General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Poll: Should videos from Russia Today be allowed on DU? [View all]Man from Pickens
(1,713 posts)Hard not to come to the conclusion that what RT is doing more closely resembles journalism than what western/corporate media is doing.
Often the only place you can get any information on a significant current event is RT. Corporate media is like "everything is fine, and oh look squirrel Valentine's Day" all the time.
As far as independence goes, compare the non-retaliation against Abby Martin for her anti-Putin editorials, vs. say, the treatment of Cenk at MSNBC, or Amber Lyon at CNN. And look at Brian Williams - after 10 years of reporting corporate "news", the man has lost the ability to tell fact from fiction entirely.
With specific respect to the Ukraine situation, the corporate media war-propaganda machine is in full gear (SONY fake hack story, American Sniper movie, etc.) so really none of that can be believed. Keep in mind that 95%+ of US media is owned by the same 6 companies (translated: together, a tiny, very wealthy and powerful interest group) - while it presents itself as "us", reality is the people who control it are anything but, and often aren't even Americans at all.
The results of that control are not trivial - for example, if the Snowden and Manning stories were investigated by a truly independent media, it would have brought down the entire national security apparatus. Because they have not been, it continues.
In that context, we pretty much need RT and other non-corporate information sources, however flawed they may be, in order to put context to the corporate propaganda that dominates here.