Why should a sovereign nation not a) protect its markets from foreign goods (in this case information production and consumption), and b) try to make it a little harder than a cakewalk to propagandize the Armenian population?

And please don’t tell me that it doesn’t spread misinformation, or doesn’t have a need to. There would be no reason for it to be in Armenia in the first place if the US did not have interests there. Are you so well versed in propaganda techniques to know for sure that people’s understanding of it as “balanced” does–not–mean that RFE is very good at doing its job–of spinning?

And the propaganda that it spreads is more through omission than through the planting of stories and spin, but it certainly does that, too; it’s characterization of Yeltsin and his selling off of the countries assets to mafia “entrepreneurs” as a “reformer” putting the country on the “right path” is a case in point.

As for omission, according to RFE, things like the IMF, World Bank, and global capital are not newsworthy; the only thing that is newsworthy is a lot of hot air about “freedom” and “democracy.” Armenia exists in a vacuum, don’t you know; that’s why everything wrong with the country, like poverty, is the fault of its politicians who could snap their fingers and have Armenia’s size and resources increase a hundred fold, but don’t because they are so corrupt and evil, unlike the politicians of “free” and “democratic” US who are angels and not at all in the pockets of financial interests there. As if.

If parliament shut the whole operation down, I wouldn’t lift a finger. The demand for information that shutting RFE would unleash might even lead to–domestic–news media proliferating in Armenia. What’s wrong with that?

Anyway, your opinion is in the minority, so I think most people are happy about the bill’s rejection.

My opinion may be in the minority, but so was the opinion that attacking Iraq would lead to disaster. Your replies to my assertions have a way of generating irony like I’ve never seen. Please stop to consider: Do you think the majority’s zeal against the “gagging” (read, making transmit on a private, rather than–public–, frequency) of RFE might have something to do with its very propagandizing presence?

Don’t worry, they’re not all going to get “frightened to death.” Armenia is going through the same crucial times that the rest of the world is going through, what with the neocon coup at the US.

The Armenian government is the one that is under pressure to maintain its integrity, fully aware of the “color revolutions” that have taken place in the neighborhood there.

For that reason, it has tried to protect itself, the way all bureaucracies always do. There’s nothing unusual there, especially not the absence of an ideal democracy.

Hence, some news agencies might come under pressure, for one reason or another. But the best and the brightest of Armenia will figure out a way to walk the fine line between legitimate criticism of corruption and neocon propaganda. Like some already have.

That is a step in the direction of restoring real Armenian culture, a step in the direction of Armenian culture living the great potential it lost after it was massacred and after almost a century of totalitarian rule.

I don’t mean to exaggerate the matter, but these types of decisions that a country makes on its way are important.

As for omission, according to RFE, things like the IMF, World Bank, and global capital are not newsworthy;

Armen, that sentence made me think you were saying they never carried stories about them. Regardless, I don’t think you can say that RFE/RL propagandizes for these organizations although the government might like them to as the IMF and World Bank are about the only organizations who seem to praise the government. Opposition economists are the ones that do not.

As for Armenian culture and a point you made on my blog about trying to argue the case for RFE/RL’s departure from Public Radio allowing for a more evolved and mature media sphere here, I don’t believe this argument stands up. By far the worst media here is the TV and that’s all government controlled.

Instead, I would argue that a plurality of opinion is what Armenia needs most. Others would simply argue that the population as a whole is so fed up with what they see as lies and propaganda broadcast on the TV stations owned or partly owned by government-linked businessmen as well as officials (Armenchik, for example) that they actually want to listen to RFE/RL.

Moreover, they generally tend to believe it because the news reflects a reality they see on a daily basis. That’s for the radio broadcasts at least. Speaking on a personal level, I greatly value the English-language web site they run because it not only covers most of the stories that need to be covered, but they also put all sides to the story.

That’s something which few journalists do here, and something we need more of. So, in fact, to some extent I’d argue that RFE/RL might even set a precedent for more balanced coverage of news events although once again stress that I’m referring to the web site. Nevertheless, a sizable number of Armenians want to listen to the station although I would actually support this bill if there was more media plurality in TV and Radio.

As it is, without RFE/RL, the only plurality that really exists is in the print media, but that really is politicized and has largely lost credibility among almost everybody.

And what I said about the RFE’s coverage on your site was that they do not characterize them as predatory lending institutions.

Put these two points together and you’ll get the general picture: If RFE really were an organization with Armenia’s interests in mind it would have criticized the government for cooperating with these institutions, or, even better, made it clear why any government with an economy as small as Armenia’s would have a hard time saying no to the offers made to them that they can’t refooz.

You haven’t a single piece of evidence like that. Instead, the case you make is the case for “plurality of opinion” (if that wears out, you can use “fair and balanced,” has that one made it to Armenia yet?) My response to “plurality of opinion” is that it is a very nice sounding bit of propaganda that outside of the sphere of simplistic memes (read, mass “pluralistic” media) means nothing.

Some methodological approaches in understanding countries economically, socially, and politically yield more accurate results than others, and all the credible ones, generally, do not number more than about four. News is the reporting, analyzing, and evaluating events according to these methodologies, and it has been going on for approaching two centuries now–long, long before the meme “plurality of opinion” came along.

Moreover, the uniqueness of an opinion can not substitute for its accuracy. Everybody’s opinion counts in its uniqueness, but it does not necessarily count in its accuracy: That’s why board rooms don’t really care for cacophony, and that’s why they fire people who are out of touch with reality, no matter how unique their opinions.

To tell people otherwise is to teach them infantility, to encourage their wish for omniscience, and ultimately to subvert democracy.

In the US, people have been encouraged to ascribe much importance to their opinions, opinions which are usually simply unanalyzed emotional convictions, and emotional convictions that radio personalities are experts in manipulating for political purposes.

Your “plurality of opinion” is nothing but that, really. It’s a nice idea that is today in the service of a very malicious agenda. Is that what you want for Armenia? That’s not what I want.

And one more thing. The people of Armenia, and by that I mean the 90% percent of the population whose opinions never show up in English language blogs about the country, those people are a lot more aware of what is going on their country than you know or are letting on.

Political news in Armenia, as you would know if you had ties with the people, mostly gets around through newspapers and word of mouth. And it does so every day, even as you condescend to tell Armenians about “freedom of speech.”

But perhaps you have these “freedom of speech demonstrations” for the photographs. Perhaps the purpose of these English language blogs is to propagate among English speaking diasporan Armenians the idea that the Armenian government is totalitarian and that the native Armenian population is deeply dissatisfied with it.

I don’t know though; this sort of stuff is very hard to see through.

We still have to bear in mind that closing of the RL will further shift the balance of the media towards Russian propaganda. (Don’t forget that we consume much greater number of radio stations in Russian as well as nationwide russian channels). I really don’t want Armenia end up in Russian federation next to Chechnia in a 10 years time!

And second,