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• Monday, December 1, 2008 04:38 PM

  Some observations about how Russia is portrayed on NBC and MSNBC

  Two observations about NBC and Russia. Other readers might be in a position to comment on them:

  1. Madow Show: Although liberal on most issues, the Washington consensus view that "Russian aggression" was the root cause of the Georgia crisis is not something the show seems to have probed. Watching one show in particular, I got the sense that this line of thinking was "out of bounds."

  2. Tom Brokaw interview with Turner: Did anyone catch Brokaw's reaction when Turner questioned why the US had unilaterally decided to place Star Wars technology in E Europe?

  Perhaps I am reading too much into the above points, but I get the impression that it's rather important for to network that viewers see the Russians in a certain way. I'm asking whether the network's general openness to liberal views does not stop when the topic turns to Russia.

  Interestingly, US obsession with "Russian aggression" in the face of documented facts (Glenn has highlighted these) only makes any sense to me when I consider the bleak prospects for the US defense industry if it has no big power enemy to contend with. (NBC owner GE being a major defense contractor....) I explore this question in a blog post:

  http://jotman.blogspot.com/2008/09/world-according-to-northrop-grumman.html

  Fundamentally, I don't think it's OK for media companies to have far larger stakes in other industries like defense. I think it's wrong. It seems to me that the supposedly liberal tilt of MSNBC, could well be covering over a certain blind spot. (Glenn says viewers can take this bias into account, but how many will think to?). The bottom line is that should the US get into a war with Russia, none of the many "progressive issues" which MSNBC trumpets will matter anymore. Moreover, even a Cold War with Russia could lay to rest our hopes of tackling big issues like climate change. The major issues of our times require great power cooperation.

  *****

  One final observation (not related to Russia, but relates to the topic of NBC expert advisers): I noticed that Chris Matthews had this NSA agency guy on the show one day, and he was introduced as a regular MSNBC contributor. From what the guy was saying to Chris, I got a bit creeped out. It brought to mind Olbermann's U-turn on FISA the moment Obama caved.

  —Jotman Read Jotman's other letters
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