Russia on a Miami flatscreen

 I am not sure what to make of watching Russia Today in a Miami hotel room as it questions global warming, makes fun of George Bush the Younger, and conducts an in-depth investigation into honor killings in Iraqi Kurdistan. Followed by someone with a British accent comparing NATO to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and calling for its dissolution and a story about Chinese knockoffs of Russian military hardware. “This plane is simply a Russian design stuffed with Chinese electronics! It’s a knock-off!”

Plus a story about a controversy over an Islamic charter school that the R.T. producers decided to call, and I am not kidding, “Intifada: NYC.” Gosh, my home town suffered an uprising and I only hear about it now?

The really surreal thing is the accents. A few of them are really quite good, practically native-born American; most have a faint faint barely-audible touch of Russian. Since the broadcast seems directed at a domestic audience (I would hope) that fact almost makes me feel Russian myself!  

Why does the dude dubbing the voice of the Ingushetian president have a clear Scottish accent? I like to imagine that’s what an Ingushetian accent sounds like to a Russian from Moscow. Sadly, I am probably wrong.

Jussi, have you seen this thing? Who is it aimed at?

Anyway, I’ll try to catch up on posting. I just went from L.A. to N.Y. to Tulsa to Burlington to Miami and I’m off to Atlanta tomorrow. (I also managed to briefly get to Northern Mexico. Worrisome.) I have lots of stuff to report ... although recent criticism from the honorable profesora has made me much more perfectionist.

Comments

[Jussi Jalonen]

Since you asked, I don't know who the hell it's aimed at, but based on my own experiences, "Russia Today" is exactly the sort of crap that you describe.

Another prime example would be this one populist racist-xenophobic city councilman from Helsinki, who's running for the Finnish parliament in the next year, and appeared in a similar RT newscast, predicting how "most Finnish cities will be surrounded by a ring of burning ghettos". I suspect that this is precisely what the RT is supposed to be about; the West is in a state of decay! Immigration and Muslims are destroying them, and Russia will rise again!

On an unrelated note, I'm still in Warsaw and I may be staying here for a while, courtesy of the volcanic ash cloud. It's been an interesting week. For those who are interested, president Kaczorowski's funeral was here yesterday, and I managed to take some pictures.

Best,

J. J.

[Noel Maurer]

I'd like to invite you to put up some English guest posts here, if you'd be amenable.

[pc]

Where in Mexico did you go?

[Doug M.]

I caught a clip recently where they interviewed one of the dumber Serb nationalist commentators about Kosovo. What was dismaying was not that it was one-sided -- that's expected -- but that they invited this particular guy, who's really a complete idiot.

But yeah. Who /is/ it aimed at? I can think of several possibilities, but none really seem worth the effort.

Maybe it's just a sort of prestige project, to get the Russian POV out there in the international marketplace of ideas?

Doug M.

[Alex]

They're certainly putting in significant resources; they had a huge ad campaign in London earlier this year, covering the tube with billboards and putting full-page ads in the broadsheet press. Very high-style, high production values, too - I get the impression the UK's highly efficient bullshit industry (i.e. London PR and media-law firms and ad agencies) is currently getting a lot of work from Russia. And they're evidently buying a lot of Google AdWords.