Truth decayWhy the Jeffrey Epstein Saga Was the Russian Government-Funded Media’s Top Story of 2019
In a year featuring a presidential impeachment, Brexit, mass protests in Hong Kong, and widespread geopolitical turmoil, few topics dominated the Russian government-funded media landscape quite like the arrest and subsequent suicide of billionaire financier and serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Given the lack of any notable connection between Epstein and Russian interests, the focus on Epstein highlights the Kremlin’s clear prioritization of content meant to paint a negative image of the West rather than a positive image of Russia.
The Hamilton 2.0 dashboard, a project of the Alliance for Securing Democracy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, provides a summary analysis of the narratives and topics promoted by the Russian government and Russian state-funded media on Twitter, YouTube, broadcast television (RT), and state-sponsored news websites. The purpose of the dashboard is to increase our understanding of the focus and spread of Russian government messaging across various information mediums.
In a year featuring a presidential impeachment, Brexit, mass protests in Hong Kong, and widespread geopolitical turmoil, few topics dominated the Russian government-funded media landscape quite like the arrest and subsequent suicide of billionaire financier and serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In its year-end review, RT named the Epstein saga “2019’s major scandal,” and RT UK media personality George Galloway listed it as his number one “truth bomb” of the year (ahead of all the aforementioned events). Given the lack of any notable connection between Epstein and Russian interests, the focus on Epstein highlights the Kremlin’s clear prioritization of content meant to paint a negative image of the West rather than a positive image of Russia.
By the Numbers
Between Epstein’s arrest on July 6, 2019 and January 3, 2020, Twitter accounts connected to Russian state-funded media mentioned Epstein in 1,014 tweets (note: the search for “Epstein” possibly returned some false positives, but a manual review did not find any mentions unrelated to Jeffrey Epstein). Epstein was mentioned in more tweets during that period than German Chancellor Angela Merkel (919 tweets), UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (683 tweets), former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (554 tweets), and U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (236 tweets). On Twitter, there was also a clear effort to highlight Epstein’s political connections. The most frequent mentions in tweets related to Epstein (other than RT hosts and correspondents, who are often tagged in their own reporting) were @BillClinton (30 tags), @TheDukeofYork (25 tags), @RoyalFamily (23 tags), @HillaryClinton (19 tags), and @realDonaldTrump (19 tags).
On Kremlin-funded, English-language websites, a search of articles during the specified time range revealed a similar focus on the Epstein scandal. Sputnik, Tass, and RT produced 230 articles focusing on Epstein, far more than other topics seemingly more connected to Russian interests. For example, there were just 26 articles mentioning Burisma, 102 referencing “Russiagate,” and 114 mentioning special counsel Robert Mueller.
