Gaining Up The Score: Russia Winning Media Duel With US

The information war between the US and Russia is the largest conflict of our time, and Russia is winning – so says the Serbian media.
For a long time the US has dominated the world’s information stage, writes the Serbian newspaper Pravda, especially after the collapse of the USSR, when Russia was “beaten cold”.
However, since President Putin came to power, the country has strengthened considerably, ramping up its information might and winning the ground.
It is all the more valuable, the newspaper says, as the US has many media resources at its disposal, including its most potent tool for propaganda – Hollywood.
“Media outlets, like that of CNN, always have at hand a certain repertoire to support and justify US actions around the world,” it says.
“Simultaneously new scenarios of the causes of US special operations [activity] are being fabricated, which are then skillfully delivered to both America and the world community.”
“Right after the conflict in Ukraine broke out, all the American mass media started, as if on command, attacking ousted president Yanukovich, calling him “Putin’s spy” and the “man who is holding up Ukraine on its way to the EU”. At the same time, the bloody developments in Maidan have been presented as “the victory of freedom and democracy.”
The Hollywood movie industry, the outlet say, is also completely synchronized with US foreign policy. Each new US intervention is being accompanied with a new Hollywood “blockbuster” on the topic.

The newspaper cites as examples movies on the feats of “brave American soldiers” in Afghanistan and Iraq. New “masterpieces” provide a narrative about the war in Libya and the achievements of the American snipers, “who are fighting for freedom far from home”.
Many of these movies get Oscars, and the number of television series feature so-called “Serbian terrorists” is practically uncountable.
The “Hollywood effect” could be traced even quarter of a century back, to the movie “Good Morning, Vietnam”, where Robin Williams starred as a pacifist DJ, who in every possible way resists the orders of his management.
Russia, on the contrary, has lacked somewhat convincing mass media outlet capable of seriously influencing global opinion.
However, after twenty years of media helplessness outside its borders, Russia at least is gaining back the ground.
Vladimir Putin seems to have understood where the US had been most successful and decided to alter the balance, returning Russia's media might.
Probably, for the first time in its history, the US is in a pretty vulnerable position in this information duel. (Sputnik)