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| Analytic Process and Cyber Incident Attribution, at 9 (Jan. 2017) (‘‘DNI Assessment) 223 BBG Data on Russian International Broadcasting Reach, IBB Office of Policy and Research, Broadcasting Board of Governors, June 2017. For example, BBG data showed that RT and Sputnik combined only have a total weekly reach of 2.8 percent of Moldova’s population, 1.3 percent of Belarus’s, and 5.3 percent of Serbia’s. Comparing Russian and American Government Propaganda Meduza, Sept 14, 2017. (Meduza is a Russian online newspaper Sam Gerrans, YouTube and the Art of Investigation RT, Sept. 27, 2015. facts or truths.’’ 216 Part of RT and Sputnik’s appeal—and an explanation for their apparent success—is their high production value and sensational content. According to a 2016 study by the RAND Corporation, RT and Sputnik are more like a blend of infotainment and disinformation than fact-checked journalism, though their formats intentionally take the appearance of proper news programs.’’ 217 Russian media reports have even gone so far as conducting fake interviews with actors that are paid to pretend they are victims of Ukrainian government aggression. 218 RT was launched in 2005 and currently reports in six languages Arabic, English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. The US. State Department reports that the Russian government spends an estimated $1.4 billion per year on disseminating its messaging through various media platforms at home and abroad. 219 In 2016, over $300 million went to RT alone. 220 As a Russian human rights activist put it, the Europeans who see RT as an alternative are similar to the left-wing audience—both in Europe and the United States—in the sands who held favorable views of the Soviet Union. 221 Former Secretary of State John Kerry has referred to RT as a propaganda bullhorn and RT regularly gives controversial European political figures a platform on its shows and gives disproportionate coverage to the more extreme factions of the European Parliament. 222 RT claims to reach between 500 million and 700 million viewers in over 100 countries. However, according to data compiled by the BBG, this likely overstates the viewership, as it represents the number of households in which RT is available, and not the number of households that actually watch RT. 223 As of 2017, RT attracted about 22.5 million Facebook followers, and it deftly drives traffic to its platforms with human interest stories, cat videos, and pseudo conspiracy theories (like op-eds about whether the earth is round or flat). 224 A 2015 analysis found that only one percent of videos on RT’s YouTube channel were political in nature, while its VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00047 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 42 Katie Zavadski, ‘‘Putin’s Propaganda TV Lies About Its Popularity The Daily Beast, Sept. 17, 2015. Matthew Bodner et al., Welcome to The Machine Inside the Secretive World of RT The Moscow Times, June 1, 2017. 227 Ibid. 228 Ibid. 229 Ibid. 230 Max Greenwood, Russian Radio Takes Over Local DC station The Hill, June 30, 2017. Comparing Russian and American government propaganda Meduza, Sept 14, 2017. Ben Nimmo, Propaganda in a New Orbit Information Warfare Initiative Paper No. 2, Cen- ter for European Policy Analysis, at 6 (Jan. 2016). Ping ponging is a technique to raise the profile of a story through complementary websites, with the goal of getting the mainstream media to pick it up. See Appendix H. most popular videos were of natural disasters, accidents, and crime. 225 The Moscow Times found that when RT reporters strayed from its implicit editorial line, they were told this is not our angle.’’ 226 Former staff report that RT’s editorial line comes from the top down, and managers, not editors, choose what will be covered and how. For example, when foreign staff disagreed with the way that RT was covering Ukraine, they were taken off the assignment and Ukraine-related coverage was handled by Russian staff. 227 And those Russian staff are mostly apathetic or apolitical, with no prior experience in journalism’’—their primary qualification is fluency in English, gained from either linguistic training or being the children of Russian diplomats.’’ 228 All of which reveals that, while RT may have a large budget and growing reach, it also has several fundamental institutional flaws which limit its ability to operate as a professional news organization. In the words of one former employee, a combination of apathy, alack of professionalism and a dearth of real talent keep RT from being more effective than it currently is.’’ 229 Sputnik is a state-owned network of media platforms launched in November 2014 and includes social media, news, and radio content in June 2017, it began operating an FM radio station in Washington, D.C. 230 With an annual budget of $69 million, the network operates indifferent languages and attracts about 4.5 million Facebook followers. 231 Like RT, Sputnik consistently promotes anti-West narratives that undermine support for democracy. A study by the Center for European Policy Analysis found that Sputnik grants disproportionate coverage to protest, anti-establish- ment and pro-Russian members of the European Parliament from Central and Eastern Europe that it does so systematically and that even when it quotes mainstream politicians, it chooses comments that fit the wider narrative of a corrupt, decadent and Russophobic West . . . making wide use of the protest potential of the legislature to promote the Kremlin’s chosen messages of disinformation.’’ 232 Sputnik is also often used to ping pong a suspect story from lesser-known news sites and into more mainstream press out- lets. 233 One well-known example was the purported police cover-up of the Lisa rape casein Germany. After initially circulating on Facebook, the story was picked up by Channel One, a Russian gov- ernment-controlled news channel, and then covered by RT and Sputnik, which argued the case was not an isolated incident. The following week, protests broke out, despite the fact the allegations had since been recanted and the police investigation had debunked VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 43 Jim Rutenberg, RT, Sputnik and Russia’s New Theory of War The New York Times, Sept. 13, 2017. Andrew Feinberg, My Life at a Russian Propaganda Network Politico, Aug. 21, 2017. 236 ‘‘Ex-French Economy Minister Macron could be US Agent Lobbying Banks Interests Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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