Waszeyzkowski, Polish member of Parliament points out the strategy Moscow is employing, which leaves viewers with the impression they are listening to a Western source, unaware that they have tuned into a Kremlin-paid information machine.

Labels: European Union, News Media, Russia, Social Media

posted by Pieface @ Saturday, June 27, 2015