Thread: Russian Media: Do Russians trust them - why/why not?

So I don't believe that Russian media can get away with bullshitting on any large scale, even if they wanted to.

It is more about shifting accents and filtering.
For example dozen of "activist" people went for 10 meters with couple of transparants. Media reports "huge protest actions takes place in ...". I saw this kind of bullshit in both of pro-russian and anti-russian media. And so on.

..."troll factories"...

Often it is personal initiative. I acted in such manner in Guardian comments ~1 year ago. Why? Beacause I saw lies like above there. Now I just tired of political holywars. Trying not to waste time.

Originally Posted by Alex80

It is more about shifting accents and filtering.
For example dozen of "activist" people went for 10 meters with couple of transparants. Media reports "huge protest actions takes place in ...". I saw this kind of bullshit in both of pro-russian and anti-russian media. And so on.

Yeah, that's a classical tactic though, and if Russian media uses it, they are not the only ones!

Here in London there can be manifestations with 100,000 people and media just ignores it, or writes that it was hooligans or extremists. Meanwhile a small group of people demonstrating about the "right" matter gets lots of attention.

RT is brilliant for bridging that gap, for the UK. Thank you, Russian tax payers... They will cover the issues that mainstream ignores. I also don't see them having an agenda to the same degree as mainstream media. The only agenda they have is that they don't like the EU or the USA. That's not a problem for me though. I am neutral on the issue of the EU and appreciate hearing the negatives even if I think they are exaggerating a bit.

Originally Posted by Alex80

Often it is personal initiative. I acted in such manner in Guardian comments ~1 year ago. Why? Beacause I saw lies like above there. Now I just tired of political holywars. Trying not to waste time.

Same here:
I defended Russia in a debate in a Swedish forum (in relation to Crimea) and was accused of being a paid Russian troll by several people. They said things like "What's the weather like in Moscow", "Hope Putin is paying you well" and "Your Swedish is pretty good, Ivan".
Several other people got similar comments — Very infuriating, in addition to simply ridiculous and ludicrous.

But it's just a genius form of propaganda, because it instantly dismisses anyone who goes against the official version. Nobody would listen to somebody who was a paid troll, even if they happened to be right.

In the meantime we know for sure, from Snowden's leaks, that the US is doing this through its military. Not to mention "think tanks" that are known to take on university students and housewives to spread their message online.

I do think that the Russian news are quite biased in the issue of Ukraine/Donbass, but 1) it's understandable..... and 2) I can't point out any concrete errors because I have no personal knowledge about the situation on the ground. It's just a feeling. And based on what I hear about media censorship in Ukraine and banning of Russian journalists, UA is just as bad...