Yes, but I'm not sure we can trust what's coming out of Ukraine/Zelensky either, like 10K Russians killed, victory is imminent, etc. This way at least we may get tidbits from the other side, including arguments/thoughts from Russia side.

E.g., I saw a post yesterday on Medium that Ukraine is discriminating against black refugees (https://medium.com/alternative-perspectives/why-are-black-pe...). If you're only listening to the Ukraine friendly media, you'll miss that (IMO important fact).

listening to the other extreme isn't giving you their POV or even their perception of reality. it just gives you what they want you to believe, and more propaganda. if the aim is not simply more entertainment for our lizard brain (voluntary indoctrination while being also fully aware that this is what's happening), then the better way for seeking truth isn't to hear all sides but to find outlets that are not having a horse in this race. (which unfortunately is almost impossible, but my point stands that it will not add value for seeking truth)

Al Jazeera is probably the closest to that. They actually interviewed some DPR/LPR rebels, for instance. You wouldnt catch CNN doing that.

They also seem to put the greatest emphasis on human suffering, which is a bias im in favor of.

There is value to reading propaganda to have wider visibility though, especially since most propaganda selectively presents the truth rather than outright lying and both sides will often simply choose to present similar events in a different context.

There are individual excesses, but definitely no kind of systematic discrimination. Excesses like this happen even in Germany during peace.

what I noticed were reports against discrimination against South Asians (India was very vocal). It needs to be mentioned that India has not yet condemned Russia for the invasion and plays itself neutral. They are also the "I" in BRIC and therefore must be seen on the side of Russia until they make it perfectly clear. I'm not surprised that they aren't treated with silk-gloves by Ukraine (student or worker or whatever reason they're there for). It's India's responsibility to set the record straight so that UA knows if the people still in the country will be targeted back home for intel that can help Russia. It's reckless from the Modi government to throw them under the bus in this manner, but it's not unexpected.

There's no question that discrimination against Ukrainian refugees of non-European origin is reprehensible. The trouble is keeping a sense of the scale of this injustice compared to the scale of the invasion. Failing to give aid to African and South Asian university students trying to flee the war is bad. Vladimir Putin's media outlets would have us believe that since there is some good and some bad on both sides, therefore we should take no side in this war.

No society or people on Earth are perfect. Don't let them convince you that this means you should never take a stand.

> what's coming out of Ukraine/Zelensky either

What's coming out of Ukraine/Zelensky are optimistic numbers and morale boosting statements mostly based on real events

What's coming out of Putin and RT is pure fantasy and has virtually no basis on real world events: Ukranian government are Nazis, Ukrain population is mostly pro Russia, Ukraine is mostly welcoming Russian troops, it's a liberation operation, &c.

> I saw a post yesterday on Medium that Ukraine is discriminating against black refugee

Is Medium being censored ? Is medium a Russian source ?

See, you can still get informations of all kind without RT. And calling that "the russian" side is a stretch. It is used by russian propaganda to pretend ukranians are monster though (which is ironic considering Russian stance but whatever)

It’s useful to know what some people are fed and what the source of “their” opinions may be.

It’s also useful to see what overdone propaganda is like to have a solid reference point for when our own countries try to do the same.

it is, and that's important to know. most russians (and more importantly russians abroad) are presented with the same tired old propaganda they always did

> most russians (and more importantly russians abroad) are presented with the same tired old propaganda they always did

I'm going to be thát guy; do you have sources to support that claim? I've been hearing about that sentiment but haven't seen any data about it.

Look at /rtnews telegram channel

RT's cover of the war is quite good if you want to read the party line view of it in english - which of course is interesting. TASS is better though.

RT cut down their tabloid tone a notch too.

RTs main problem is that it is called Russia Today. That is a worthless name to do foreign psyops ... learn from al-Jazeera.

It’s not worthless if you contrast it to the propaganda from CNN.

It's worthless since everything on RT is "Russia is always right, the rest are always wrong, and also they're Nazis/fascists/imperialists, and America/NATO did it too btw".

So it is western media but from a Russian POV

Theyve clearly picked up a few tricks.

Yesterday they published a story on chemical weapons WMD laboratories they supposedly found. Western media has ignored the story so far.

It's almost as if it's designed specifically to be awkward to denounce.

You have people defending Putin and his war on western media. You can find them without trouble.

On the other hand, I dare you to find an RT story critical of Putin, without any sugarcoating. Beyond the war, on literally any topic.

So no, it's not western media from a Russian POV.

You cannot simply give me one criterion, one that's conveniently specific to RT, to validate the statement in parent.

Both sides are, generally speaking, enforcing a narrative and rejecting objectivity in favor of the narrative ergo it's propaganda

It's the only criterion that matters when that country started a war. It's not specific to RT, it's specific to all media still able to publish and air in Russia.

Freedom of press for me but not for thee.

Any war the US started had significant opposition in local media. Saying that it's the same is disingenuous at best, Russian propaganda at worst.