Little Green Men Not Available, Bring In The News Anchors
Michael Hedges September 14, 2020 - Follow on Twitter
“Nothing is really real unless it happens on television,” said the late Pulitzer laureate historian Daniel Boorstin. We have lived this notion for decades. Television is reality. Alas, reality is not television. “Why, sometimes I’ve believed six impossible things before breakfast,” said Alice. We remain at television’s mercy.
 Assembling major news anchors for an interview session with a politician is certainly a television event, even more so when organized on the hush-hush. That’s what happened last week (September 8) when four luminaries of Russian broadcast news appeared with Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko in a large room at the Palace of Independence in Minsk. The room was so large they appeared to be socially distancing. They were “parachuted in from Moscow,” wrote Foreign Affairs (September 8). The event was broadcast live in Russia and Belarus.
The group included Gavorit Moscow (Moscow Speaks) chief editor Roman Babayan, Rossiya-1 reporter Evgeny Rozhkov, Channel One anchor Anton Vernitsky and RT (formerly Russia Today) chief editor Margarita Simonyan. All are well-known in Russia, employed by state media outlets and ardent supporters of President Putin. State news agency TASS sent along a team to commemorate the event.
The big news interview follows by a fortnight Belarusian state radio and television employees - reporters, news anchors, editors and technical staff - staging a work stoppage. About 300 workers were involved, some joining ranks with demonstrators. TV news sets were, for a time, completely empty.
But, replacements were “parachuted in” from Russian state broadcasting channels. Some in Belarus referred to the Russian replacements as “scabs,” noted news portal Meduza (September 8), and others recalled the “little green men,” nominally unidentified Russian special forces who arrived in eastern Ukraine to facilitate the takeover in Crimea in 2014.
“You understand how important you were to us during this difficult period,” said Mr. Lukashenko to RT (September 1). “And what you demonstrated technically, your IT specialists, and journalists, and correspondents, and so on ... and your manager. This is worth a lot. I am grateful for this support.” Little green men are no longer necessary, it seems. Bring in the TV people.
Evgeny Rozhkov hosts the Vesti news program on television channel Rossiya-1, main channel of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company (VGTRK). Channel One news anchor Anton Vernitsky has worked in Russian TV for more than two decades, hosted several shows and produced documentaries. Channel One is the oldest Russian state TV channel, dating from the Soviet Union. Roman Babayan is a politician affiliated with the United Russia party, currently serving as a deputy in the Moscow City Duma, and chief editor for radio channel Govorit Moskva (Moscow Speaks). He hosts a political talk show on NTV. Govorit Moskva is operated by the Moscow city government.
Best known outside of Russia is RT (Russia Today) chief editor Margarita Simonyan, who is its chief international spokesperson. She is also chief editor of state news agency Rossiya Segodnya. Ms Simonyan gained journalistic reputation with riveting live reports from the 2004 Beslan school hostage incident for Rossiya-1. RT has a reputation as the Russian Federation’s international propaganda outlet.
Each of them got good take-home quotes from Mr. Lukashenko. Mr. Rozhkov was certainly the winner for getting Mr. Lukashenko to admit “Yes, maybe I overstayed a bit,” referring to his political tenure. Ms Simonyan, being politically correct, politely reminded Mr. Lukashenko that RT staff in Belarus were not there to “replace” striking workers, only to augment their duties.
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News agencies and organizations have long sent reporters and crews into journalistic hot spots. It has long been accepted that reporters in conflict zones are civilians, not combatants, and as such are afforded certain protections. These distinctions have blurred in recent years; protests and demonstrations characterized as war zones, reporters as adversaries. Authoritarians and their supporters do not like the photographs splashed in international media.
Some authoritarian leaders are quite clever, some not so much. The clever ones have learned how to take control of the news flow, often by eliminating the critics. The very clever allow a few outlets of opposing views to remain for largely cosmetic reasons. Cutting off the internet no longer succeeds as the digital savvy know all the tricks. The less clever are even jumping back to centuries past to cut off postal delivery service. But when all else fails, dictators will resort to the tried and true: batons and bullets. It’s an old movie.
Elections always get attention; from those in power, those seeking such and news outlets assigned to the observational task. All elections are, thus, consequential. As such, candidates and their surrogates craft important messages to persuade and, maybe, excite the electorate. In more recent times those messages have turned to raising anxieties and uncertainties. Hope battles fear, over and over.
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