La Russophobe: Loco LaVelle Hits a New Loco Low

Friday, June 09, 2006

Loco LaVelle Hits a New Loco Low

WARNING!! FOR THOSE WITH WEAK STOMACHS, LOOK AWAY! LOOK AWAY!

Here are the insane comments of Russophile nut-job Peter Lavelle on press freedom in Russia:

Who says the Kremlin can’t take criticism? I personally witnessed Vladimir Putin get an ear full at this week’s World Association of Newspapers. President of the association Gavin O'Reilly laid in hard and then some. Putin replied with his usual – and, I my opinion correct mantra – that the chaos of the 1990s and media unprofessionalism were factors in creating the media of today. Additionally, as head of WAN, O'Reilly appeared to talk more about the electronic media than about newspapers. The condition of Russia’s media (all media) is not great, but it has been far worse off. Print media has far more interesting and diverse that can be found in the US and the Internet in Russia is thriving. Most Russian language television broadcasts are of little interest to me – too much entertainment (though I can’t say entertainment is uninteresting for the average viewer or say that is not a money maker for advertisers – the Russian advertising market is growing by leaps and bounds).

Apparently, LaVelle does not read much. If he did, he would have seen the Carnegie center obliterate this argument about newspapers (La Russophobe's readers certainly have). Newspapers are meaningless in Russia, as everyone except a crazed Russophile propagandist like LaVelle knows full well.

And what was LaVelle smoking when the wrote that Russian newspapers are "far more interesting and diverse than can be found in the U.S."? There is such thing as Time, Newsweek or the New York Times equivalents in Russia, to say nothing of the New Yorker or Sports Illustrated. Russian newspapers and magazines are like brochures, with anonymous reporters and stories easily bought and sold. Would LaVelle care to elucidate the racial "diveristy" of Russian news staffs and news coverage? The exposition of American culture and history? America's famous Gugenheim just had a major retrospective on Russian art -- has a major Russian museum done the same for America? No answers from LaVelle, he'd prefer to go on smoking loco weed.

Sure, the wretched specatcle of Russian "journalism" may be "interesting" in the same way that people turn their heads to look at an "interesting" car wreck, but that is hardly the point. In fact, it is the opposite of the point, which was LaVelle trying to argue that Rusisan media isn't a sick joke. One heard wretched drivel like this during Soviet times, when everything in the USSR was better than what America had, just before the USSR suddenly ceased to exist. But at least then, the USSR was a mysterious place and it might have been vaguely rational to think Westerners could be duped. Now, LaVelle is just making a fool of himself.

And why compare only America? Since when was American media the main topic of discussion? What about Britain, France and Germany? What about Japan? Is LaVelle betraying his latent Anti-Americanism and mind-bending, nauseating hypocrisy all the while he condemns Russophobia? It seems obvious.

After all, if Russian media at any level was worth spit, would Russians really be giving Vladimir Putin 70% approval ratings when the population of the country is dropping by 1 million per year and a bloody terrorism continues in Chechnya, while the average salary languishes at $300 per month?

But insane Russophile maniacs like LaVelle, of course, have never cared about facts. That is why Russia now stands on the brink of oblivion even as the lunatic fiddler LaVelle plays on.