CLASS 15: RUSSIA'S USE OF PRESS TOURS IN CRIMEA

HOW RUSSIA PURCHASED POLITICIANS, JOURNALISTS, AND OTHER INFLUENCERS TO HELP SECURE ITS CLAIM TO THE PENINSULA

Today, I’d like to take a deeper look at how Russia manipulates Western media and why this is an important tactic in their influence toolbox.

Tools. See below for a picture of a Russian tool. Photo by iMattSmart on Unsplash

For many of us in the West, the idea of buying a journalist is anathema to the concept of freedom of the press. Indeed, a bought journalist would hardly be called a journalist at all, but rather would be referred to as a spokesperson or endorser or (if we were feeling less magnanimous) a shill.

We have seen many examples of Russia literally buying people who pose as and present themselves as journalists. Sometimes, these are people who really did work legitimately as journalists for a while. But, as we’ll see, they lose all rights to such a title once they accept money to print certain stories or ideas, including many written directly by their handlers.

Most times these influencers work for fringe outlets that publish totally bonkers stories (Hillary was abducted by aliens! Obama is a lizard person!). But a few work for legitimate outlets, which makes their stories easier to believe and harder to debunk, since a large percentage of the outlet’s publications are totally legitimate. Often, the people involved are not journalists at all, but rather academics or influencers of some kind.

Most times, however, the Kremlin seeks out those who work for the lunatic fringe, mostly because it is hard to get legitimate mainstream publications to take them seriously. Indeed, we saw this dynamic at work when Tucker Carlson went to Moscow to interview Putin and Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov (or as I call him, the Mustache of Moscow) said the quiet part out loud: “[Traditional TV channels and large newspapers] don’t even attempt to appear impartial in their coverage. Of course there’s no desire to communicate with this kind of media.”

Come to Crimea, Enjoy the Sun and Little Green Men!

Today, we are going to focus on Russian “Press Tours” focused on Ukraine.