Where does Russia get its news about the U.S.?

Carol Forsloff- The newspaper Pravda has as one of its headline stories that America is
nearing an economic Armageddon.  Who do they quote?  An author on
Helium, a content website where anyone can write.

This reveals something that has happened around the globe.  It doesn't

matter who says what and when; it's the number of readers and the
attention instead for information to be believed by many people.  News
can be cited from blogs, from citizen journal sites or even from
comments sometimes.  The Internet allows people on one side of the globe
to read the news on the other.  The problem is knowing whether the news
is factual or not and looking deeply enough at references and sources
to decide it.


In this case Pravda discusses
the economic opinions of David Rosenberg, Fred Harrison, Arthur Laffer,
Nobel Prizewinner Paul Krugman, and Robin Griffiths from an "American
analyst.  So who is the "American analyst?"  An economist also?  An
investigative reporter who has interviewed these economists and read
widely on the subject, with an analysis of the specifics referencing the
particular signs of depression and the particular details cited by the
economists themselves?    There
are, however, no links to any statements any have made that the United
States is in a depression. 


The website itself declares anyone can write for the site on any subject
desired, and that the best will do well.  This includes both citizen
and professional journalists.  The biography of Ayn lists no educational
background specific to journalism, analytical research or economics, is promoted by a list of several online and traditional
newspapers where Ayn has written, but what articles, when and in what
capacity is not mentioned in the information.  There is nothing to
suggest Ayn is an "analyst."


Ayn's biography
page lists the articles he has published and the radio shows where he
has been a guest, as well as a statement that his information has been
the talk of blogs on five continents.  The statement is general enough
that the reader doesn't know which blogs, which citations and when.  But
Pravda, reading the sensational headline responds.


Ayn's writing ability is not the issue but how countries source some of
their news and how fact-checking background is important when key
statements are made about a nation's entire national economic future.
Ayn refers to the United States as presently in an economic depression.
Again, there is no direct quotation or reference from any of the
economists that the economic status is specifically a depression.
Instead there are extrapolations from those statements to make the
conclusion that's drawn.  It may indeed be Ayn's opinion from reading
the economists, but links referencing them are not given nor are there
any quotes.


Most of the links in the article Ayn writes lead back to other articles
also from Helium, about history and the Great Depression.  The reference
to Fred Harrison comes from Wikipedia, a source that is questioned by
journalism departments as a credible information outlet, because it too
is a place where anyone can write as well and facts have come into
question.


From Ayn's analysis, Pravda sees the United States on the brink of total
disaster, again with the economists researched backing up the view.
The newspaper literally paraphrases Ayn's article.


Where does Pravda, a major Russian newspaper,  find its headline news on
the American economy for its readers to know?  Not the Los Angeles
Times nor the Wall Street Journal but a website where anyone can write
on anything they want with questions left unanswered.