Moscow TV News Can ‘Flip Its Messages Overnight’ Because It Lacks any Ideological Constraints, Shepelin Says

Paul Goble

    Staunton, Apr. 14 – Many inside Russia and out were surprised when with the coming of Donald Trump to the US presidency, Moscow TV news flipped its coverage of America from unrelieved criticism to overwhelmingly positive praise. But they should not have been, Ilya Shepelin says.

    The former host of “Fake News” on TV Rain who currently tracks pro-Kremlin media said such shifts are inevitable because Moscow television news is “just a tool for pushing whatever narrative is needed at a precise moment” (cherta.media/interview/sejchas-zloradstvo-glavnyj-istochnik-dofamina/).

    Those preparing and delivering the news have “no ideological backbone” and thus “nothing to stop them from flipping its message overnight.” All its stories will inevitably be “a reaction to the moment with no regard for what came before or what might come next,” Shepelin continues.

    Playing to the emotions of the audience is central; and “there is no room for nuance. On every occasion, the message has to be either over-the-top negativity designed to stir up hate, or full-blown positivity, which,” the journalist says, “ironically also needs to stir up hate because even ‘good’ news as to feel like bad news for our enemies.”

    He describes how this works in Moscow’s coverage of the war in Ukraine but argues that that approach one based on selectivity, emotion, and a willingness to follow whatever the leader thinks he needs at any time is likely to be a feature of Russian TV news well into the future, something no one trying to understand what is going on must ever forget.