Precautions Are Needed Against the Propagandistic Use of Language in News Reporting
Precautions Are Needed Against the Propagandistic Use of Language in News Reporting
Paul Craig Roberts
The English language Russian media sites, RT and Sputnik, report news that the US media, focused as it is on protecting official narratives, ignores. I benefit from the broader news coverage, but I have noticed that the Russian media is not very sophisticated and tends to use American characterizations, such as calling France’s nationalist party “far right-wing.”
Marine Le Pen’s party is no more nationalist than Putin’s. Would the Russian media identify Russia’s dominant political party as far right-wing? Putin is as insistent on Russian sovereignty as Le Pen is on French sovereignty. Why does the Russian media accept Washington’s propaganda that national sovereignty is far right-wing?
Anyone who regularly reads RT and Sputnik comes across these incidences of Russian media using words that convey Washington’s point of view.
The way that the Russian media and, perhaps, the Russian intellectual class have fallen in step with American propaganda indicates a lack of independent characterization and description. Perhaps the explanation is that the Russian news sources employ Americans as journalists and that mischaracterizations are institutionalized in the way of thinking.
Russian media might give thought to developing descriptions independent of American mischaracterizations. The American media uses language as a weapon for propaganda purposes. The Russian media should avoid the American media’s propagandistic use of language, which has the result of coloring news reporting with opinion.
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