Slandering Russia: ’Journalists tripping one another saying outrageous things to please bosses’
US mainstream media reporters are tripping over one another to say the most outrageous things as they think their bosses will like to present Russia in the worst possible light, says political analyst Gilbert Doctorow.
The US media is trying to uncover who is inspiring the divisions in American society. A new article in The Washington Post suggests Russian influence guides the far right.
Other media outlets go even further suggesting that Russian intelligence is using hate groups to escalate the situation inside the US.
However, despite all the conclusions, the article admits there is no evidence Russia is supporting American extreme right groups.
“The article in the Washington Post like other articles on this subject every day in the Post and the other mainstream newspaper of record in the US - the New York Times – they are daily publishing material that is derogatory of Russia, that is slandering Russia, that is presenting Russia in the worst possible light,” Doctorow said commenting to RT on how solid he thinks the argument made in the Washington Post is.
After reading the article “thoroughly and carefully,” he found the journalist responsible “was giving his editors the finger.”
“The implication of the headline is that Russia is justly seen as the center of white supremacy by American neo-Nazis. In the middle of the article there is a paragraph which undermines totally such a fabricated view of Russia and Mr. Putin,” Doctorow said.
The author of the piece, journalist Casey Michel wrote: “Ignore the multi-confessional, multiethnic nature of the Russian state. Ignore the fact that Moscow maintains the largest mosque in Europe, or that Putin’s Russia contains one of the largest swaths of immigrants outside of the United States.”
Doctorow said that "Russia is, of course, a multinational country with many different ethnic and religious groups who are living in peace".
"This was unnecessary to say. But it tells you what goes on in journalism, even in mainstream journalism which is closely controlled by rabidly anti-Russian editorial boards like the Washington Post and the NYT. Journalists are not necessarily in sync with the editorial opinions that dictate what they are supposed to write.”
Meanwhile, an article published on the CNN website alleges inciting far-right groups inside the US is a strategy of Russian intelligence.
“Although there is no evidence to date that Russia is directly supporting extreme right groups in the United States, this established connection, when viewed through the lens of Trump's response to Charlottesville, suggests an opening for Russian intelligence to use domestic hate groups as a vehicle for escalating their active measures inside the United States,” the CNN piece reads.
Commenting on why a respected news outlet would push stuff like this, Doctorow said: “For every journalist who is honest and has a little bit of integrity, you have many journalists who are tripping over one another to say the most outrageous things that they think their bosses will like.”
“You have competition down to the bottom. And the case that you have mentioned is just one of those,” he added.
In the opinion of media analyst Lionel, the allegations made in the Washington Post are “absurd.”
“Russia is a hotbed or the preferred country of neo-Nazis? That is absurd. Are neo-Nazis looking to Russia? Did they ever hear about such a thing like WWII? Do they understand how historically that doesn’t seem to make any sense? If you ever meet a neo-Nazi, all you have to do is ask … to explain Nazism…They can’t answer that. And the reason why many of them can’t is that the “Nazis” that we saw in Charlottesville were basically actors,” he told RT.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
