Check out my appearance on Russia Today TV about the media coverage of the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal.
RT TV Interview: MSM Pissed at Carlos Danger
Ted Rall
http://rall.comTed Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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4 Comments.
Simple – the media and public are more interested in the peccadiloes (peckerdillos?) of famous people and public ofishals than a lot of other real news. It’s like a dessert after digesting the NSA. :^)
But this is important, Ted, IMPORTANT, I tell you !…
Henri
Almost all straight males are aroused by a picture of a receptive female (and no clothes indicates that she’s probably receptive). Many straight male teenagers think this applies to female teenagers, and send naked pictures of themselves. By the age of 24 or so, most males realise that females do not wish to see naked pictures of themselves. The first time Weiner got caught, he said he’d mistyped the phone number, sexting to the wrong woman by mistake. The next time, he discovered that a woman, one he trusted enough to sext, violated his expectations by re-tweeting his sexts to the mass media. Now everyone, all over the world, is giggling at his naiveté. One would think that our elected leaders would have at least two digits in their IQ. One would be wrong, but usually the idiocy is not so public or so risible, and so easily made into a story that sells and does not offend the Powers that Be.
This is NOT what I watch RT TV to see.
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More to the point is the Snowden saga. In the US press, Snowden is a heinous traitor who should be in jail now and facing a possible death penalty. Had he been a patriot, he would have reported his concerns to his superior and then, without a college degree, terminated as an incompetent janitor with no computers, no papers, no proof of any kind, and no one would believe the unsupported story of an irate, ungrateful, discharged, incompetent janitor.
Snowden said he wanted to go to Latin America. Had he gone, like a patriotic whistle-blower, to a US newspaper, they would have called the government, and Snowden would have gotten a free lesson in Spanish. He would have learned the meaning of the word desparecido.
Instead, he fled to China then Russia.
Russia, a heathen, third-world country living in the Dark Ages was given the most generous offer of a hand up. But what did Putin do? Offered help ending the famine and pestilence endemic to Russia, in a fit of heathen folly, he batted away the extended hand.
This is endlessly repeated by every US media source and most US editorial cartoonists.
Now go to RT TV for their version of the story.
A rather different view.
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RT TV does not dispute any of the facts of the Weiner story. Nor the risibility of the Weiner story. Just that the US coverage was a bit OTT. And this view is not unacceptable in the West (but it sells fewer newspapers and fills less space less amusingly on TV news broadcasts).
The RT TV analysis of the Snowden case takes a view that is diametrically opposed to the view in the US media, and so is much more worth watching.
Interesting and reasonably relevant:
http://www.xojane.com/sex/sydney-leathers-guide-for-sexting-with-politicians
Or if you are having trouble with that link here is one cashed through the way back machine:
http://web.archive.org/liveweb/http://www.xojane.com/sex/sydney-leathers-guide-for-sexting-with-politicians