The people we look to for truth, and also to determine what we should be concerned about, are selling things. Are FoxNews and MSNBC any better than Russia Today?
But FoxNews and MSNBC serve the almighty dollar not almighty Putin. They relish in conflict not in creating a carefully scripted propaganda piece for the benefit of just one man and his administration. If they didn't need to sell toothpaste and cars and didn't operate in a competitive market place they would be much more dangerous. It's not that they aren't dangerous and detrimental to civil society but the U.S. media landscape isn't equivalent to the Russian. Obama doesn't have thugs beat up, jail and murder dissenting voices.
I agree that Russia today serves a totalitarian regime, and that FoxNews and MSNBC are primarily interested in advertising dollars. However, FoxNews and MSNBC should be held to a much higher standard given the critical role that the fourth estate plays a democratic republic. Russia today is to be expected as it operates in a totalitarian regime. FoxNews and MSNBC are not inevitable, and as propagandists parading as news, they degrade the foundation of a democratic society.