Look at the mainstream

I have just learned of yet another Russian cable TV channel, courtesy of John Schindler:

Then there’s Tsargrad TV, which is Russia’s version of Fox News, if Fox News were run by hardline Russian Orthodox believers.

If “Fox News” stands for “a network with a nationwide audience delivering news with a bias bordering on propaganda,” then Russia has First Channel, Russia-1, and NTV. A channel few people have heard of simply does not qualify, despite its pretentious name (Tsargrad, “Caesar-City,” the old Slavic name for Constantinople, the Second Rome). Its owner is not a major-league operator either.

On a separate note, a devout, traditional Eastern Orthodox believer would probably avoid running a TV channel.

Update (Nov. 27). John Schindler’s reference to Fox News was not entirely unfounded: Jack Hanick (who wrote an opinion piece in 2015 for The Observer, owned by Jared Kushner, where Schindler is now a columnist) had worked as a producer at Fox and helped set up Tsargrad TV in 2015-16.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *