# Japan and South Korea moving south at an alarming rate. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2019, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860 "2019-09-08T00:33:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/21 "2019-09-08T10:14:58Z")
Though I admit that I was surprised to read that the anchor, “Ashlee Banks” is American. Sounds like a made up name ( it’s Will Smith’s cousin’s name from the 90s sitcom). I expected her to be from somewhere else, but her background information on a few sites list her as African American or American. Her linked in page claims she speaks Arabic as well as English. So who knows what the whole truth is. I admit that there are probably more Americans working for RT than I’d expect. But it certainly can’t be considered a “US” news agency. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/22 "2019-09-08T10:20:32Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > [RT America](https://www.rt.com/on-air/rt-america-air/) > > > [@](#): > > > > RT America broadcasts from its studios in Washington, DC. > > Did you people even look at the article? Is [this girl](https://twitter.com/ashleembanks) a Russian? Are the map labels in Cyrillic? :rolleyes: Al Jazeera used to have bureaus in 12 US cities. And they’d broadcast stories in English for a wide audience. That doesn’t make them a US news agency. And I wouldn’t attribute gaffes made by their US offices to American staffers. That’s just odd. I dunno. There may have been the potential for a joke in the OP. Maybe if he said something like, “The Russians over at RT have been in America so long, they’re starting to forget geography” or something like that… ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/23 "2019-09-08T10:27:32Z")
It’s a Russian news agency, with a branch in Washington. Producing English language content aimed at American audiences. And staffed mostly by locals, including some dumbass intern who doesn’t know Japan from New Zealand. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/24 "2019-09-08T10:27:55Z")
I give up. The joke wasn’t primarily on the US you humourless fucksticks. It was on the invisibility of New Zealand, as my link amply demonstrated. That it was a US agency fucking up with their geography was just by the by. But the reactions in this thread reinforce the stupidity of Americans…and their lack of self-awareness to be able to laugh at gaffes. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/25 "2019-09-08T10:32:19Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > But the reactions in this thread reinforce the stupidity of Americans…and their lack of self-awareness to be able to laugh at gaffes. Or possibly, you’re just not funny. Sometimes the joke just doesn’t land. But go ahead and call us all fucksticks (I guess that’s allowed now?) and blame your lack of comedic delivery on the “stupidity” of Americans. ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/26 "2019-09-08T10:34:34Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > It’s a Russian news agency, with a branch in Washington. Producing English language content aimed at American audiences. > > And staffed mostly by locals, including some dumbass intern who doesn’t know Japan from New Zealand. I can mostly agree with this. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/27 "2019-09-08T10:58:29Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > I can mostly agree with this. So you’re pedalling back from your earlier comments? Good to hear. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/28 "2019-09-08T11:09:29Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > So you’re pedalling back from your earlier comments? Good to hear. > > :rolleyes: Why is it that every time a person on this board admits to an error, people call it “back pedalling”?? That’s not the first time. It is at least the third time in the past month. The point of this board is to fight ignorance, yet any time a person admits to a partial error, they are attacked as “back pedalling”. That’s fucking stupid. I admitted a few posts up that there are more locals working for RT than I had expected, and admitted that I was surprised to see “Ashlee Banks” is the real name of a real American who just happens to work for a Russian news agency. Blue infinity refines and restates his position and I confirm that I am mostly in agreement. And you call that “back pedalling”?? What the hell is wrong with you? ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/29 "2019-09-08T11:20:15Z")
I guess admitting to one’s errors is not a well respected concept in your opinion? That would explain why you continue to blame American stupidity for your lack of comedy, and why you roll your eyes at my “back pedalling”? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/30 "2019-09-08T13:30:15Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > Why is it that every time a person on this board admits to an error, people call it “back pedalling”?? That’s not the first time. It is at least the third time in the past month. The point of this board is to fight ignorance, yet any time a person admits to a partial error, they are attacked as “back pedalling”. That’s fucking stupid. At times the 'Dope does seem to me to be a cut throat, take no prisoners, I’m smart you you’re stupid kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/31 "2019-09-08T13:50:55Z")
New Zealand, isn’t that where they filmed Lord of the Ring? ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/32 "2019-09-08T13:55:13Z")
