Russian Journalists Ordered to Lie

In most countries that’s optional but Russia is more ambitious than that:

At their first meeting with journalists since taking over Russia’s largest independent radio news network, the managers had startling news of their own: from now on, they said, at least 50 percent of the reports about Russia must be “positive.”

In addition, opposition leaders could not be mentioned on the air and the United States was to be portrayed as an enemy, journalists employed by the network, Russian News Service, say they were told by the new managers, who are allies of the Kremlin.

So they’re going to mirror CNN’s programming? I guess they’re not out for ratings with this initiative.