RT

RT (short for its former name Russia Today) is a Russian news network owned and operated by ANO TV Novosti. It was launched in December 2005 and is intended to rival other international news channels, like BBC and Al Jazeera. The networks have a large reach on the internet, with a combined total of over 10 billion views on YouTube.

Disclaimer
While this is not a good source of news and shouldn't be used as your first-hand account, it is still important to watch this at times. Remember that one should consider all sides of an argument before forming their political opinion, and reading different sources to see/hear what they're saying will help you. We also do not want use this page to promote the interests of the US, the Ukraine, or any other targets of this network.

Why It Sucks

 * 1) RT is owned by an agency of the Russian government. Russia knows how effective operating a news channel can be to further its goals, so it's no surprise that RT is used to push their propaganda.
 * 2) They frequently shoehorn an anti-western agenda whenever they can, which can get very annoying very quickly. It's littered all over the place in their advertising, with their method of reeling in viewers is acting like they're the voice of the resistance when they are almost anything but.
 * 3) In addition, they seem to take a very similar approach to American right-wing media in advertising themselves.
 * 4) Speaking of which, sometimes their agenda isn't clear, because they can pander to both right-wing culture values and left-wing economics, seemingly to get both sides with them.
 * 5) Never once is Russia's President Vladimir Putin questioned, which is unbalanced considering how often US president Joe Biden is criticized.
 * 6) They have been a voice for several conspiracy theories, such as denying climate change. It shouldn't be surprising that Alex Jones has been interviewed on 4 separate occasions.
 * 7) Working for them is pretty much a death sentence to a journalistic career. They also seem to try to target various reporters that had previously made a great name for themselves, like the late Larry King (from CNN).
 * 8) Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, much like Fox News, they have spread lots of misinformation about the disease, to the point that RT DE's channel was terminated on 3 occasions.
 * 9) This is a rather hypocritical move on their part, because not only is Putin a supporter of vaccines, but RT's Russian feed called anti-vaxxers "imbeciles".
 * 10) RT (and by extension, the Russian government) cannot take negative criticism.
 * 11) As mentioned in WIS#8, they made attempts to revive their German-language channel on YouTube despite being taken down for violating their COVID misinformation policy.
 * 12) When their former anchor Liz Wahl resigned on air, their response claimed it was a self-promotional stunt.
 * 13) They have repeatedly called out their critics when they bring them up, such as harping on the app NewsGuard for listing them as an unreliable source for news.
 * 14) On their flagship program Crosstalk, commentators and host Peter Lavelle can interrupt each other at any time, which can turn it from serious discussions into incoherent shouting matches.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) There are times where they can cover events that are being overlooked, such as their Emmy nominated reporting on Occupy Wall Street abroad and the UN General Assembly 70th Anniversary session
 * 2) While editorial independence is rare, there are some instances of it occurring, such as former Abby Martin criticizing Russia over the invasion of Crimea on March 4, 2014.
 * 3) The graphics are certainly appealing to look at. This could be seen in both their pre-2021 and post-2021 graphics.

Reception
Over the years, the network has faced staunch criticism around the world by people on various levels. Articles have been written by The New York Times and The Guardian pointing out their various issues with their reporting. They have been denounced by various people in both the journalism industry and governments. CNN anchors and interviewers, former US Secretary of State John Kerry, & former Putin advisor Putin. In late 2017, the US required RT America to register as a foreign agent under the Foreign Agent Registration Act. They have been banned by Ukraine in 2014, Latvia, and Lithuania, both in 2020.

Trivia

 * In early 2017, RT America's feed briefly intruded on C-Span's broadcast. Both sides concluded that this was an accident, with C-Span saying it was because of internal routing, while RT stated that they were testing systems to prepare for incoming President Donald Trump's inauguration.
 * Their coverage of the 4th inauguration of Vladimir Putin, president of the Russian Federation, spawned the "Wide Putin" meme, where a long clip of him walking would be stretched out so that his body fit the entire screen.