I'm noticing Russian propaganda now features a biker gang (kind of a Russian Hell's Angels) called the "Night Wolves". The best I can figure is the club is about 21 years old and has about 5 thousand members. There are chapters as far away as Serbia, I don't know where else they are.Although nobody gives a lot of thought to Russian propaganda any more, the Russians are still active propagandists. There is a Russian news network in English, that hammers away at the U.S. every chance it gets. I watched a couple of their videos from last year, and found them quite well done. They focus tearing down the very thing that America is most proud of, the rich lifestyle.
http://rt.com/usa/news/american-dream-economy-unemployment/
http://rt.com/usa/news/usa-economy-wall-street-sex/?utm_source=2leep&utm_medium=2leep&utm_campaign=2leep
Here is a Night Wolves biker-related feature: Putin meets with Serbian members of the motorcycle gang "Night Wolves"
http://rt.com/news/features/putin-balkan-friends-football/
It seems to me that the Russian message, while it is polished and well focused, is not really making any impact. The Russians are yesterday's news. There is far more world wide interest in the conflict between Muslims and the US.
Picture: Putin on a Harley from this Russian Blog.
http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2010/07/24/putin-arrived-at-biker-rally-in-sevastopol-on-a-harley-trike-ease-on-down-the-road-vladimir-vladimirovich/
If you understand Russian, take a look at the Wikipedia entry for Night Wolves and tell me what its about.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Trident13/NightWolves
The infamous FOXNews may claim (and may have copyrighted) that it's 'Fair and Balanced,' but RT challenges us to 'Question More.'
ReplyDeleteMedia freedom in Russia under Putin is, of course, limited. And RT is simply the overseas arm of that controlled media, rated by Reporters Without Borders as basically pro-Kremlin propaganda.
An approximate translation of that Russian biker Wiki entry is available from Google Translate, but the 'official word' is available from the Night Wolves' own website.
Unfortunately, RT seems to be getting more and more popular on Youtube, if nowhere else. Their nature of propaganda seems so obvious, but unfortunately, it sems like a lot of people don't realize they're watching Russian government funded propaganda. I've written some posts on this: http://paulmbrown.blogspot.com/2011/05/from-russia-with-deceit-more-lies-and.html
ReplyDeleteI find it very unfortunate that RT's reporting has far less misinformation, Disinformation and spin than anything broadcast on U.S. television!
ReplyDeleteI picked one RT video, and found Ghaddafi and porn in less than 2 minutes, with a hot anchor lady. The Russians are apparently learning from Rupert Murdoch (Hey, maybe this channel is run by Rupert Murdoch!)
ReplyDeleteRT Television on Youtube
Note to self: unsubscribe from your pointless channels on Youtube, and subscribe to RT TV
If the Wikipedia entry can be believed, RT now ranks second only to BBC as the most watched foreign news source in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThe first rule of running an autocracy is, of course, to gain control of the media.
It was interesting to watch the fight between Putin and the oiligarchs (especially Khodorkovsky) in the early days of Putinism for control of the networks. (A good description of that period in Russian history can be found in Tom Bowser's Oil).