‘I’d Had Enough of the Insanity’

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Inside the madhouse of Kremlin-funded Russia Today:

Staci Bivens knew something was seriously wrong when her bosses at Russia Today asked her to put together a story alleging that Germany — Europe’s economic powerhouse — was a failed state.
“It was me and two managers and they had already discussed what they wanted,” Bivens, an American who worked in RT’s Moscow headquarters from 2009 through 2011, said of a meeting she’d had to discuss the segment before a planned reporting trip to Germany. “They called me in and it was really surreal. One of the managers said, ‘The story is that the West is failing, Germany is a failed state.’”
Bivens, who had spent time in Germany, told the managers the story wasn’t true — the term “failed state” is reserved for countries that fail to provide basic government services, like Somalia or Congo, not for economically advanced, industrialized nations like Germany. They insisted. Bivens refused. RT flew a crew to Germany ahead of Bivens, who was flown in later to do a few standups and interviews about racism in Germany. It was the beginning of the end of her RT career.
“At that point I’d been there for a little bit and I’d had enough of the insanity,” Bivens said. She stayed until the end of her contract in 2011 and didn’t make an effort to renew it.
Judging by interviews with seven former and current employees, Bivens’ story is typical. RT, the global English-language news network funded by the Russian government, has come into the spotlight since the Russian invasion of Crimea, which the network has defended tooth-and-nail. The invasion has led to two high-profile rebellions within the ranks: first, an on-air condemnation of the invasion by RT America host Abby Martin, followed days later by the live resignation of another host, Liz Wahl. Martin, who hosts an opinion show, said that Russia’s actions were wrong; Wahl, a news anchor, went one step further, saying that she could not work at a network that found Russia’s actions acceptable.
The public shake-up and skewed coverage of Ukraine has pulled aside RT’s curtain, exposing the network’s propaganda apparatus, which relies on a number of Western reporters and producers. . . .

Read the rest by Rosie Gray at BuzzFeed. (Yes, I know — everybody hates BuzzFeed, but this is a good story.)

 

77 comments

  2. RT is just old Radio Moscow with a slick new identity. The mission hasn’t changed, it’s to present the line of whoever runs the Kremlin to the world.

  3. I love Abby Martin!

    As long as she keeps Breaking the Set at RT, I can take any amount of insanity (which btw is only a fraction of what you get at Fox News.)

  6. Russia has almost as many propaganda efforts ongoing as the old Soviets did. Through the Russian “youth” internet group “Nasha,” Putin has been paying for favorable coverage for years.

    The extent of this has been expanded recently, probably to exploit the new stature Putin attained after owning Obama over Syria, Iran, and now Ukraine. You may have noticed a number of bloggers, some prominent and even some known as “neo-cons,” who suddenly decided that allowing Putin to take Crimea was just hokey-dokey.

    Someone needs to point out how utterly racist it is to assume that just because people in Ukraine or Crimea may speak Russian or be of Russian descent that they would prefer a return to the authoritarian kleptocracy of Putin’s Russia to the fledgling but hopeful democracy and freedoms of Ukraine, and closer economic and cultural relations with Europe. They do not. A fair poll of even the Russian-only speakers in Crimea wouldn’t find 20% who want reunification with Mother Russia.

    It is entirely fair to point out that there is little we can do about it, our European allies being virtually worthless and our own influence diminished by the feckless and weak Obama, but that doesn’t make it right. It’s still a sell-out, and it won’t be the last any more than Sudetenland was the last.

  9. A fair poll of even the Russian-only speakers in Crimea wouldn’t find 20% who want reunification with Mother Russia.

    Would be interesting to see March 16 Crimea Referendum results…

  10. Applause. We are seeing the totalitarian spin machine in action. The Western Lame Stream Media is jealous. Joseph Goebbels would be proud (but somewhat dismayed that Germany did not pick up the flag of tyranny as well as Putin has).

    Anyone thinking Putin is not doing anything wrong needs to get their head out of their a$$, and grow a spine. Just because 7th Army is no longer in Germany doesn’t mean we have to grovel at the feet of tyrants.

  11. Tut tut, Anamika, tut tut!

    Have you never heard of INTERNET search engines? Forsooth, one would think that a progressive such as yourself, surrounded by the benefits of modern technology, would grasp this basic tool of research!

    Tut tut, Anamika!
    Adjoran did say “a fair poll”, after all. Tut tut!

  12. Agreed. Edited the original!

    Yes it mayn’t be a fair poll. Still the results on the two questions along with the referendum participation percentage would be interesting in context.

  13. Why do I get the feeling that if Reagan was president instead of Obama Buzz Feed would be attacking Bivens instead of celebrating her?

  15. …pulled aside RT’s curtain, exposing the network’s propaganda apparatus…

    If only that would happen with our media.

  18. Anamika’s posts are like Pr0n. You know what’s coming next without even reading the script.

  19. That report does not ring true. A rendition to Syria is simply not plausible. Egypt I could believe, but not Syria.

    That doesn’t mean that much of the rest is not true, but something like renders the rest questionable.

  21. It doesn’t surprise me you watch RT.

    Protip: It’s still propaganda even if you find yourself nodding your head along with the reporter.

