Like a young dog, English TV reporter Sara Firth ran among the protesters who clashed with riot police in Athens during the credit crunch. She coughed through the suffocating tear gas, followed the course of the riots, zigzagging between the protesters and with dynamic stand-ups in front of the camera. Her employer Russia Today (RT) was very satisfied with Firth’s talent to go where the action is† Star reporter looking for fire when she sees smoke. Who doesn’t look at why something burns, but how high the flames flare up.
A lottery ticket, that’s how it felt for Firth when she was hired by RT: living in Moscow, a good salary, huge travel budget and all the freedom. A great adventure. She was one of the many Western TV journalists who, with or without sincerity, thought that the new channel would help promote democracy and pluralism in Russia.
Many found out through embarrassment that RT had nothing to do with free news-gathering, but that the station was using them as banners, pawns in Putin’s Russia’s information war against the West. The star reporters have been hired to bend the news worldwide to Russian propagandistic insights. Anti-democratic, patriotic, focused on sensationalism and ratings.
Good timing from Humans media logic to highlight RT’s working methods in Tuesday’s broadcast, so shortly after the remarkable broadcasting ban issued by the European Union in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Especially interesting to hear the inexperienced heroes of yesteryear, who have almost all resigned, tell how they were forced by their final editors to gradually colorize their reports in a Moscow-friendly way and eventually sell outright lies.
A reporter in Georgia wanted to tell live that he had seen Russian planes bomb the town of Gori – RT was not interested, not even in the 12 civilian deaths. Russian tanks spotted in Crimea in 2013? Haha, there’s only a tank from the 1940s here, the RT reporter laughed, with a war memorial behind him. A year later, the Ukrainian peninsula had been swallowed by Putin.
RT does not lie and cheat, according to the interviews with the conscientious objector reporters, not on the direct orders of the Kremlin: self-censorship is the best navigation. Or as the prominent American ex-anchor Liz Wahl said: ‘The unwritten rule is: no criticism of Moscow.’
At the start of the broadcast, the question was raised whether RT’s broadcast ban helps against disinformation. Unfortunately, there was no answer.
By the way, if you want to sharpen your own critical eye by occasionally looking journalistic evil in the eye, you can of course also contact the American Fox News. Or with our own public broadcaster; Tuesday set the regular sidekick of that Unheard of NewsForum for Democracy MP Pepijn van Houwelingen, reality once again to his will.