As now I listen mostly to channeled messages, read channeled books, trust mostly channeled news, so in my youth, I was mostly relying on foreign radio stations broadcasting propaganda for Russians. There was much more truth in foreign propaganda than in the Russian one. One of the main criteria I used was the tone of the messages. Russian broadcasting had a monopoly since everything in the Soviet Union was the property of the government. It is hard for westerners to imagine the soviet totality of control, but even flower shops were federal. Even coffee kiosks were federal in the Soviet Union. I usually give this analogy to westerners: imagine every store to be like a social security office (that is highly bureaucratic). Soviet broadcasting in the 70s and 80s was particularly phony. The system was so rotten that even people on television made little effort to sound like they believed what they were saying. They used a universal official tone which carried only a standardized bureaucratic emotion of total control. At the time an American radio station, Radio Liberty broadcasting to Russia from Europe, was the best of all foreign stations, which we collectively called "voices" after the voice of America. Radio Liberty coined a special tone of their speech, a special emotion which was characterized by a combination of sadness, even tragedy, empathy and sincerity. When Russian propaganda pretended that everything was great, Radio Liberty presented a different view of the same news with sadness and compassion. They spoke about life in Russia and life in the west with sadness and compassion. This was absolutely unique. Although their management changed and most of the personnel have changed, they still keep this unique tone to this day. Since the situation in Russia is still sad, this sad tone is well justified.