While Christiane Amanpour of Amanpour on CNN International (DStv 401) showed global TV viewers on Monday night with honest facts and insight exactly how Russia is going to get damaged economically and politically through imposed sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine's Crimea ...
... at the exact same time South Africa's Thabang Motsei on Russia's RT (DStv 407) was spouting insane propaganda-driven drivel not just damaging her and RT's credibility, but making for hilarious viewing for anyone interested in media studies.
RT's ongoing laughably one-sided broadcasting favouring Russia and nothing else and not giving any other side of the story, came into sharp contrast on Monday night when the once-respected anchor Thabang Motsei inflicted further serious career-damage to her name and journalism brand.
Thabang Motsei came across as a sad, light-weight, and out of her depth propaganda TV drone when she presented RT's nightly newscast directly opposite the best, the most informed, and the most respected global TV news woman, Christiane Amanpour.
Never in the history of Russia Today has the 24-hour TV news channel been so utterly blatantly propagandist and one-sided.
The trust and credibility RT had, has now surely completely evaporated as global viewers will definitely not see Russia Today any longer as a news channel but as a direct propaganda communication tool for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
RT's shocking lack of balance, avalanche of spin and propaganda, and unbelievable bad presentation in terms of covering Russia's invasion and annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region came into stark clarity and contrast on Monday when RT's propaganda pandering played out at the same time against a show such as Amanpour.
Christiane Amanpour showed in a clear, concise and full perspective how Russia is getting, and going to get damaged economically and politically, and explained why, and also showed how the damage and fallout is and will be much greater for Russia.
On RT, viewers waited for Thabang Motsei to tell then that Hobbits really do exist, that dragons really do exist, and that dwarfes (that really do exist) have started a fight with a dragon.
Thabang Motsei's unrelenting and insanely dished up news melodrama on Russia Today was headshakingly odd. It seems as if RT is clueless or deliberately oblivious that global TV news viewers (and RT is made and broadcast specifically for global viewers) also have access to other TV news channels.
Cold War type trashaganza only works and worked due to the absence of other knowledge or information or the deliberate drowning out of other points of view. But Russia Today is surrounded by multiple TV news channels on the pay-TV platforms in countries such as South Africa and elsewhere.
If RT remained more subtle in its approach, more restrained and more cleverly in its presentation and "facts" perhaps it wouldn't have been so jarring.
Watching RT and its unrelenting Russian propaganda on full display, is like watching a temporal worm hole broadcasting a modern-day, yet 80s inspired version of what a 24-hour global TV news channel would have been if it existed then - but done looking like Russia today.
