The major wire services have picked up a story today about a familiar complaint- free speech. What President Putin really is complaining about is US restrictions on Sputnik and RT, both news services operated by the Kremlin. If the two countries operated free press outlets, that comparison might stand up, but the US press is not operated on behalf of the State. Ask anyone in the US and they would tell you, our press does not exactly favor our current president, but absolutely loved his predecessors.
So, can state run media outlets be unbiased, able to report on corruption or the abuses of government leaders? Especially, we add, that the discovery of abuses by Russia during the US elections. That “free press” he is talking about is trying to undermine our form of government by supporting mass media stories, to the benefit of his own.
We used to identify state- run media fairly easily. VOA and BBC were the originals. Now, we find it hard to tell the difference between independent news and state-run news outlets. And, there will be more discussion about this as the AT&T - Time-Warner merger moves along. When people with political agendas buy news outlets, there is very little difference between the free press in Russia and the free press here. Look at what happened to CNN where many of our news people got their training. It has become biased and blind to news of the world, looking to focus on narrow elements of domestic politics. Is that what we think of when we say “ free press”?
Russia would love to run its state news services in the US, but those services are not free anymore than CNN is free today. Divestiture is the answer - for both countries. Think that will happen in Russia? Let’s see if either country can manage it.
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