Ofcom opens seven investigations into Russia Today

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-43808392

Ok. I’ll bite:

* yes, this is badly needed, we have to enforce our rules. They’ll hate it, but they’re clearly morally bankrupt. This isn’t a politics forum though, so no more about that.

* it won’t give any support to the West’s arguments about Russia, though. Because this is space year 2018 and “truth” is a forgotten concept. They’ll see t as censorship and keep pushing that angle.

* do we reckon this is serious enough to lose their licence? They’re building up quite a file at Ofcom now.

I think that nothing will happen here. Just the mere fact that they're conducting an investigation is enough of a shot across the bows at this point.

They never did anything about the many complaints about Fox News, and their propaganda was worse than anything RT has done so far, not that I trust them at all, so I think this is a little bit of showboating just to say "we're watching you."

Although ultimately Fox News was closed, though by it's owners rather than OFCOM.

I'm quite uncomfortable with this though - if we're truly in an information war with Russia I think closing or sanctioning RT actually plays into their hands. And although people from all sides accuse the BBC of bias I do think there are questions to be answered there too if OFCOM are investigating RT - indeed the supposed self censorship of alternative viewpoints (to the government) by a news channel presenter was one of the subjects of this weeks Newswatch.

I certainly don't feel the BBC is as neutral with this government as it has been with previous governments, but I'm also aware I'm exposed to a far greater range of views from multiple sources now than I was even just five years ago.

But that's my point exactly. OFCOM never did anything as far as Fox News went, and they only acted on Press TV because they did something so egregiously wrong that it was impossible for them not to act. But Press TV is still available to watch online, and ultimately, I think that even if OFCOM do de-licence RT, and remove them from Freeview, cable and Sky, they ultimately can't stop them from broadcasting online, and can't keep them off social media, and that I think kinda sums up the situation right now. Online broadcasting has almost as much reach in this country as satellite and cable, so it's almost impossible to regulate.



And as more and more broadcasters realise that online broadcasting gives you amazing reach without the usual regulation of broadcasting regulators, I suspect that more and more broadcasters will use online broadcasting to circumvent broadcasting regulators in various countries.



I've been following various news sites since 1998, and BBC is no longer neutral. For a long time, they were the most neutral news provider, but now, they have definitely been pulled more towards the right since 2010.

Not sure the comparisons with Fox News are valid. Can’t say it’s something I’ve watched much but I’ve always been of the impression that its agenda is largely domestic. RT spend a lot of time reporting on the UK and have shows made for and targeted at us.

FWIW I don’t think RT should be banned or warned. I’d rather have lots of viewpoints that I don’t necessarily agree with than the allowed ones being all we have access to.

I'm not comparing them in terms of content or style, just in terms of both being biased, and both being mouthpieces for their respective presidents. That's about all they really share.

Was Fox the mouthpiece of Obama?

Obama hasn't been president since January 2017! Wake up!

I think the point was that Fox is not really a "mouthpiece for the president" in the same way RT is. RT is owned and run by the Russian government, Fox is not owned run by the US government. Their loyalty is to the Republican Party, not the government and they were very much not in favour of the government when Obama was in power.

The Republican Party is currently split though, with a large portion of the party now openly hostile to Donald Trump. Fox News has become the spokesperson for Donald Trump, with Sean Hannity as the head cheerleader. So, right now, it is exactly the same as RT. Yes, it is a Republican mouthpiece most of the time, but right now, they've chosen to back a president who is a traitor to his own country, rather than the other faction, who are actually putting the country first over the party.

It does seem to be mutual brown nosing between Trump and Fox News, he compliments them, gives ex Fox News journalists such as Heather Nauert jobs at the White House, while the channel brown noses him at every opportunity.

FNC has ironically taken elements of RT's editorial agenda, such as calling rival news organisations the 'MSM' and giving itself an anti establishment agenda when FNC is the mouthpiece of the Trump presidency.