What happened to all the RT supporters here?

[Abu Pepe]

There used to be a lot of them. Did they leave? Stay but reassessed RT?

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. They went to JPR. nt

[Abu Pepe]

2. Ah. makes sense. nt

[JCanete]

3. what parts of RT were people listening to? I still have no reason to hate on Thom Hartmann.

He's always been an important progressive voice, and I doubt that has changed.

[LanternWaste]

9. The parts laying all blame of violence at the hands of Ukraine

The parts laying all blame of violence at the hands of Ukraine, the parts parroting RT's criticism of Clinton, the parts blaming Obama for cracking down on Russian journalists, the parts rationalizing Putin's treatment of LGBT. Lots of new thinking going on (and on, and on).

And I doubt that has changed either... regardless of whether one consciously uses "hate" in place of 'criticism' when it applies to their sacred cows.

[Adrahil]

10. He takes Putin's paycheck.

Whatever he may say or think, he is serving Putin's objectives, in this case, to give RT a gloss of legitimacy for the American left.

[JCanete]

12. first, does he take a paycheck from Putin? Second, even if he gets money from Putin's gov,

can you make a compelling case for why taking money from American mega-corporations who promote fairly anti-american policies and behaviors both through their lobbyists and through their programming all in the name of the mighty dollar, isn't giving them a legitimacy they do not deserve?

Are there people in the corporate media you are okay with in-spite of this?

[Nevernose]

13. You've moved your goal posts

The subject was RT's credibility, not American media's credbility.

Even so, I think the difference between our corporate media and RT's government propaganda is this: our media uncritically reads the government press releases on air and calls it "news." Russia Today is actually writing the press releases, be as they are the government.

[JCanete]

15. our corporate media is owned by the same institutions that actually own our country.

They aren't being dictated to by Russia. They just don't care that Russia helped get Trump elected, or else they would get his ass unelected in a hurry...likely impeached. They would make his Presidency illegitimate in the eyes of 60 percent or more of the public, and the GOP would do the bidding of their donors and oust him. Right now he's a convenient idiot.

I didn't move the goal posts at all. You can't attack the credibility of Hartman or even RT at large, in a vacuum. My point was that all media is connected to entities with an agenda. It is a sad reality that to get some actual domestic news we often have to find it from alternative sources, and sometimes, in the case of RT, those sources themselves have a vested interest in making America look bad, or in sewing unrest. I would never advocate that you watch Hartmann or anybody on any station without employing proper skepticism, cross-checking, and also supplementing your news intake with a vast range of perspectives for this reason.

[Adrahil]

24. Okay, so your amking a the argument that...

Foreign powers seeking to undermine our country are no worse that corporate powers in this country? I cannot agree with that. If that is your positin, I find it deplorable.

[JCanete]

34. oh, deplorable....well shit, now I feel so horrible. I"m making the argument, since you missed it,

that there is no foreign intervention allowed to stand without these powers that actually be allowing it. OF COURSE its a problem. OF COURSE it can't be ignored. It has nothing to do with Hartmann, and in the grand scheme of the 2016 election, it had a miniscule effect compared to the media effort, funded and run by our corporations, that really did the work of getting Trump elected. How could you possibly think their role in it is less egregious? Frankly, its far more egregious, because these are supposedly American companies, with at least a large amount of American shareholders, and they are fucking over their own country and its people.

[Abu Pepe]

18. And that is what the Russians want from him, legitimacy for RT. nt

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Just lurking.

[DBoon]

5. they are being paid to troll other topics

make a few spare rubles

[MineralMan]

6. Yah, they left and joined a new website that

was started by one of those RT folks. Some have returned, but not so many - at least not with the same screen names.

[Abu Pepe]

17. Wonder how many were knowingly trolling for Putin and how many were just serious dupes.

I have actually been here since 2011. I just opened a new account after the election night hack. Seemed the safest thing to do. But I had already started coming here less and less because of the Putin useful idiots brigade.

[NCTraveler]

7. They are changing tunes.

It's now about how Russia is a distraction and we need to move on.

[dembotoz]

8. no we are still here. there still is no lefty alternative

i also listen to hartman

[Adrahil]

11. RT does not serve "lefty" interests

The inclusion of hosts attractive to the left is meant to add an air of legitimacy to RT, especially to those suspicious of American foreign policy. Now why do you think Putin would want to do that? Hmmmm.....

[dembotoz]

23. Untill there are alternatives

I am a big boy I can figure it out.

[Adrahil]

25. Maybe you can...

But most really can't. Putin and the FSB know what they are doing.

[Ilsa]

30. If they are listening to TH, they aren't

hearing Putin. I haven't heard any pro-putin crap on RT. In fact, over the last five years, I've read more pro-putin shit on DU, especially in 2012 when Rmoney referenced russia in a debate.

[whathehell]

27. Thom Hartmann's show does serve progressive interests

In addition, he has complete editorial control of his program. The rest is just trolling bullshit.

[Sunlei]

14. all of them were trolls, elections over now.

[Abu Pepe]

19. So they are just hanging out at the internet in their local Macedonian villiage? nt

[Sunlei]

21. They have to have permission to use the internet. Most likely trolling other countries.

Lot of troll-work to do in this world.

[TheBlackAdder]

16. Hopefully, they've found the health benefits of receiving a high colonic.

[NutmegYankee]

20. They completed their mission for the Motherland and moved on.

[Raine]

22. Well I still watch them

I'm not calling myself a supporter but I like to get info from all places. I also watch the BBC, PBS and news from France.

[Warpy]

32. Exactly, RT posts a lot of raw video from breaking news stories

much of it without commentary.

Grownups know their editorial bias and take it into consideration.

[MuseRider]

26. I watch Thom Hartman from time to time,

is that what you mean? I don't care, if there are good political discussions I will listen. Hey! I do not even have to agree with them to learn something so yeah, if he is on RT I really don't care what people on a discussion forum think about it.

[emulatorloo]

29. No, he means those who posted and rec'd RT clips smearing Democrats

Those clips were produced by Russian State TV.

This OP of this thread has zero to do with Thom

[pnwmom]

33. Well, not exactly. In the primaries Thom had plenty of RT videos in which he smeared Dems. n/t

[emulatorloo]

28. See WayoftheBern etc @ Reddit..

[Warpy]

31. RT still has great videos out there

and the best ones have no voice over commentary.

I ignore them for most news, obviously.

[Sunlei]

35. yes, they do have good videos. Always remember RT is Russian government controlled media.

Only a few short years ago, Russia purged all their media and made it all government controlled. They just did the same last year to public polling medias, got rid of all except 2 and the citizen polls are now government controlled.

[Coventina]

36. Thanks for the thread. Bookmarking.