MEDIA BIAS IN THE USA AND RUSSIA WORKS TO OUR DISADVANTAGE

In the USA all straight thinking Americans recognize the Media bias toward the leftist policies of people like Barrack Obama, and his anti-war supporters.
Since the Vietnam era, when even leaders of the anti-war movement like WEATHERMEN BERNADINE DORN AND WILLIAM AYERS, attribute their successes in ending the war to their massive demonstrations and the complicit media.
Examples of the type of scurrilous coverage given to criminal members of the ant-war group is this coverage by the media in San Francisco: "At 7:30 a.m., radio station KPFK (Los Angeles) receives a call from a woman identifying herself as a member of the Weather Underground (Bernadine Dohrn): "Hello. I am going to read a declaration of a state of war. This is the first communication from the Weathermen Underground. The lines are drawn...revolution is touching all of our lives. ...Freaks are revolutionaries, and revolutionaries are freaks. If you want to find us, this is where we are. In every tribe, commune, dormitory, farmhouse, barracks and town house where kids are making love, smoking dope and loading guns. Fugitives from American justice are free to go. ...Within the next 14 days we will attack a symbol or institution of American injustice."
And they carried out their threat by bombing many university and government buildings, without a negative word from the media.

In Russia the Media is still controlled by the Putin led regime, so they never, I repeat, never print anything negative about the government. If they do, they eventually die or disappear as the news has illustrated recently.
The media has united behind Putin in his apparent quest to regain the power and respect that the former Soviet Union had. To illustrate the difference between the support the media gives to the aggression in Georgia versus the negative media coverage of Iraq and the Bush government in general I include this quote from Carmen Eller in Moscow:
"A quick war is the best propaganda: The conflict in the Caucasus has further strengthened the Putin-Medvedev leadership duo, according to new polls. Many Russians are hoping the pair will continue leading the country back towards super-power status and that they will pursue that aim more energetically".

In the minds of some Russians, Medvedev didn't go far enough in the conflict. Listener Anotoli from Tver, calling into to Echo of Moscow, said: "Medvedev is a weakling. We should have trampled on Georgia and, while we were at it, taken over the Crimea again."
Distrust amongst the Russian populace of Western policies is just about as great as its trust in it own leaders. Only 8 percent of those surveyed felt Russia was responsible for the fact that most Western governments supported Georgia in the South Ossetia conflict. A clear majority see evil intentions behind the support given by the West to Tbilisi. The West, they believe, is striving to "weaken Russia and to drive it out of the South Caucasus region."
'Very Aggressive Propaganda'
"The easiest explanation for the anti-Western sentiment is the state control of the mass media," Lev Gudkov, the director of the Levada Center, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "On TV there is hardly any free reporting -- instead you see a lot of very aggressive propaganda." He said it was reminiscent of the worst of times in the Soviet era. The pollster said another important reason for the mass support given to Russian leaders is the increased material wealth of the people of Russia.

Unlike here in the USA, the authoritarian policies of today's Russian leadership are seldom questioned in public. Some print and online publications deliver differentiated reporting. But the reach of these media in Russia, an enormous country, is very limited. Only 20 percent of Russians have access to the Internet, and the majority of those who can get online are either young people or people who live in big cities. The powerful Putin is still held in higher esteem than his successor in the Kremlin. According to a recent survey by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM), which is closely aligned with the government, 58 percent of Russians put their faith in Prime Minister Putin. Only 40 percent say they prefer President Dimitry Medvedev.

And still we have people in the USA who believe the Media is the best source to get unbiased news? What we get is a litany of anti- Bush hate that has propelled a man with absolutely no experience in National government as the leading candidate to face despots like Putin if things deteriorate in the next four years!