Is the state putting pressure on the media?

Dear young friend blatham, looking at you, I form my opinion about the whole country. But I still hope that you are an exception.

No. I am really quite an accurate reflection of the people of Canada.

I love how the Russians flatter then demean.....it's fun to watch.

Oops! Sorry! I accidentally deleted the blatham's post. Studied the interface ...
Is it possible to recover?

I got a little goof with Lebowski. I did not know that there is such a film. And I agree, it turned out that inadequately reacted to the irony.
The remark is accepted.

Tell me please, what do "finger up", "finger down" and number mean?

Years ago, a chap appeared in the comment community at Greg Sargent's WP blog. Very smart guy but there seemed to be something unusually purposeful in his interactions. I asked him about this and he just openly revealed that he was with the US military working in PR and was trying to get a better handle on how that aspect of social media was operating. He was on assignment.

But as he was smart, educated and honest, he was quite delightful to engage. Our friend above is delightful too, just differently so.

An interesting opinion. Even as it flatters. How to disappoint you in this? I even wondered how to convince the interlocutor in his false conviction and to endure this mocking and ironic tone (believe me, this is really unpleasant and, for my part, also feels like trolling).

Today, February 23, Russia is celebrating Defender of the Fatherland Day. Earlier, in the Soviet Union, this holiday was called the Day of the Soviet Army and the Von Navy. On this day, usually all women congratulate all men. This holiday was established in 1918 by Lenin, as the day of the creation of the Red Army.
Just wanted to share with you. Is there a similar holiday in the USA?

Thanks Lash, back to the topic. Still, I have suspicions (no facts) that Facebook closed the accounts of the RT channels not on its own accord and not in accordance with its rules. Most likely there is a streamlined channel between the state and big media. And most likely this state of affairs exists in any large country. The state has the task of controlling public opinion. Nowadays, everyone understands this. Therefore, this is a common problem. And it seems to me that until a generally accepted mechanism for its solution appears, we will also be divided and increase the level of distrust of each other. But I am opposed to the major media act as instruments for choosing a point of view for me. This, on the contrary, undermines the credibility of the media.

I’ll bite for now.

FYI, I never invest any belief in the self-representation of personalities behind accounts online, but I don’t mind speaking to the content you’re currently presenting.

I’ve been bothered by a change in my search engine results months ago, and as max mentioned in the post I reposted, Facebook and Google deciding what is ‘fake news’ or ‘Russian propaganda’, to me also meets the definition of propaganda. It’s chilling to me, but the majority of people here either say I’m a Russian operative (👌🏻) or a Republican trying to subvert an election (🏆).

I no longer get Truthdig or Truthout (widely known liberal news and opinion) among the responses to my key word searches because they diverge from the establishment (state) ‘news and opinions’. They are considered possibly tainted by Russian elements. I’ve made more than a couple of Pravda cracks recently.

Anyway, we Russians have to stick together. Please speak up for me for a plush position in the party after The Big Takeover.

Well, JohnKlopper only needs to look at the patterns to see the state of things:

Russia has a two term presidency limit in their constitution. Putin 'somehow' managed to retain power by going from President, to Prime Minister, then back to president.
- he's approaching that presidential term limit again
- if Putin can reform the USSR (or similar), he has a legitimate reason to redo the constitution.

The above is fact. The question is, does anyone doubt that Putin will do whatever is necessary to keep himself in power?

Russia is aggressively expanding. Anyone who actually believes all the surrounding countries actually want Russian rule, forget why the USSR broke up in the first place, and don't comprehend nationalism. The pattern of expansionism is blatantly obvious, regardless of any media slant on motivations.

The above political situation in Russia (ie Putins political situation) is likely in large part responsible for 'Russian' (read Putin's) aggression. Part of such aggression to maintain personal power, is the use of State funds & institutions to promote a view that is favourable to the leader. This keeps the people in check. This sort of tactic can been seen time and again throughout recent history. It certainly appears to be the case in Russia.

...not that such doesn't have similes to propaganda in the west. And certainly not that western media doesn't have a rather slanted take on China and Russia.

For example, were I the Chinese leader, I too would see it in my countries best interests to aim for Reserve Currency status, become the dominant regional power, centralise manufacturing, protect my borders, etc. Ie. pretty much what the U.S. has done. But most of those things on China's behalf, would mean the loss of money, prestige, influence by the west (well, mostly the US), and 'threaten's US power. This makes it easy for media to create fear / doubt / emotionally slanted messages regarding China...which is a form of propaganda. Maybe not directed by the State, but still for form of propaganda.

You don't need what passes for journalism today to see the pattern of events playing out in this world.

My god! Trump looks pseudo-human with something completely covering that hair! He really should emigrate for the hats.

In general, I agree with you.
All of us have long learned to read between the lines of any informational stuffings. This vaccination was set back in the days of the USSR. But now we are in a situation where the Soviet information regime has migrated to the West. From the side it looks monstrous. Politics is now conducted through the mass media. Notice, only the West puts a cliché on everything that hinders its expansion. Putin is being demonized (this is a favorite scarecrow for little ones), Russia, China, Trump, Republicans, Maduro.
Because under this fight of drums about aggressive Putin, you can use your pocket Saakashvili’s hands to kill Russian peacekeepers (UN mandate) in Ossetia, beat and split into a dozen pieces of Yugoslavia, organize a coup in our fraternal Ukraine and feed them with Fascist cookies that began to kill Russians, you can that Russia is aggressively expanding around the world, while placing American troops and bases 100 meters from the Russian border, you can cause chaos in the Middle East and then write off to aggressive Russia, you can counter scandal chaos in Syria, destroy Libya, brazenly appoint the president of Venezuela and at the same time blame Russia for choosing Trump ... this list can be continued indefinitely, but you can always hide behind the promoted aggressive Putin through “independent” media. The goal, such an undoubtedly great economy, is banal resources. And this large economy, in order to contain itself, should not take into account the rules of the world hostel and the interests of other countries. That is why RT is so terrible. It destroys a beautiful facade that can actually lead the world to a nuclear apocalypse.
But basically I agree with you ...
PS: Where in the text I used the pronoun You - it is worth reading the West.

Thanks for the congratulation. I am sure that you, too, if anything, are the selfless defender of your fatherland.

Boy oh boy. Let me tell ya how much I love the phrase in bold

If he is being demonised (and there is some, but it's hardly worth calling it such), then the west is doing a piss poor job of it.

Not sure what you mean by that, but it's a fact that Russia is aggressively, but cautiously, expanding. You only have to look at the list of countries that it has annexed since Putin came to power.

If your point is that the US is also aggressive - well, I've also previously made that point.

One country being aggressive does not invalid another country being called aggressive. Nor is it a competition - the level & type of aggression of a particular country can be determined on it's own merits. Comparison really only helps to identify double standards or hypocrisy.