On Sunday’s Inside Politics, left-wing CNN Democrat John King appeared concerned about foreign propaganda operations influencing American political attitudes despite having ignored them for years.
King stated as a matter of fact that the Russian government had “intervened” in American politics with the intent of assisting then Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. In so doing, he is connecting his contestable declaration to the broader narrative of “fake news” – pushed by Democrats and their media allies – as a primary driver of the presidential election’s outcome, Implicitly, “fake news” is framed as having been and continuing to be political beneficial for President-elect Donald Trump.
Russia Today, now known as RT, is the English-language propaganda arm of the Russian government. A brainchild of Russian President Vladimir Putin, it has been in operation since 2005. Neither King nor any of his CNN colleagues have done any meaningful reporting on RT or its impact on American political attitudes.
PressTV’s English division is the English-language propaganda arm of the Iranian government. A brainchild of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Sayyed Khameini, it has been in operation 2007. Neither King nor any of his CNN colleagues have done any meaningful reporting on PressTV or its impact on American political attitudes.
Al-Jazeera English is the English-language propaganda arm of the Qatari government. It has been in operation since 2003. Neither King nor any of his CNN colleagues have done any meaningful reporting on Al-Jazeera or its impact on American political attitudes.
RT, PressTV, and Al-Jazeera regularly push conventionally left-wing and neo-Marxist narratives of history, sociology, economics, and broader political economy. Political and news media observers will note broad parallels between their narratives and those pushed by American-based left-wing and Democrat-aligned news outlets.
Familiar examples of the aforementioned parallels include the hyping of racial agitation, such as framing George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin as illustrative of a broader narrative of blacks as a group oppressed by non-existent phenomena such as “white privilege” and “white supremacy”. The above-listed propaganda arms also regularly cast the American government as being subverted by “big business” and “corporate” interests, furthering Marxist narratives of class warfare.
In the realm of international politics, RT, PressTV, and Al-Jazeera regularly arraign the United States as a belligerently imperialistic state. Russia, Iran, and Qatar are framed by their respective state-run English-language propaganda arms as serving moral causes in their resistance to an aggressive and expansionist America.
Political and news media observers will note the broad overlap between narratives pushed by left-wing and Democrat-aligned news outlets – CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, The Huffington Post, NPR, et al. – and those of the propaganda arms of foreign adversarial governments.
The above mentioned overlap includes personnel. CNN alumnus Larry King essentially works for the Russian government with RT being the primary purchaser of his two shows: Larry King Now and Politicking With Larry King. CNN alumnus Soledad O’Brien went to work for Al-Jazeera after being terminated from her role as host of the now defunct Early Start morning show. Ed Schultz joined RT after his termination from MSNBC. Ayman Mohyeldin has worked for CNN, NBC/MSNBC, and Al-Jazeera. Mohamed Fahmy worked for CNN and Al-Jazeera before joining the University of British Columbia’s school of journalism as an adjunct professor.
Intergovernmental transitions by government-funded propagandists also occurs. Mehdi Hasan left the BBC to join Al-Jazeera. He concurrently operates as the political editor of The Huffington Post’s United Kingdom section. The late David Frost left a multi-decade career at the BBC to join Al-Jazeera in 2006.
CNN and its similarly-politicized news media counterparts have also neglected to conduct any meaningful reporting on the political impact of left-wing English-language state propaganda operations based in the West such as the BBC, CBC, and ABC.
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