State Dept asks for budget to counter Russia Today

[TaiShang]

So the whole army of US regime media was not enough to counter RT? Pathetic!

State Dept asks for budget to counter RT
Published time: February 26, 2015 00:04

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (Reuters / Yuri Gripas)


Citing RT’s influence, Secretary of State John Kerry asked US lawmakers for more money for propaganda and “democracy promotion” programs around the world.

“Russia Today (sic) can be heard in English, do we have an equivalent that can be heard in Russian? It’s a pretty expensive proposition. They are spending huge amounts of money,” Kerry told the House Appropriations Subcommittee, apparently forgetting that Voice of America has been broadcasting in Russian since 1947.

He had also raised the topic earlier in the day, before the House Foreign Affairs committee, where Representative Ed Royce (R-CA), opened the hearing with the allegation that “Russia’s military aggression is matched only by its propaganda.” To Kerry’s approval, Royce went on to claim that “Russia is spending more than $500 million annually to mislead audiences, sow divisions, and push conspiracy out over RT television.”

Royce’s remarks echo the claim made by Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) chief Andrew Lack last month, when he listed “Russia Today” (sic) in the same breath as ISIS and Boko Haram as one of the challenges facing his agency.

In reality, RT’s budget for 2015 is less than half the amount cited by Representative Royce – $225 million, according to the current exchange rate, or 13.85 billion rubles. By contrast, the US government media receives $721 million. The BBC World Service, which complained about RT “winning the information war” in January, is funded to the tune of $375 million a year.

In the budget proposal submitted by Kerry, the Department of State is asking for “$639 million to help our friends in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova as they seek to strengthen their democracies, withstand pressure from Russia, and to integrate more closely into Europe.” [PDF] The Department of State is also requesting over $2 billion – described as “a significant increase” – for “democracy, human rights, and governance programs.”

RT

 

[ptldM3]

The State department is asking for more money on "democracy promotion" every country they have stuck their noses in has turned into a failed state. Ultimately it is not about spreading "democracy"; look at Saudi Arabia, it is one of the most oppressive governments in the world with one of the worst records in human rights, yet the US will dare not say a word.

If a country does not conform to the US then the US will "bring democracy". There is ulterior motives, it's never about democracy see Saudi Arabia.


As for RT, if the State Department is constantly calling RT propaganda, then insulting and lying about the networks rating and now asking for money to counter RT, then RT must really be bothering the State Department even though they have claimed that its propaganda that no one watches

 

[Schutz]

Why bother, RT is garbage like all other media sources. Never any news that breaks thats negative about Russia but they will be put trivial stories about the west that are negative, unbiased my ***.

 

[Galad]

Why bother, RT is garbage like all other media sources. Never any news that breaks thats negative about Russia but they will be put trivial stories about the west that are negative, unbiased my ***.

Sure sure my dear-if you say so.Meanwhile back on planet Earth RT is having huge audience(much much bigger than your pedophile covering and spreading lies "truth" loving media).Not to mention over 2 billions views at you tube.

 

[DARIUS]

I watch RT occasionally and could vouch for the fact that it's nothing but a Russian propaganda machine. It's very biased and the problem is that there's always a deliberate attempt made to malign other Western Nations with no valid justification no matter what the news is about. I find it pretty amusing at times when they report about the Crimea crisis and how people in Crimea are very happy and stuff. It's ridiculous actually.In fact I find CCTV 9 and NHK World far better and credible but of course NHK World is more Japan oriented.

 

[Imran Khan]

stupid humans wasting their hard earning resources on fight with each other

 

[ptldM3]

I watch RT occasionally and could vouch for the fact that it's nothing but a Russian propaganda machine. It's very biased and the problem is that there's always a deliberate attempt made to malign other Western Nations with no valid justification no matter what the news is about. I find it pretty amusing at times when they report about the Crimea crisis and how people in Crimea are very happy and stuff. It's ridiculous actually.In fact I find CCTV 9 and NHK World far better and credible but of course NHK World is more Japan oriented.

News flash, western outlets are reporting the same thing. Do you know why?

 

[TaiShang]

Why bother, RT is garbage like all other media sources. Never any news that breaks thats negative about Russia but they will be put trivial stories about the west that are negative, unbiased my ***.

You got it right. The point is not that the media is 100% unbiased. The point here is that non-Western countries did not use to have international media with large global audience and had to rely on the biased Western media, BBC, CNN and the likes. Now, the playing field is getting leveled. That's welcome news.

Another welcome news is that RT.com is one of the world's most visited news-portals.

sputnikinternational.com , although recently launched, has also become a top news provider.

That's the point. When I want to listen/watch news, I do not wish to listen/watch news from Western point of view since I am not Western and my interests do not align with Western interests.

I watch/listen where my interests lie. And my interests lie in RT, CCTV, PressTV and the likes.

It is not about bias, it is about pragmatism and money.

 

[Schutz]

You got it right. The point is not that the media is 100% unbiased. The point here is that non-Western countries did not use to have international media with large global audience and had to rely on the biased Western media, BBC, CNN and the likes. Now, the playing field is getting leveled. That's welcome news.

Another welcome news is that RT.com is one of the world's most visited news-portals.

sputnikinternational.com , although recently launched, has also become a top news provider.

