Subject: Recommending JRL

Satellite Dishes

Subject: Recommending JRL
Date:     Wed, 27 Jul 2016
From:     An American professor expert on Russia

I’ve been a JRL fan for many years, and have recommended it to students and friends as the best way to follow commentary on Russia. At times, however, JRL seems to tilt toward non-substantive pro-Russian propaganda articles.  Today’s post (#139) led with articles claiming that efforts to tie Russia to the DNC emails release were a conspiracy or “red-baiting” or McCarthy-ism.  None were official statements.  Of the five lead articles, only the Guardian article was circumspect.  The Washington Post editorial was buried last – presumably some sort of afterthought. This is just one example.

The best materials on JRL, from my point of view, are articles written by Russian commentators (Karaganov, Inozemtsev, Lukyanov, and many others) and materials directly from the Russian media and semi-official sources. You can watch RT as news or as propaganda, but either way, what it puts out is worth nothing. But is Anatoly Karlin in Unz Review a worthwhile source?

The point is not “balance”, but materials that are efforts to get past propaganda, or that are acknowledged as Russian state output.

I will continue to recommend JRL, but with some sort of warning about pro-Russian propaganda materials.

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