Today, RFE/RL’s Armenian Service has published another manipulative content praising Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. According to “Azatutyun” “a number of America’s leading television stations and news agencies” covered Pashinyan’s visit and rally in Los Angeles.
As examples of these “leading” mass media, RFE/RL mentions:
KCAL-9
CBS LA
ABC-7
Los Angeles Daily News
FoxLA
Pasadena Star News
It should be noted that KCAL-9 is the same as CBS LA, which is broadcasted in Los Angeles and is part of the CBS cable network, but is intended only for Los Angeles local news. The same is about ABC-7 and FoxLA, which only broadcast Los Angeles local news, and it is natural that the rally in front of the Municipality was perceived as worthy of coverage. These channels only have urban broadcasting, that is they do not even have a statewide broadcasting.
Los Angeles Daily News is a political newspaper, with about 50.000 copies and almost 844.000 monthly site visitors in a city of about 4 million (agglomeration of about 18 million). For comparison, tert.am has four million monthly visitors. And the last but not least: Pasadena Star News has about 200.000 visitors, which is an indicator of the statistical average news agency in Armenia.
Of course, it would be nice to see Pashinyan’s visit covered by the leading foreign media but it’s disappointing that in case of its absence, RFE/RL, having personal and working ties with the Prime Minister, tries to keep us emotional by means of obvious and gross violation of professional qualities.
“Azatutyun”, of course, gently tries not to notice that the same American mass media speaks only of the “thousands” of participants of the rally, which does not fit the logic of astronomical figures and mythical success stories of government propagandists.