FAKE NEWS(MEN): We learned this week (from the BBC) that a Russian television news channel is using a robot to anchor some of its newscasts. The experiment, using what years ago Walt Disney dubbed “audio animatronics” involves a robot called “Alex” reading news items on topics ranging from agriculture to nuclear technology. Currently, Alex can only move his head and face but soon he will be able to do things like move his arms – and presumably give the one finger salute to the human news readers on the Rossiya 24 network. It seems his builders have given anchorman Alex a large ego. BBC quoted him (or it?) as saying: “I should note that at a technological innovations exhibition, the main hero was me, robot Alex.” So, in that respect, he does sound a lot like some of his human counterparts.
IN OTHER (RUSSIAN) NEWS: Human Moscow TV monitor Julia Davis reports that Russian state TV re-broadcast Fox News Sean Hannity’s commentary attacking the Mueller report as “the left’s big lie.” Well, if Russia says it was fake news – I guess that settles it. The Daily Beast (for which Davis is a contributor) picked up on this too – noting that TV network Rossiya 1 called the Mueller report a “bestseller about the absence of collusion between Trump and Russia.”
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