Sunday, November 25, 2018

Paul Robinson — LACK OF INTEGRITY


Smackdown.
It’s a common complaint that Russian media are controlled by the state. By contrast, the Western media, and Western opinion formers, such as academics and think tank members, are considered to be independent and impartial. Yet in reality, the relationship between them is often far cozier than people understand, and sometimes far cozier than it ought to be. I’m sure that everybody involved in the Integrity Initiative believes that they are acting for the best. But if they have been secretly working with government officials in pursuit of political objectives, they shouldn’t be surprised that some people don’t trust them. There’s a reason why people turn to sources of information which are accused of peddling ‘fake news’: they don’t believe traditional sources. Projects like the Integrity Initiative help strengthen the impression of secret conspiracies and double standards. Far from solving the problem, therefore, they accentuate it.
Irrussianality
LACK OF INTEGRITYPaul Robinson | Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa

2 comments:

Konrad said...

“It’s a common complaint that Russian media are controlled by the state.”

In all nations the media are subject to the whims of government bureaucrats and rich owners. The Washington Post, for example, makes no secret that it is tied into the CIA.

In any case, debates about who owns the media are moot, since all Western corporate media outlets echo the same pro-war and pro-neoliberal trash. Also, when the power of corporations equal the power of the state, the discussion is pointless.

“By contrast, the Western media, and Western opinion formers, such as academics and think tank members, are considered to be independent and impartial.”

Says who?

“There’s a reason why people turn to sources of information which are accused of peddling ‘fake news’: they don’t believe traditional sources.”

“Fake News” is a meaningless term, since everyone accuses everyone else of “fake news” and “conspiracy theories.”

Incidentally the European Broadcasting Union surveyed 33 EU nations to gauge people’s trust in their respective media sources. The resulting Trust in Media report showed that, out of 33 nations, the Dutch have the most trust in their media, while Britons have the least trust of all.

https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/survey-finds-that-uk-written-press-is-by-some-way-the-least-trusted-in-europe/

Joe said...

As Chomsky said, any dictator would be thrilled with the subservience to power of the American media.

Our system to propaganda is so much more effective that outright state owned media. Instead of suppressing certain views, it's better just to construct the media where people involved in it naturally won't present contrary views just out of self-interest. Take any TV personality, say Jake Tapper, the kind of smug or Wolf Blitzer. They rightly can claim they can say anything they want, but we know beforehand they won't ever say anything problematic with the state, they're just not that type of people. The thought of losing their multi-million dollar payouts by telling the full truth, has never once occurred to him.

Although at higher levels of the media, there has to be conscious realization of the game being played. There's just too much uniformity among the different outlets. You don't get 18 Bernie hit pieces in the same day in one paper if the order didn't come down from on high.