That's the point. When I want to listen/watch news, I do not wish to listen/watch news from Western point of view since I am not Western and my interests do not align with Western interests.

I watch/listen where my interests lie. And my interests lie in RT, CCTV, PressTV and the likes.

It is not about bias, it is about pragmatism and money.

Pretty sure Sputnik is basically RT isnt it, its state funded and started as an RT segment. My interests dont lie with western/eastern/southern news, I am intersted in the global picture, always the global picture. Just because your interests dont lie with Western news does not mean to go onto RT which if you go on the hompage right now is all Russian/EU/USA news. PressTV, there is one news article on the homepage that doesent involve the US/EU...how are these websites in your interest if your not interested in the west, they are just blatantly obvious government mouthpieces.

RT is fairly western orientated I would say though, it seems most of its core group of users are Europeans/Americans and most articles are orientated towards Europeans. Nothing wrong with the BBC, they have their biases but they are often hypocritical, one day slagging off Israel, the next day siding with it, better than all out favouritism and they are fairly unbiased, the same goes with Al Jazeera (English, not Arabic one as thats as bad as fox news) which is probably the best news source, I occasionally look at SCMP if I want a Chinese perspective as they seem to be unbiased atleast to anything I have read, I tend to avoid any news site with a comment section though as you know they are the ones used by morons (rt, dailymail etc)

Get news from multiple sources from different regions and basically cross reference, the ONLY stories I see on RT/Presstv are just negative, nothings ever unbiased as its almost always a straight up attack on the US/EU and ignores bad things that happen in their country, go onto BBC and they will report all of the bad things happening internally and externally, there might be occasional bias but its not on RT level.I think its just a case of corruption and how scared you are of actually reporting which is something I would think about if I was Iranian/Russian.

 

[Tshering22]

This is open demand for funding propaganda against a country that has done nothing against USA.

 

[jhungary]

lol I love how RT misinform people in this article about the US government accusing RT for misinformation.

That session of senate hearing is for asking more money to diverse Media project and reform FCC ala media classification mechanism, not to counter any particlar channel or "promote democracy" as RT said...Anyone have a C Span subscription knows whats going on on that hearing, there are no need to say more.

But then thats what RT do, for those RT die hard follower, they make wave (just look at how RT make the OP sensationalise something that did not happens here) but for people who see RT is rubbish, their value is just as that- Rubbish.

There are like 100 channel out there, that does not mean we have to treat any of those serious. There is a Church of Latter day saint channel out there, that does not mean I have to listen to it and become a mormon, thats the beauty of news media, shame people with a single source can never realise that

 

[powastick]

I read from RT. And I also read from CNN. I doesn't matter CNN put how much money, RT will always be relevant because it checks on western propaganda.

 

[Gaber]

I read RT almost everyday....

 

[mike2000]

I watch RT occasionally and could vouch for the fact that it's nothing but a Russian propaganda machine. It's very biased and the problem is that there's always a deliberate attempt made to malign other Western Nations with no valid justification no matter what the news is about. I find it pretty amusing at times when they report about the Crimea crisis and how people in Crimea are very happy and stuff. It's ridiculous actually.In fact I find CCTV 9 and NHK World far better and credible but of course NHK World is more Japan oriented.

Couldnt agree more. You said it all. I also said the same thing on another thread on here a while ago. I have wwatched CCTV occasionally out of curiosity, and i waas surprised to see that they dont indulge in overtly anti western propaganda for no good reason like RT does. This came as a shock to me, since i expected China to be even more anti U,.S/west than Russia. I have stopped watching RT altogether because of this, Their anti western stance is sooo obvious that its just silly to be honest. ALL of their programs/news is about everything negative about the west/U.S(even when its unnecessary) and how benevolent/holy Russia is.lol . They never mention anything negative about Russia at ALL. Their level of bias is just too much, one of their former female anchor even admitted this during the Crimea crisis and quitted her job LIVE on air. CCTV and NHK do have a more balance view to be honest than RT, they are more credible for me.

However NHK is just too backward(which is surprising considering Japan has been opened up to the world for over a century now and industrialised the first in Asia), by this i mean their presentation is very much lacking behind, and most of all they focus too much on Japan. Their programs too are rather boring, reason i dont watch it either(e.g they have a program called ' cool Japan' WTF??)

As for CCTV, they are better than NHK, but their journalist are very much amateurish(bar the few western ones, mainly CCTV America which is more professional). I watched a news program in which one of their China anchor in China couldnt even speak English properly, which is a huge turn off for such a global news agency. They also need to streamline their news style presentation/programs and focus more on other negative/groundbreaking news around the world, thats what sells unfortunately. Their news presentation is so old school. Their journalist still need more professional training for a global audience. In this respect RT has excellent journalists who know how to present their news programs in a more professional/enticing ways for viewers worldwide. reason i believe RT is so popular, while CCTV still lags behind, NHK even more behind.
By the way where is Indias own global news agency???

 

[boomslang]

Sure sure my dear-if you say so.Meanwhile back on planet Earth RT is having huge audience...

Yeah, and the National Enquirer has a huge audience too. They are BOTH bullshit rags.