Dubious Broadcast 鈥楨xperts鈥� Seen on Many Networks
Russia Today, a Moscow-headquartered news network aimed at enhancing Russia鈥檚 image in the West, is not known for its level-headed approach to the news. Since its founding in 2005, the network has endlessly touted 9/11 conspiracy theories, questioned President Obama鈥檚 place of birth, quoted 鈥渏ournalists鈥� from unhinged 鈥渘ews鈥� sources like WorldNetDaily, and even, in one case, interviewed a well-known white supremacist about Obama without mentioning his racism.
But there鈥檚 more.
Thanks to a June report by Adam Holland in the online Interpreter magazine, which specializes in translating and reporting Russian news, we now know that Russia Today regularly uses one Ryan Dawson as an 鈥渆xpert鈥� on a whole plethora of subjects 鈥� the U.S. role in Yemen, Russia鈥檚 role in the Ukraine, disputes between China and Japan, and more.
He鈥檚 been identified there as an author, a 鈥渏ournalist specializing in Asian affairs,鈥� a 鈥減olitical blogger and peace activist,鈥� a writer for WhatReallyHappened.com, an 鈥渁nalyst,鈥� and a 鈥渉uman rights activist.鈥�
Dawson may be some of those things. But he鈥檚 something else, too.
According to Holland, Dawson has for more than a decade been a Holocaust denier, a conspiracy theorist about Israel鈥檚 supposed role in 9/11, and a promoter of the idea that Judaism sanctions pedophilia and rape. This January, he did a friendly interview with Michael Collins Piper, who writes for the Holocaust denial journal The Barnes Review and other radical publications. More recently, he and another interviewee laughed at the idea that the Nazis killed Jews in gas chambers.
Russia Today, Holland says, mentions none of this.
It isn鈥檛 only foreign networks that like to use extremists as commentators. Over at Fox News this June, frequent Fox guest Gavin McInnes, a co-founder of Vice magazine who left in 2008, went on a rant against Neil deGrasse Tyson, a well-known black astrophysicist who hosts Fox鈥檚 鈥淐osmos鈥� program.
鈥淚 hate this guy,鈥� McInnes said. 鈥淲hite liberal nerds love this guy so much, he could defecate on them 鈥� and they would dance in the streets.鈥� He went on to mock Tyson鈥檚 account of being racially profiled as a youth, saying Tyson 鈥渉ad a huge Afro and a cutoff shirt鈥� and concluding, 鈥淪orry, you fit the profile.鈥�
Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group, reported that McInnes used to write for the racist VDARE.com web site, has referred to Asian Americans as 鈥渟lopes鈥� and 鈥渞iceballs,鈥� and said Muslims are 鈥渟tupider鈥� due to inbreeding.
Even PBS is not wholly immune to this sort of thing.
In June, Bonnie Erbe, host of the public television network鈥檚 鈥淭o the Contrary鈥� program, accepted an annual journalism prize from the Center for Immigration Studies, an allegedly 鈥渘onpartisan鈥� think tank that has never found any aspect of immigration that it likes, despite publishing scores of studies. As she has in the past, Erbe lauded the group, which, like her, promotes the idea that immigration depletes natural resources and contributes to global warming. In her acceptance speech, Erbe complained that 鈥渋n the journalistic community, if you dare raise any negative impact of mass immigration鈥� then 鈥測ou are shunted aside.鈥�
If that鈥檚 true, Erbe is a notable exception to the rule.
