I was only vaguely aware that Russia Today existed until our venerable chum Paul Marks mentioned it for the hundredth time, usually whilst he was sharpening a cavalry sabre (I may have imagined that last bit). So eventually I just bit the bullet (picked up on a battlefield in the Crimea I might add) and I actually went and found the damn thing on-line.
Oh boy what fun I was missing! Russia Today is as much of a hoot as listening to Radio Tirana back in the great old days of Enver Hoxha, which is to say, it is AWESOME. These guys actually play it dead pan most of the time, as if people are going to take them seriously! I really do LOVE them! Of course I am sure the people who work there don’t really think that, but hey, as long as they keep getting a pay check for providing us with giggles, it is a win-win for all concerned!
I mean they even have Steven Seagal! How cool is that? Seagal always wanted to be a good actor, a respected commentator and a friend of gay icon and all round great guy Vlad Putin… do not scoff! Do not titter! Face it, achieving one out of three of your life’s ambitions is more than most people ever do!
>>Who needs the Comedy Channel when you can have Russia Today?
Or Press TV or CNN or Fox news or Sky News or BBC world…
I’ve got one better if you’re after a good laugh…
It’s called the BBC!
And what’s even better about that lot – PEOPLE HAVE TO PAY THEM for the comic relief!
Some actually even believe that they deliver news.
It’s a Monty Python world this one innit?!
Yes that is the only thing better about Putin Today vs. the BBC, at least I do not have pay for the Vlad Putin Adoration Society, whereas I really do have to pay for the bastards in Broadcasting House.
Surely “titter ye not” is actually the term of art?
But that’s the difference. It ain’t the same. We have a choice of the shit-spooners we get our news from (I get a lot of my stuff from the English language Indian media, they cover the weirdest stuff!), whereas that cockhead Putin might as well just read the fucking news himself. One of the RT Babes is a bit fit though, even if she does have Putin’s hand up her whatsit when she talks. RT works best if you just turn the fucking sound off and admire the scenery.
Indeed Christian, you are quite correct 😀
In the mid 1980s, I lived in Portugal part of the year. Colonel Otelo was a wannabe (what would be) Chavez, the Commies painted graffiti on our house which we whitewashed off with lime, fig aguardente 43% abv was 90 pence for 75cl, or 5 escudos (2 pence) a shot, and of a winter evening, with Medium Wave radio, I would scan the airwaves for entertainment. I found Radio Tirana in English, it was fascinating ‘…As the so-called ‘Marxist-Leninist’ régime in Moscow…’ would begin a report on some Soviet news, I thought:
Oh happy days. The local Commies who held rallies with Castroesque speeches on sunny Sunday afternoons left us alone graffiti apart, and didn’t seem to notice our neighbour was a Norwegian ex Waffen-SS Scharführer, despite his mantlepiece display including photo and Iron Cross.
And now we have the banality of Russia Today, which I only catch when in a hotel for work, progress of sorts.
Perry the problem is that many of our libertarian brothers and sisters believe it (or things than can be traced back to it) – after all where do you think such BS as “Western intelligence agencies created ISIS” comes from?
The Rothbardians got their view of world events from Radio Moscow – and many of our modern “fellow libertarians” (and some “conservatives” also) get their view of the world from “Russia Today”.
Leading economists from the universities grace propaganda shows such as “Boom Bust” – Occupy leftists sit at the feet of “Breaking the Set”, Conservative (and UKIP politicians) appear on RT “news” shows and agree with the RT “journalists”.
It is good that you can laugh at it all.
I wish I could.
I’ve stopped watching RT since the Alyona Show ended.
Miss Minkovski was the sexiest girl on TV by far, and always wore stunning outfits. Her rants were ludicrous and comical. Great show.
Well, I guess I’m going to have to give it a try. But if it’s as amusing as you all suggest (Paul excepted, of course!), I have an idea for a new program there: They could have Comrade Vladimir host a sort of travelogue visiting some of the nicer tourist hotels in Russia and call it Putin on the Ritz!
Perfect! And it is remarkable how making such jokes seems to enrage the vatniki on line.
I too shall have to give it a look. Re Seagal and Putin – the former is, after all, Out for Justice.
Ah, Radio Tirana. I really must dust off my shortwave radio. I used to even get Voice of Justice in Iran on it, with a following wind. That was good fun.
Like Paul Marks I find it difficult to laugh. This is partly because RT’s economic coverage in the form of some of Max Keiser and Boom Bust (if it is still going) is vastly superior to anything going on on any Western TV channel. With their credibility established RT can then push a whole bunch of Kremlin propaganda such as “bankster” bashing and shale bashing.
Does RT still have Alex Jones on as a regular guest?
Take from that what you will….
The BBC had me believing the Tottenham Rioters were white and middleclass. Then I watched RT..
Too bad about the missing babes.
However, CrossTalk is always interesting as it provides an outlet for non-Establishment academics and reporters to comment on current events. We get to hear what the other side is thinking without filtration.
Not so much what they are thinking, as what they are told to think 😉
Yes, Radio Tirana used to be interesting . . it was very serious mindless-patter about the great victories of the communist people’s republic . . the whole parody used to roll off the mindless tongues . . I’m sure I have a recording somewhere (along with the last broadcast of Radio Caroline as she went down) . . it was 1970’s cool? More sophisticated these days.
But, then as now, we are moving into a serious situation of the west being in retreat, and we are entering a dangerous political attitude as we were in then.
It was give way, give way, give way on disarmament, etc, and one seriously began to plan ways to evacuate out of London in the event of the soviet tanks rolling into the west.
It was not until Regan and Thatcher called their bluffs that the west began to haul back from the edge.
One of the situations that is similar to that now is the way the west, led by Obama, has backed down, or ignored by silence, and allowed Iran to more or less achieve nuclear breakout. All it needs is a little time.
Freedom in retreat.
It is the academics and the politicians (not just Ron Paul, who appears to be senile, but some middle aged MPs and so on) whom I can not forgive – well (I suppose) I could forgive them, but I am not going to. I am not going to forgive the academics either.
I do not care how much the young RT “swallow” smiles at you – you do not help Putin and co against the West (this is a bad thing to do – Paul not pleased, Paul annoyed).
Still in the future CCTV (Chinese propaganda television) may be the one to look out for.
Broadcasting pro Islamic anti Israeli propaganda a few minutes (yes I am nerd – I watch, from time to time, all the English language news stations, apart for CNN was it just too pathetic).
A tad hypocritical given what the Chinese regime does to its own Muslims – but there we go.
I wonder if Max Keiser and his charming wife Rosa Klebb (keep away from the poisoned dagger in her show) will end up working for CCTV?
Press TV (the Iranian propaganda service) proved too hot for Max – and he will fall out with Mr Putin eventually.
Of course the Chinese and Russian regimes are in alliance – so Max may end up getting used for spare parts (literally – and whilst he still alive), but such things are part of the rich tapestry of modern life.
Our host wrote:
There’s thought involved? When did this begin?
And Steven Seagal is a fine star of the silver (well, the small straight-to-DVD small LCD) screen. Just like Metallica, he had a use-by date, and it was 1989.
“Not so much what they are thinking, as what they are told to think”
That’s what teleprompters are FOR!
Doesn’t the Ukranian secessionist flag second picture down, have a rather obvious echo?
The whole thing is a farce: sham observers observing a sham election.
As Stephen “VodkaPundit” Green said a few months ago, RT is ITAR-TASS with a breast implants.