Reading Russian news sources... and laughing

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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You can say a lot of good and bad things about Russia... some good things about its people and history.. mostly bad things about its leaders. One thing that has always fascinated me is propaganda. I love looking at all sides... looking at how they craft their stories and news sources and comparing the data.

So today I am browsing pravada.ru. One of Russia`s largest online news sources. Call it their version of CNN or something. When you browse the website you instantly see the influence of the Russian government in their news media. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Right off the the bat you notice theres something different about this "news source"... firstly... its the first online newspaper that seems to advertise and be a show point for military weapons. Its a lot like reading a Military website.. infused with People magazine.

On this English translation I find three examples of Russian penis comparison :
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/11-08-2009/108764-russia_ukraine-0

I cant ever remember reading CNN or BBC and see`ing so many examples of trying to show off its (rather carp) military weapons.

The next thing you will notice are several very beautiful mostly Russian woman in almost no clothing. Hmmm.. weapons and woman... now dont get me wrong, I as much as the next chap enjoy looking and learning about both.. but not really from my daily newspaper.

So I follow the link in the URL I mentioned earlier and I moved onto another Russian "news" website.. called "MoscowTopNews".... and guess what.. theres ever more weapons and even more scantly clad woman.

http://www.moscowtopnews.com/?area=postView&id=922

I guess missile envy does come from being small ;)

Okay, laughable content aside.. just read the news articles. They are so badly written I think someone in Moscow just pushed them through Google Translate and hoped for the best.

What I find more interesting is how the articles are worded and the general nature of the articles. They all appear to attack anyone who disagrees with the Kremlin on several different levels. They all seem extremely polarized as well! Bugger ANY kind of objective journalism or even an attempt at objective journalism. You can see they are concentrated media campaigns against whoever has their goat at the moment.

If its about Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, America, Britain, Poland or any one of several other countries... basically just about every single article will be in some way defamatory of their targets. Theres basically no neutral news or positive news of those countries whatsoever (though I am not including the sports or weather sections).

I wont lie.. browsing through their science section is the funniest thing ever. I honestly for the light of me.. dont know if they are being serious, stupid or having fun there... but at the very least its a joke at the worst.. its still a joke.

A "science photo" http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/muzei-966/

What I do notice is the same adverts, same stories and same spelling mistakes across several of their websites.

For instance, both pravada and moscowtopnews point (with an advert stating "Russia designs new destructive weapon") to the same "Georgian Times" websites. Which is basically a Russian made website pretending to be Georgian... and basically ragging Georgia but supporting the illegal countries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia (the parts of Georgia Russia recently conquered).

Its absolutely an amazing journey reading through Russian news. However.. even though its all very entertaining to read and follow I just cant get around at how stupid their propaganda machine is. Its so obvious and so dumb I really cant understand how Russian Intelligence could be so thick. Its like 0 thought actually when into presentation and trying to cover their dishonesty.

Anyone with half a brain can see that is government controlled hate and news speech.

Sure, we might be constantly subjected to all kinds of propaganda from different directions, but Russia takes the Crayon Cake when it comes to child like attempt at media control.
 
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Yup, I watch RT at times, the Russians still hold onto the soviet way of running media.

I remember there being an interview with Medvedev and each time they show his face in the intro patriotic music would play for a few seconds, also they have conspiracy theorists from sites like prisonplanet phone in.

I love it.
 
Aqua_lung said:
Yup, I watch RT at times, the Russians still hold onto the soviet way of running media.

I remember there being an interview with Medvedev and each time they show his face in the intro patriotic music would play for a few seconds, also they have conspiracy theorists from sites like prisonplanet phone in.

I love it.
Click to expand...

I was watching RussiaToday not so long ago.. and they were talking about Putin at the time and how great he is "that he doesnt need to write anything down as he remembers everything"... then shortly after that .. the Russian News presenter ripping of Americans by saying half of them are on Prozac.

I could never imagine the BBC, SABC or Al Jazeera behaving like that.
 
Aeron said:
You like looking at all sides? You mean like the fruitcake republicans verses the Holy Democrat debates? Right.

