I admit it, I'm an old guy. I was in High School when Ronald Reagan joked about Russian missiles being on their way on live radio. I remember watching the Berlin Wall come down on live television, and I remember watching CNN correspondents interviewing Croats through the barbed wire of Serbian Concentration Camps.
I remember when Russia was the bad guy, the Totalitarian State with the secret police and the fear and the food shortages. The squalor and hopelessness of many Russians was paraded across television screens almost daily back in the 1980's, serving as a reminder of the supremacy of Democracy.
This struck me particularly hard when I watched this video:
Here is the Russian President, sitting around a table with journalists from every branch of the Russia Today news organization, answering questions right before his meeting with Barack Obama.
Now, I know you watched the entire 25 minute interview, right? Did you notice the questions he was asked were a little on the 'tough' side? Lemme see, drone use and the international implications, ideological differences between Russia and the USA, Middle East tensions, Iran, Imperialism, surveillance state and national security issues, even the Religious aspects of his freaking Divorce.
And all of it answered directly and with far more honesty than I have seen from a Politician in a long long time.
One other thing that struck me throughout, is the assumption of intelligence the network has for it's audience. The questions are complex and address complex issues, and are even articulated in complex language. Them Russians sure are complex, one might think, except the RT producer mentions that the majority of their viewership is in the USA.
Now, if you haven't, go watch the whole thing and then ask yourself if you can see ANY Politician in the USA willing to do such a thing, or any journalist in the USA capable of thinking up such questions, let alone capable of articulating them with anything above a Grade 3 vocabulary.
The contrast is striking. It is indeed a mixed up world.
I remember when Russia was the bad guy, the Totalitarian State with the secret police and the fear and the food shortages. The squalor and hopelessness of many Russians was paraded across television screens almost daily back in the 1980's, serving as a reminder of the supremacy of Democracy.
This struck me particularly hard when I watched this video:
Here is the Russian President, sitting around a table with journalists from every branch of the Russia Today news organization, answering questions right before his meeting with Barack Obama.
Now, I know you watched the entire 25 minute interview, right? Did you notice the questions he was asked were a little on the 'tough' side? Lemme see, drone use and the international implications, ideological differences between Russia and the USA, Middle East tensions, Iran, Imperialism, surveillance state and national security issues, even the Religious aspects of his freaking Divorce.
And all of it answered directly and with far more honesty than I have seen from a Politician in a long long time.
One other thing that struck me throughout, is the assumption of intelligence the network has for it's audience. The questions are complex and address complex issues, and are even articulated in complex language. Them Russians sure are complex, one might think, except the RT producer mentions that the majority of their viewership is in the USA.
Now, if you haven't, go watch the whole thing and then ask yourself if you can see ANY Politician in the USA willing to do such a thing, or any journalist in the USA capable of thinking up such questions, let alone capable of articulating them with anything above a Grade 3 vocabulary.
The contrast is striking. It is indeed a mixed up world.
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