  22. If I had said, NY Times or MSNBC instead of Fox News, you would have no problem at all with my comment, right? So predictable.

  25. MSNBC is transparently a propaganda outfit, no “behind the veil” necessary. They’re like a cargo-cult version of FNC your side put together. Meaning it’s what you THINK FNC is like, but done from a lack of understanding of what really goes on.

    Well, lessee. Atkisson quit CBS the other day because they weren’t letting her investigate this administration. Bernard Goldberg’s Bias (also about CBS, incidentally) was an expose a few years ago. Also CBS – Rathergate. Don’t forget, CNN squashed reporting on Saddam Hussein because they didn’t want to offend him and lose the bureau – and didn’t add that caveat until well after it was no longer necessary.

    But they’re the straight shooters. Much like you think RT is.

    And not only does FNC generally try to play it down the middle in news reporting, with the exception of their opinion hosts (mostly) they actually have folks like Juan Williams (who was fired from NPR for insufficient fealty to your type of opinions) on hand to provide a different perspective FNC viewers might not consider. Who does CNN have to cover Republicans? Donna Brazile, former DNC vice chair and Al Gore’s campaign manager.

    Personnel is policy, and FNC doesn’t consider a narrow ideological range to be the only group from which to select. Which you think is wrong, apparently. They don’t have all the goodthink so they must be propaganda.

  27. Good to hear your thoughts on the subject. Lots of info, something to think about certainly. Need further research from my end. Thanks, i’ll keep this in mind when I make blanket comments about FNC, rather than just the ‘media.’

  28. So how many American journalists showed the same integrity over Fast&Furious, Beghazi, AGW, Obamacare, black on black gun crime, Feinstein stealing billions from veterans, the Libyan incursion, Obama’s “Arab Spring”, Ukraine…. “Here is your script, comrade. Just read it and go to commercial.”

  31. Well, just keep in mind that the Russian flag today is not the Red Army communist flag of Bronstein and the Bolsheviks, it’s the White Army flag of the Russians who opposed the Bolsheviks and who opposed communism.

    Here’s a brief intro to the factions of the Russian civil war:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Civil_War

    Know your history.

  34. I didn’t make the world I live in. God did that. You think you live in one between your depraved ears.

  35. For one, the flag flown by the Russians today is the anti-Soviet, anti-Bolshevik White Army flag, not the Red Army flag. It took the Russians about 70 years to defeat the dark forces of anti-Christian evil, but they finally did it.

    Know your history.

  37. Yeah, but the Russians didn’t exactly defeat the Communists, did they? WE DID.
    It’s like saying the Germans defeated the Nazis, or the Japanese overthrew their own military clique. The Russians lost, and they’re still pretty pissed about it.
    Also, characterizing the White Army as anti-Bolshevik without also characterizing it as pro-Russian Empire is rather disingenuous, don’t you think?

  39. The other day, I was watching an RT “opinion” show as 3 Euro-communists (sounding like Brits) plus the Amero-communist “moderator ganged up on an American of Russian origin. The four commies were vilifying the Ukraine and spreading the most outrageous pro-Russian propaganda while simply behaving as thugs to the one person who had experienced Soviet communism first-hand.

    It was an amazing spectacle and it is no wonder several employees have simply had enough of RT.

    The “Germany is a failed state” theme is kind of ironic given what happened to the USSR only 15 years ago. Russia is still a mess where huge percentages of their citizens still live in log cabins inside city limits without running water or in-door plumbing.

  40. He’s more Pro-Russia, and if it wasn’t out of fashion, he’s crown himself Czar of All Russias.

  41. Personally, I have no problem with the Russians. Unlike many in the media, I harbour no ethnic grudge nor religious grudge against them. In fact, I applaud their determination to preserve their culture from those in the media (e.g. sodomite James Kirchick) who wage war against them.

    For example – banning sodomite propaganda, as the Russians have done, is a good thing and I applaud their courage to do that.

    Stand for good.

  42. You seem to be confused about flags. Know your history of flags!

    I am sure the Ukrainians will be THRILLED that the COMMUNIST THUG, KGB agent running Russia today is OPPRESSING them under piece cloth that is NOT red.

    If you had a point, it probably wasn’t worth trying to understand…

  43. Putin is a Communist who was a KGB officer from 1975 until 1991. He recruited spies in East Germany and helped infiltrate them to the west to spy on America and other western allies.

    Oddly enough, MOST KGB officers were NOT “anti-socialist, pro-Christian.”

    KNOW YOUR COMMIE THUGS!!!

  44. Let’s not forget the Russians have also banned free speech, freedom or religion, freedom to keep and bear arms, the right to privacy, and a number of other freedoms we in America believe are our inalienable rights.

    STOP SPREADING MIND-NUMBINGLY STUPID COMMENTS ON THE INTERNET.

  46. You seem to be confused about flags. Know your history of flags!

    I am sure the Ukrainians will be THRILLED that the COMMUNIST THUG, KGB agent running Russia today is OPPRESSING them under piece cloth that is NOT red.

    If you had a point, it probably wasn’t worth trying to understand…

  47. Considering that standing for the idea that rights come from the Creator rather than a protection given by someone, and that in Mr. Putin’s Russia, that is contra indicated.

    Listen not to the Bear’s Voice, watch his claws.

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