2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Protip: Citing Russia Today does not help your case [View all]GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)Thomas Jefferson is thought to have said 'Freedom of the press belongs strictly to those that own one.'
Broadcast TV is a dying business, cable news is limping along and largely ignored by those under 40. There is no good business reason to own newspapers so why do large corporations make "news" part of their mix? Likely it is to be the filter. To be the power broker that shapes public opinion and moves legislation or wars forward so that the corporation can get tax breaks and contracts. Ruppert Murdoch has said as much.
Is Russia Today propaganda ? Sure but no more so than CNN, Fox and the rest. Many may search out "news" sources that they agree with but such a lazy path nearly guarantees that one will be spoon fed a half-fictional narrative. The way to the truth is to look at all news sources with a critical eye, to separate facts and events from the way they are spun and to use a variety of biased sources that have different biases so that you can find some nuggets of truth where they overlap.