> [@blue\_infinity](#): > > It’s a Russian news agency, with a branch in Washington. Producing English language content aimed at American audiences. > > And staffed mostly by locals, including some dumbass intern who doesn’t know Japan from New Zealand. They even run programs hosted by such familiar American personalities as Larry King and Jesse Ventura. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/33 "2019-09-08T14:18:29Z")
So RT Television hired an American correspondent as part of its effort to show that the U.S. is a seething caldron of racial hatred. OK, I’ll acknowledge that RT has at least a token “local” presence, but that doesn’t change what they are, which is a Russian propaganda operation. _“RT (formerly Russia Today) is a Russian international television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in English, Spanish, French, German, Arabic and Russian… RT is a brand of “TV-Novosti”, an “autonomous non-profit organization”, founded by the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, on 6 April 2005. During the economic crisis in December 2008, the Russian government, headed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, included ANO “TV-Novosti” on its list of core organizations of strategic importance of Russia… RT has been frequently described as a propaganda outlet for the Russian government and its foreign policy. RT has also been accused of spreading disinformation by news reporters, including some former RT reporters. The United Kingdom media regulator, Ofcom, has repeatedly found RT to have breached its rules on impartiality and on one occasion found it had broadcast “materially misleading” content. RT’s editor-in-chief compared it with the Russian Army and Defence Ministry, and talked about it “waging the information war against the entire Western world.” In September 2017, RT America was ordered to register as a “foreign agent” with the United States Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Under the act, RT will be required to disclose financial information.”_ > **[RT (TV network)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network))** > > RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya; Russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as providing Internet content in Russian, English, Spanish, French, German and Arabic. > RT is a brand of TV-Novosti - self-named an "autonomous non-profit organization" (ANO) - founded by the Russian state-owned news agency ... Assuming that when a U.S. division of a Russian propaganda outlet screws up, it’s got to be an American foulup is not as bad a gaffe as misplacing major countries on a map, but it’s embarrassing regardless. > [@kambuckta](#): > > I give up. The joke wasn’t primarily on the US you humourless fucksticks…But the reactions in this thread reinforce the stupidity of Americans… The OP’s agenda strikes me as a bit more than lighthearted repartee. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/34 "2019-09-08T14:46:22Z")
yeah, it’s not like RT would have a vested interest in making us look foolish or anything. Nope, no way. The truth must be that one person presenting an on-air gaffe is evidence that all 329 million of us are stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/35 "2019-09-08T15:46:45Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > yeah, it’s not like RT would have a vested interest in making us look foolish or anything. Nope, no way. The truth must be that one person presenting an on-air gaffe is evidence that all 329 million of us are stupid. While I’m grant that they have a vested interest along those lines, I’d say that it’s more likely that you simply don’t see the best sort of person going to work for RT. See: Carter Page, Michael Flynn ---
**Author:** ![Corry\_El](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecae2f/32.png) [@Corry\_El](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corry_El)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/36 "2019-09-08T16:57:53Z")
Stupid media people. Also not seeing what’s US specific about it. The buck surely stops with some Russian manager about what appears on RT even in English. But that might also be an ignorant media person, despite their ostensible job of ‘teaching’ the public. Which I think demonstrably runs across the various spins of media agencies (left/right in US terms, Putin apologist viewpoint in case of RT, etc). ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/37 "2019-09-09T20:52:46Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > In Soviet Russia, countries are where Soviet Russia says countries are. > > Doesn’t quite work as a Yakov Smirnoff joke but it’s the best I could figure out. No. First place there has been no Soviet Union for nigh on 30 years. Second, it’s wherever Putin says it is. How do you know it’s not just Australia (accompanied by Tasmania) moving north? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/38 "2019-09-09T21:01:47Z")
Plenty of people around the world are geographically illiterate (sometimes dubbed immappancy.) It doesn’t have to have been an American thing. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/39 "2019-09-10T01:18:14Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > No. First place there has been no Soviet Union for nigh on 30 years. Second, it’s wherever Putin says it is. > > How do you know it’s not just Australia (accompanied by Tasmania) moving north? Plate tectonics! ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2019, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860/40 "2019-09-10T01:28:52Z")
NZer here…I was planning a trip to Japan this Christmas, so I guess this will save me a bunch on airfares. And accommodation, actually. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/japan-and-south-korea-moving-south-at-an-alarming-rate/839860.md?page=3)