Governments, especially those of dictatorships, are well known for making news - not showing up on the front pages of newspapers from around the world, but by manufacturing stories so incredible that even the readers of their publications find them difficult to believe. Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and a number of others control news and make it fit what they want the reader to believe, not what actually happened.
To that end, Karen Kawisha, in today's Wall Street Journal, reviews Arkady Ostrovsky's book, The Invention of Russia, a look inside the making of Russia's less-than-free press, famous for making up stories that fit the party line, without much interest in the truth, or describing events as they actually occurred. Even readers of the Russian newspapers understand what these publications are for. They are rarely news outlets; they are propaganda machines. Ostrovsky describes a completely manufactured story of a crucifixion in the Ukraine as one example. When it comes to RT there are many more including the criminalization of the Ukrainian leadership with images distorting their looks so they appear as cartoon character villains, which I wrote about in my third book.
This goes to the credibility of the source. When a news outlet tells incredible stories, it loses an increment of believability from that time on. It is not something we think about when we think of Western newspapers, but more and more our news outlets repeat things they know should be fact checked before they are published. They are incredible, but published exactly as they are because the reporters are lazy. They use the phrases "could not be reached for comment", or "did not reply to our inquiry" which was just made 10 minutes ago. They use the excuse that they have deadlines to make so that confirmation, or the other side of the story, can wait. We have armies of press secretaries and political hacks who make a living off of making stuff up, slanting stories to fit a public perception that they are want to enhance, or outright lying about events. Their lies will not be discovered without missing a few deadlines, or postponing a story until the facts are known.
At least with Russia and China we know the news is intentionally slanted, censored, and made to fit the mold created by the state. We understand that dictators do that. But, let's not pretend that is is only dictators who do. The free press owes itself a little bit of soul searching about what it publishes in the name of truth. We have news outlets that clearly favor one political candidate over another. They call "experts" that clearly favor one over the other, and load them on a schedule that omits opposing views. When CNN hired Cory Lawendowski, Donald Trump's ex campaign manager, it took heat from part of its audience that only wanted to see "fair and impartial" reporting from its commentators. Really? Who are we kidding? Opposing sides are the only way to get the truth of anything.
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