I'm reading this...and I'm laughing :D.
Click to expand...

Could you find one post where I am supportive of democrats? I like Obama (and thats a very sceptical tentative "like")... thats if, but if the Democrats screwed up as much as Republicans did I would be on their case as much as I am on the Republicans. However.. they dont have the same entertainment value the Republicans have at the moment.

So Im ganna have to ask you not to lie (again), please dont misrepresent my position on the democrats Aeron. Please try be honest. Now this thread isnt about your fetish for Republicans or your hate for Democrats... THIS IS ABOUT RUSSIA FFS. Leave your hard on for Republicans in the relevant threads.
 
Aeron said:
You like looking at all sides? You mean like the fruitcake republicans verses the Holy Democrat debates? Right.
Click to expand...

That's true, I was watching some fox clips on youtube, it's like "this is our opinion and their opinion is wrong", then I watched MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and also some Bill Maher and it's exactly the same but the opposite view.

It's not news just opinion, CNN international is also much better than CNN US, it has to be though because they are playing to a very diverse audience ie. the Globe.
 
I have never claimed to be non-bias or objective. In fact I know I am not. That doesnt stop me from looking at as many angles as I can.
 
wizkid, look who's talking. Hardon for the republicans? I like the Republicans? Now who's through his keyboardd? ;-D

"I have never claimed to be non-bias or objective. In fact I know I am not. That doesnt stop me from looking at as many angles as I can."

Why bother looking at different angles if you're biased? Now that is really lolworthy.
 
Aeron said:
wizkid, look who's talking. Hardon for the republicans? I like the Republicans? Now who's through his keyboardd? ;-D

"I have never claimed to be non-bias or objective. In fact I know I am not. That doesnt stop me from looking at as many angles as I can."

Why bother looking at different angles if you're biased? Now that is really lolworthy.
Click to expand...

I think ... the reason why I do what I do and look at things how I do.. is completely beyond your scope. I just do it... mmkay?

Theres no such thing as an objective perspective or a non-bias view.
 
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I'm objective. I'm educated enough to know a lot about a variety of topics and generally don't make absolutist statements or rely on insulting people who differ from my opinion. Try that.

I'm not really part of any group because I don't "support" any group. I see group A and group B, I see group A doing stupid things and I see group B doing stupid things. In general, I tend to argue in favour of those doing the least amount of stupid things and the greatest amount of wise things. I admit, its rare to think along those lines. Most people need something to cling on to, some bandwagon to ride that they won't let go of even if its burning. Be it racism, religion or political views.

And since you love to bring Obama into discussions not related to Obama, I don't think physical attractiveness or impressive rhetoric or lying through your teeth or appearing in celebrity magazines or being black are necessary skills to make a good president.

And how can you say the Democrats don't screw up as often? Your eyes probably just glaze whenever you see an article criticizing them. Scotoma.

Just because you seem unable to be objective about things, does not mean every other sentient life form on the planet suffers from that same condition.
 
Yeah RT is a joke. In fact of the DSTV "news channels" it's the worse. Which is saying something since beating Al Jazeera and the BBC takes some effort :o
 
Alan said:
Yeah RT is a joke. In fact of the DSTV "news channels" it's the worse. Which is saying something since beating Al Jazeera and the BBC takes some effort :o
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I disagree BBC and CNN are the only two credible news channels on DSTV.

SkyNEWS - (only good for London traffic reports and Tabloid news)
RT - Russian Propaganda
Al Jazeera - the English version is very toned down but propagandist, while the Arabic is very inflammatory
EuroNews - is cheap but still a waste
CCTV - Maoist propaganda

BBC is No 1 for me, used to be better,
CNN is a No 2 but it has deteriorated a lot over the years.
 
SKY is the best IMO. Alarmist and a little tabloid but the most balanced. BBC is BS frankly. Ever watched Dateline London? It's up there with RT any day

If RT qualifies then surely FOX News should too.

/This will go down well :D
 
Alan said:
SKY is the best IMO. Alarmist and a little tabloid but the most balanced. BBC is BS frankly. Ever watched Dateline London? It's up there with RT any day

If RT qualifies then surely FOX News should too.

