BBG media digital failure on St. Petersburg blast

bbgwatch.com [original article contains images of tweets and other items]

Anastasia Kirilenko image from article

After posting late its breaking news on the St. Petersburg blast, Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) premier Russian-language digital channel Current Time was showing only 12 LIKES, 6 SHARES and 5 COMMENTS after 41 minutes online. Russia’s RT was LIVE on Facebook with thousands of views, as were independent Russian-language channels Radio Rain and MEDUZA.

Former Radio Liberty Russian Service (Radio Svoboda) outstanding investigative reporter Anastasia Kirilenko reposted today one of BBG Watch articles in the wake of a metro blast in St. Petersburg.

A Putin Corruption Reporter Too Radical For Radio Liberty

A quick look on Facebook shows Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) media — Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) English and Russian sites, Radio Svoboda, Current Times, Voice of America (VOA) sites in English and Russian — late in reporting, no live coverage, and multiple times behind in the number of Views, Shares, Likes and Comments compared to Russia’s RT, BBC in English and Russian, Deutsche Welle (DW), and independent Russian news sites on Facebook such as TV Rain and Meduza. The BBG media has been completely outplayed on this story on social media and can’t compete in the digital world even with some of the poorly-funded, still independent Russian news sites, not to mention Russian state media, BBC or even DW.

This is what Kirilenko once wrote:

ANASTASIA KIRILENKO: “I think Putin will end up badly, and he knows it. The alleged support Putin has among the Russians is a complicated myth. Of course, the Russian state controlled media bankrolled by Bank Rossiya, the mafias’s obschak, or shared treasure of criminals, has become like the Nazi Party newspaper Völkischer Beobachter. After years of watching such propaganda, many people are repeating that Putin is their savior from the West’s aggression, from Obama etc. even when they are hit with the consequences of the inflation and the economic crisis. Putin tries to use propaganda to maintain stability, but he is not managing well. The disparity between incomes is growing. His clan has become too greedy, and he himself has started a number of wars. He’s just an unwelcome outsider in the world even after trying to corrupt the West and to buy support from Western enablers. But Putin cannot simply resign because he fears for his life and his safety, and does not want to part with his acquired wealth. That’s why he is capable of anything, every new provocation, to stay in power. I’m now working on analyzing a recent report of the Swiss intelligence service which was leaked to the press, titled ‘Links Between FSB and Criminality.’ Nobody really knows what this indestructible alliance between the government and criminals in Russia will do next.”