Hi °C | Lo °C 
The September 11 attacks in New York were an inside job; the South Korean warship torpedoed in March was not sunk by North Korea, but probably by Japan or the US; and the world is run by the secretive Bilderberg Group, who pursue a 'New World Order'. Not the lonely ravings of a conspiracy-minded blogger, but all opinions aired recently on a satellite channel beamed into millions of American homes.
With its slick graphics, smiling young news anchors, and round-the-clock coverage, RT is like any other news channel. But there is one major difference, aside from the content; RT, which stands for Russia Today, is paid for by the Kremlin. The channel launched in 2005, broadcasting news mainly about Russia on satellite packages worldwide including Sky in Ireland and Britain.
This year, RT went even further in its attempts to infiltrate the US, when a new arm of the channel, RT America, began broadcasting from Washington.
Last month, the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), a well-respected US organisation that tracks hate groups and extremists in the United States, published a report about Russia Today. The group did not label the channel itself extremist, but said it gives undue airtime to conspiracy theorists and extremists.
The top brass at the channel, including editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, have denied this. "We don't talk about 9/11 any more than US media discusses who was behind the 1999 explosions in Moscow," she told the authors of the SPLC report, referring to the apartment block bombings that were a catalyst for the second Chechen war.
But why does a Russian state channel care about 9/11? At the very least, it seems an attempt by Russia to get its own back on a Western world that often lectures Moscow on democracy and human rights, and shine a light on what it sees as the sore points for the US.
Even before the spy scandal about Russian "illegals" in the United States, western intelligence services have been wary of Russia Today. One journalist, posted by the Russian channel to a western capital, recalls that she was called to a meeting in a cafe by the country's interior ministry before getting her accreditation.
"This guy showed up, and he had a dossier (about) me and my past," says the journalist, who does not want to be named. "It was obvious he was working in intelligence, and eventually he came out and asked, 'Is Russia Today a front for a spy network?' I thought it was hilarious, but he was serious."
Ms Simonyan, the channel's overall boss, only agreed to reply to written questions.
"RT's target viewer is a person capable of critical thinking, one who realises that one or two sources of information are not enough to get a full picture," she responded. "It is someone who wants to know the truth, rather than who passively accepts stereotypes."
But RT is rather different when it comes to covering the "home" country. Several journalists at the channel revealed that any direct criticism or questioning of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev is strictly prohibited.
Some of the more bizarre moments on RT can be put down to youthful inexperience (such as the newsreader who misread the autocue and referred to "North Korean leader King John the Second"), but sometimes it seems something more sinister is at play. One anchor revealed that during an interview with a leading scientist working on Aids he was repeatedly pressured by producers to "ask difficult questions" about the "evidence" that HIV doesn't cause Aids at all.
Such strange attachment to any conspiracy theory going has led to some wondering what RT stands for.
"It's a force for diversity in the media," says Mr Schechter. "They give voice to a lot of people, like myself, who rarely get heard in current mainstream US media. I was part of the start-up team for CNN in 1980, and I see some similarities." (© Independent News Service )
Irish Independent
