pcr writes here about what remains of our once free press;

The Matrix Has Tightened Its Grip

Paul Craig Roberts

The English language Russian media organizations, RT and Sputnik, and the new online and I think print newspaper, The Epoch Times, provide news and information that never appear on CNN, MSNBC, over NPR, or in the New York Times, but their reporting could be much better.

The problem for RT, Sputnik, and Epoch Times is the power of the official narratives. The official narratives are so ingrained that it is difficult to communicate outside them. Moreover, many of the editors and journalists for these alternative media organizations are hesitant to step too far outside the narrative as they exist under Washington’s threat of being closed down. Additionally, it is difficult even for alternative journalists to get their minds outside the box and present entirely different narratives.

As an example consider the October 29, 2021 report in RT that the US “intelligence community,” an oxymoron, has concluded that Covid-19 is neither genetically engineered or a bioweapon, but may change its mind if China doesn’t open its laboratories to US “intelligence.”
https://www.rt.com/news/538901-us-intel-china-covid-warning/

RT has performed the service of showing that Washington’s “intelligence report” serves the function of providing another threat to China in addition to putting Taiwan in the UN and sending US Navy ships through waters claimed by China. However, the RT report fails by not challenging the intelligence community’s conclusion.......read more........