/This will go down well :D
Click to expand...

Sky is too British and too tabloid. It focuses too much on British local news and while that's great for British people living in SA, I have very little need for it, I prefer international news not international news with a British perspective eg the way the oil price is affecting council residents and/or yobs in Manchester.

BBC is British too but it tends to be more neutral. They sometimes focus on British troops in Afghanistan, but even then they keep the story balanced.

I've seen a bit of FOX and like the other US news services outside of CNN, I think it sucks. :)

The biggest CHOP on SKYNews of course is James Rubin. That Clinton spokesman who is now babbling and stuttering his way across the news.

Noooooo!
 
PeterCH said:
The biggest CHOP on SKYNews of course is James Rubin. That Clinton spokesman who is now babbling and stuttering his way across the news.

Noooooo!
Click to expand...

You do know he's married to CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Imagine the offspring :eek::D
 
Alan said:
You do know he's married to CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. Imagine the offspring :eek::D
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Oh hell she's the one who hyped up those Serb massacres of 'Kosovars' which led to that unfortunate killing of civilians in Serbia and Kosovo by NATO.

I dislike Madeleine Albright, Holbrooke, Rubin and Amanpour with a passion. Bring back the Reps please....these guys make the neocons look like angels.

And yes... I do miss GW Bush. (Being honest here).

Great presidents IMHO:
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
GW Bush

Guys who would have been great presidents:
Ross Perot
BoB Dole
John McCain
 
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She even interviewed him on CNN. Totally objective of course. No surprise the 3rd panel member a Republican got double teamed :o

I dunno about "Great"

The best of the bunch IMO is Reagan and FDR. The rest were all meh to be honest.

Worst of course is Jimmy the peanut by a country mile.

Pity about McCain. Country needed a moderate not the most liberal president since Carter
 
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PeterCH said:
And yes... I do miss GW Bush. (Being honest here).

Great presidents IMHO:
Ronald Reagan
George Bush
GW Bush
Click to expand...

Considering the fact that you're anti-abortion, pro-abstinance, blame protestants for catholic priests molestation cases and make bold statements by saying Jews made a mistake when they rejected Christ this comes as no surprise. You fit nicely into their demographic.

I do agree about BBC world though, it is the best news on Dstv if not the world. 2nd place for me would be a tie between CNN and AJE, both are unproffesional and sloppy at times but AJE has Josh rushing and Avi Louis doing fault lines which I like and listening post with the Canadian, I enjoy these shows more than anything CNN has.
 
BBC and AJE for me. What I love about AJE .. it covers news stories in crappy 3rd world countries that the bigger media houses dont pay attention to.
 
w1z4rd said:
You can say a lot of good and bad things about Russia... some good things about its people and history.. mostly bad things about its leaders. One thing that has always fascinated me is propaganda. I love looking at all sides... looking at how they craft their stories and news sources and comparing the data.

Who is crafting the news exactly (sources please)

So today I am browsing pravada.ru. One of Russia`s largest online news sources. Call it their version of CNN or something. When you browse the website you instantly see the influence of the Russian government in their news media. Let me give you a couple of examples.

Is it a patriotic editor or the government (sources please)

Right off the the bat you notice theres something different about this "news source"... firstly... its the first online newspaper that seems to advertise and be a show point for military weapons. Its a lot like reading a Military website.. infused with People magazine.

On this English translation I find three examples of Russian penis comparison :
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/11-08-2009/108764-russia_ukraine-0

I cant ever remember reading CNN or BBC and see`ing so many examples of trying to show off its (rather carp) military weapons.

So you've never watched the Discovery channel or the Nat Geo channel with US tanks, aircraft ans ships??

The next thing you will notice are several very beautiful mostly Russian woman in almost no clothing. Hmmm.. weapons and woman... now dont get me wrong, I as much as the next chap enjoy looking and learning about both.. but not really from my daily newspaper.

