From Megan Stack’s article in the Los Angeles Times:
“There’s no future in Russia for pro-American policy,” said Nikolai Zlobin, director of the Russia and Eurasia program at the World Security Institute in Washington. “You can build your whole career based on anti-American policy — build a political career, become a famous journalist or public figure. But if you promote the idea of friendship with America, you’ll be denounced immediately.”
The Cold War is a faded relic in American memory. Now there are Iran and North Korea to worry about; a few years ago, there was Saddam Hussein. And so it is perhaps easy to forget that, in Russia, the Cold War remains a poignant and powerful idea.
Talk of current events often conveys the distinct sense that Russia is clinging to the idea of an American threat. If there is no hostility with the United States, the thinking runs, it can only mean that Russia is no longer important enough to merit it. And that’s unpalatable to Russia’s political elite.
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On the contrary, you can land jobs at American-funded think tanks at, say, Heritage, or Hudson, or Carnagie and build quite a career writing op-eds for American and British newspapers!
Sure, but the opposite is just as likely — see Glenn Greenwald at salon.com. In Russia, on the other hand…Note, also, that a career is not based on op-eds.
Well what would the career of a Western journalist or political analyst be like if they advocated against their country’ policy even if the policy was correct, instead saying their country should agree even with bad Russian policies, like Shevtsova did when Bush tore up the ABM Treaty?
I agree with you Rkka !The framing and the forging of an ” outside ennemy “and an ” evil Empire ” is essential for American politics , and certainly as essential as it is for Russian leadership or Iranian ledaership .Many studies at the end of the ” Cold war ” showed the American political establishment and military-industrial complex feeled ” orphans ” of the Cold War .It was urgent to find eg missions for NATO .If we list these ennemies after the ” Commies ” , we find :- The ” druggies ” in Central and Latin America- The ” Serbies ” in the Balkans- The ” Muslimies “and now , the ” Russkies ” .It seems if as a big chunk of the Us political leadership and journalistic class cannot exist only throught the existence of an ennemy or a ” threat ” .I just saw a vid of Fox News showing the essay of a young French anarchist who was sued by the French police and Intelligence for sabotage attempts against railroads : ” L’Insurrection qui vient ” ( The Insurrection which comes ) . The presentator showing this book threatens of massive popular unrests and riots …………..
You two are completely out of your minds.I don’t know how you are asking people to believe such a hallucinogenic argument. Is the U.S. government funding programs and fake TV documentaries to make sure their citizens hate and fear Russia? No, of course not.Fox News is of course filled with nationalistic garbage. But, ah, ahem, I don’t think they are the same as the state?You idiots will believe anything.
To my mind, the career of a Western journalist would go up and/or down depending on how often s/he was right about the his/her reporting. Anti-establishment journalists of all kinds have always existed: criticism of the American government and its policies is and has always been an important part of it.Of course there are specialized areas. So, for instance, Fox News is entirely dedicated to criticism of the current American administration, including its foreign policy.Which is why, DanielB, I think you really don’t understand American media. If there’s one easy thing to find there, it’s criticism of pretty much anything the American government says and does. It takes catastrophes like 9/11 to have a unifying effect on the whole bunch.Even as far as the “Russkies” (as you call the Russians) are concerned, the number of pro-Russian lobbies in America is quite high, especially as far as economic policy goes. The Russian foreign policy has mostly been quite aggressive, so the reaction against it — not only in the West, but also e.g. in China — has been mostly negative. But you can find positive appraisals as well — again I refer to Mr Greenwald’s op-eds about the Georgian war, in which he criticized the belief that Georgia was innocent.