"Crosstalk: Unaccountable Deep State"
RT.com (November 27, 2019)
https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/507870-russiagate-hoax-biden-administration/

[7:33] Oliver Boyd-Barrett: "It may not have always been that way, but the history of mainstream media in practically any country of the world is one mainly of collusion with authority and, in particular, with the deep states of all of our major nations. The United States is actually not particularly exceptional in this respect. Trump was a wonderful gift to the media from an economic point of view because the media as a whole was flailing very badly as a result of its internal economic crisis, and here came along this incredibly interesting, intriguing, clown-like figure who was never, ever going to be a savior from the deep state because he doesn't believe in anything other than his own self-interest and the interest of his family. Everything else is just incredibly ephemeral with Trump. So, Trump was never a convincing savior.

"But in the 2016 election, he did have one good idea. And the good idea was: Doesn't it make sense to actually be friendly with Russia? And doesn't that make even better sense because it prevents the possibililty of a more unified front between Russia and China against US interests around the world? That was actually quite sensible. But Trump didn't have the degree of conviction that was necessary for him to follow through on that one good thought that he had during his campaign."

. . .

[18:00] Oliver Boyd-Barrett: "Yeah. I think we've talked about Russia-gate as being an extraordinary episode of public distraction in which the media was a prime player. Russia-gate distracted us from many, many things, including the corruption of the DNC. It distracted us from the role of dark money in U.S. elections. It distracted us from everything that was very wrong with this two-party dominant electoral system hat we have. And amongst other things, very sadly, it distracted us from the reality of Russia and the Reality of China. Anyone who has visited cities recently, like Moscow or St. Petersburg or Beijing or Shanghai, they will know these are incredibly vibrant places.

The world is changing. We have examples of extraordinarily effective political leadership in these countries the likes of which we have not seen here for several decades. This is the reality that the U.S. media obfuscate. They rob 99.9 percent of the American population from understanding anything real about these two -- not just these two countries, about many countries -- but in this context is a particularly important fact that we know nothing from the media about Russia or about China."