So I follow the link in the URL I mentioned earlier and I moved onto another Russian "news" website.. called "MoscowTopNews".... and guess what.. theres ever more weapons and even more scantly clad woman.

http://www.moscowtopnews.com/?area=postView&id=922

I guess missile envy does come from being small ;)

Okay, laughable content aside.. just read the news articles. They are so badly written I think someone in Moscow just pushed them through Google Translate and hoped for the best.

Badly translated news, so it can't be a mainstream government mouthpiece can it now

What I find more interesting is how the articles are worded and the general nature of the articles. They all appear to attack anyone who disagrees with the Kremlin on several different levels. They all seem extremely polarized as well! Bugger ANY kind of objective journalism or even an attempt at objective journalism. You can see they are concentrated media campaigns against whoever has their goat at the moment.

If its about Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, America, Britain, Poland or any one of several other countries... basically just about every single article will be in some way defamatory of their targets. Theres basically no neutral news or positive news of those countries whatsoever (though I am not including the sports or weather sections).

I wont lie.. browsing through their science section is the funniest thing ever. I honestly for the light of me.. dont know if they are being serious, stupid or having fun there... but at the very least its a joke at the worst.. its still a joke.

A "science photo" http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/muzei-966/

What I do notice is the same adverts, same stories and same spelling mistakes across several of their websites.

For instance, both pravada and moscowtopnews point (with an advert stating "Russia designs new destructive weapon") to the same "Georgian Times" websites. Which is basically a Russian made website pretending to be Georgian... and basically ragging Georgia but supporting the illegal countries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia (the parts of Georgia Russia recently conquered).

Now who's creating propaganda. It's clear you have little insight into the history of Ossetia or Abkhazia or you wouldn't say such naive things. Russian repelled a Georgian attack on civilians. Even Western countries agree on that.

Its absolutely an amazing journey reading through Russian news. However.. even though its all very entertaining to read and follow I just cant get around at how stupid their propaganda machine is. Its so obvious and so dumb I really cant understand how Russian Intelligence could be so thick. Its like 0 thought actually when into presentation and trying to cover their dishonesty.

Again, what proof apart from your supposition is there proof of iany government ntelligence involvement?

Anyone with half a brain can see that is government controlled hate and news speech.

Sure, we might be constantly subjected to all kinds of propaganda from different directions, but Russia takes the Crayon Cake when it comes to child like attempt at media control.
Click to expand...

w1z4rd said:
I was watching RussiaToday not so long ago.. and they were talking about Putin at the time and how great he is "that he doesnt need to write anything down as he remembers everything"... then shortly after that .. the Russian News presenter ripping of Americans by saying half of them are on Prozac.

I could never imagine the BBC, SABC or Al Jazeera behaving like that.
Click to expand...
Putin was one of the most successful and popular presidents in the history of Russia. Of course Russians are proud of him. Read "Prozac Nation" and you will know that there is some truth to that claim.

Alan said:
Yeah RT is a joke. In fact of the DSTV "news channels" it's the worse. Which is saying something since beating Al Jazeera and the BBC takes some effort :o
Click to expand...
I watch it a lot to keep up with Russian current affairs and find it mostly balanced. They often quote the opposite views in TV interviews. Their editor sometimes goes too far, but they issue a disclaimer (if you watch the whole thing) that these are his personal views.

PeterCH said:
Sky is too British and too tabloid. It focuses too much on British local news and while that's great for British people living in SA, I have very little need for it, I prefer international news not international news with a British perspective eg the way the oil price is affecting council residents and/or yobs in Manchester.

true

BBC is British too but it tends to be more neutral. They sometimes focus on British troops in Afghanistan, but even then they keep the story balanced.

If you watched the BBC during the Serbian war, the Lebanon vs. Israel war and others you would KNOW that the BBC can be ULTRA biased. In fact rabidly so.

I've seen a bit of FOX and like the other US news services outside of CNN, I think it sucks. :)

Did you watch the Fox interview with the Ossetian girl? Now was that biased or what??

The biggest CHOP on SKYNews of course is James Rubin. That Clinton spokesman who is now babbling and stuttering his way across the news.

Noooooo!
Click to expand...
 
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