Malaysian Airlines plane "shot down" over Ukraine

Russia Today is diabolical from the perspective of journalistic ethics and integrity. In terms of entertainment value, I would place it higher than Fox News, but below Naked News...

From The Guardian:

"A London-based correspondent of Kremlin-funded news channel Russia Today has resigned in protest at its coverage of the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.

Sara Firth had worked at Russia Today for 5 years. “It was the most shockingly obvious misinformation and it got to the point where I couldn’t defend it any more,” Firth told the Guardian. “It was just appalling, in a situation like that where there are families waiting to be informed and a devastating loss of life.”

Firth said on Twitter: “I resigned from RT today. I have huge respect for many in the team, but I’m for the truth.”

(22-07-2014 00:28 )dark skies Wrote:  the separatists are at long last allowing international access to the crash site and have even handed over the plane's black boxes to investigators.

Could the rebels have modified the data on the black boxes?

As they showed by accidentally shooting down a civilian airliner these are little boys playing with big boy toys, so that is highly unlikely. To play any tricks with the boxes they would have to send them to Moscow.

(22-07-2014 20:30 )4waydiablo Wrote:  

(22-07-2014 00:28 )dark skies Wrote:  the separatists are at long last allowing international access to the crash site and have even handed over the plane's black boxes to investigators.

Could the rebels have modified the data on the black boxes?

Papers say that only a handful of countries have the capability to decipher the information in black box recorders. Even the Dutch and Malaysians don't have it. The boxes are apparently being sent to UK for analysis.

I don't know what the big deal is anyway. What's the black box going to show?

"All normal" ... "oh shit" ... "end of recording"

Unless the missile had a "courtesy of Vladimir" sticker on it, how is the flight recorder going to answer any of the still unanswered questions?

(22-07-2014 20:30 )4waydiablo Wrote:  

(22-07-2014 00:28 )dark skies Wrote:  the separatists are at long last allowing international access to the crash site and have even handed over the plane's black boxes to investigators.

Could the rebels have modified the data on the black boxes?

It's doubtful. The Malaysians have said the boxes are intact and have not been tampered with. Given the timescale involved it's unlikely the recorders have been in the hands of anyone with the capability to analyse them, never mind tamper with them.

There are photos of a section of fuselage circulating that appear to show shrapnel damage below the cockpit window. If that's the case, it's possible that the crew saw the missile coming. The voice recorder will be interesting in that case. The data recorder will also be crucial as the first systems to fail will point to the area the missile "hit".

I also noticed that they have suddenly decided to launch the coroner's inquest into Litvinenko's polonium poisoning of a few years back. It was previously blocked for reasons that included "international relations".

A very well-timed U-turn!

^^They're turning the screw on Putin.


Meanwhile, the Whitehouse has just had a press briefing. They've said that whilst Russia "created the conditions" for the shoot down (supplied the Missile system, possibly trained the crew) there is no evidence of direct Government involvement and it was probably a mistake.

I reckon they're trying to give Putin a way out here, let's see if he's clever enough to take it.

(22-07-2014 19:17 )Tumble_Drier Wrote:  You do realise Russia Today was created by 2 of Putin's cronies and is backed by the Russian Government, don't you?

I wasn't saying i was agreeing with what the station was saying

Putin's in a trap of his own making. It's difficult to stop supporting the rebels, due to him having cast the West as Russia’s enemy for so long, and having personally vowed to protect ethnic Russians everywhere. Putin would be fiercely criticised at home if he did what the West wants and pulled an about-face to abandon the separatists now.