CrossTalk
| CrossTalk | |
|---|---|
_title_card.png) Title card | |
| Presented by | Peter Lavelle |
| Production | |
| Production location | Moscow |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | RT |
| Release | September 30, 2009 – present |
CrossTalk is a current affairs debate television program on RT. Billed as the flagship program of the network, it is hosted by American journalist Peter Lavelle from RT's studios in Moscow.[1] It is dedicated to discussions on global affairs, with Lavelle moderating conversation between several guests.
The show was created by Lavelle who previously hosted IMHO and In Context for RT.[2] It also featured input from Yelena Khanga who provided the background story on the topic of discussion for the day.[3] CrossTalk premiered on September 30, 2009 and airs for 30 minutes.[4] Guests are encouraged to intervene whenever they wish which, according to Oliver Bullough in the New Statesman, means the conversation can "degrade into barely comprehensible shouting".[5]
Editions and responses
In a 2010 episode of CrossTalk, Lavelle's two guests — Douglas Murray of the Centre for Social Cohesion and Anne-Elisabeth Moutet of the Rousseau Institute — were taken aback when he said that the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks were "not fundamentalists".[6][7][8] Lavelle later said this particular episode was a "fiasco" because he lacked a "balanced pair of experts".[6]
An edition in July 2016 was a response to a NATO summit in which all participants were critical of the alliance. One participant said NATO was "a minute group of megalomaniac powerbrokers hell bent on sending us into a third world war". According to Lavelle, he had been prevented from showing a defence of NATO in captions because of technical problems, although anti-NATO captions were shown.[9] Dominic Kennedy in The Times of London reported in August 2016 that the programme has conveyed conspiracy theories that the September 11 attacks were an inside job and AIDS being caused by AIDS drugs themselves.[10]
References
- ^ "Programs". RT. Archived from the original on December 16, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
- ^ Karlin, Anatoly (August 9, 2010). "Interview with Peter Lavelle (Russia Today)". Sublime Oblivion. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
- ^ "Introducing "CrossTalk"". RT. September 30, 2009. Archived from the original on December 16, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
- ^ ""Crosstalk": RT's brand new TV debate club". RT. September 30, 2009. Archived from the original on December 16, 2011. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
- ^ Bullough, Oliver (May 10, 2013). "Inside Russia Today: counterweight to the mainstream media, or Putin's mouthpiece?". New Statesman. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
- ^ a b von Twickel, Nikolaus (March 23, 2010). "Russia Today courts viewers with controversy". Moscow Times.
- ^ Lavelle, Peter (February 15, 2010). "Youtube RT News: Crosstalk".
- ^ Murray, Douglas. "Russia Today, Putin and the 9/11 nutters". The Telegraph. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
- ^ Williams, Christopher (February 7, 2017). "Media watchdog calls in Kremlin-backed news channel RT over impartiality breach on Nato". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
- ^ Kennedy, Dominic (August 1, 2016). "Putin TV channel twists the thinking of western viewers". The Times. London. Retrieved September 14, 2017. (subscription required)