Fake News: How Do You Find a Source You Can Trust?

by Alex Hicks

RT, Al Jazeera and BBC are three very different news companies but they all have one thing in common. They are all funded by their respective governments however the reputations of all three vary. RT has been accused of being the mouthpiece of Putins government since its inception. Al Jazeera’s time on the air waves has been mired in controversy for several different reasons. BBC is one of the most trusted networks on the planet. Yet all stem from essentially the same concept so how do we know which one to trust especially when the reports contradict so much.

RT, also known as Russia today, was set up in 2005 to try and promote the image of Russia abroad. The point was to try and and dispel the opinion that “Russia is associated with three words: communism, snow and poverty” as said by one of the founders. However ever since the beginning its struggled to maintain a good reputation. In the UK the Alex Salmond show has been hit with accusations of being too lenient when it comes to accuracy and they have been threatened with the stripping of their UK licence to publish due to the coverage of Syria and Ukraine. All in all RT has been hit with 15 breaches of the UK’s broad casting code. All of these have been in a attempt to portray the “Russian point of view”. However this had led to the publication of blatant lies including claims that the Ukrainian government was carrying out a genocide against its own people in 2014 which was immediately debunked.

Al Jazeera on the other hand has been unpopular within the Middle East. Founded in 1996 it is funded by the Qatari government, a small oil rich nation in the Middle East that attempted too give the Middle East a more focused view than western channels. However while its been funded by the government it has taken steps to ensure that it is not under its control. Al Jazeera gained notoriety during the war in Afghanistan as it was the only channel to cover the war live. However within the Middle East it has been unpopular with demands for it to be taken down by Bahrain, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt supposedly for spouting “Zionist propaganda”. This doesn’t seem to be the full story however as the Atlantic defended it and the general consensus seems to be that because Al Jazeera tries to stay separate from the politics of the reason it is simply giving a balanced view that includes news from Israel. Therefore perhaps not all the arguments against the legitimacy of the broad casters are true.

Finally the BBC. A bastion of news broadcasting from the the UK. The BBC has been the standard to match for broadcasters around the world with it being a pioneer in the industry. It was founded in 1922 and was the first national broadcasting company. In its long and storied history it has attracted criticism however its if often for being  against the government especially against the conservative governments. It is funded directly from the British government however there are several steps taken to ensure that the BBC is not bias and that there are several commissions and watchdogs to ensure it remains this way.

Usually the reputation of broadcasters precedes them but sometimes, like in the case of Al Jazeera, things may be different to how they first seem. The BBC however is a trusty and storied organisations that has been a benchmark for others too follow.