2024-09-12
22 分钟The Department of Justice says it has busted a Russian plot to recruit popular right-wing influencers to convey its messages. Maggie Miller, Cybersecurity Reporter from Politico, and Catherine Belton, International Investigative Reporter for The Washington Post, discuss the case and the evolution of Russian disinformation tactics. Also on the show, as the public inquiry into what happened at the English hospital where Lucy Letby murdered seven babies begins, what impact are conspiracy theories having on the ongoing reporting of the story? Judith Moritz, North of England Correspondent for BBC News and James Coney, News projects editor, at The Sunday Times explain their approach. Presenter: Katie Razzall Producer: Simon Richardson Assistant Producer: Lucy Wai
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Welcome to the explanation from the BBC World Service.
I'm Katie Razzle and this is the Media.
We're here to explain the trends behind the fast changing media landscape this week.
How Russia is alleged to be using influencers to interfere with the U.S.
election.
And we look at the ongoing media fascination with the child killer Lucy Letby.
It's all coming up on the Media Show.
The US has accused Russia of attempting to influence the upcoming election with a widespread disinformation campaign.
One of the most unusual aspects of the story is the alleged use of American influencers.
The Department of Justice claims that two employees of the Russian state broadcaster RT paid a media company named by US News outlets as Tenet Media to create pro Russian content.
Well, Maggie Miller is the cybersecurity reporter at Politico and fills us in.
These were charges that were unveiled last week by the US Attorney General, one of our, well, our top ranking law enforcement official.
And really these two RT employees, who are both Russian citizens, are accused of funneling around $10 million over the past year to a US based media company which was called Tenant Media, established last year to help pay some of their YouTube commentators to put out certain content, most of which was pro Russian content or content that was aimed at exploiting divisions in US society.
So everything from being against the war in Ukraine to exploiting divisions on race, on LGBTQ issues, on criminal issues.
And this was quite an interesting conspiracy in that it really was two employees of rt, which is a company that is banned basically from broadcasting in the United States, Europe, the UK has been since the start of the Ukrainian war.
And they, they were both working but representing multiple individuals behind the scenes, trying to make it seem as legitimate an operation as possible.