ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses the television's ability to perform state television's balancing act was tested severely during the ethno-racially motivated riots in Moscow in December 2010. In addition to Channel 1 and Rossiia, the author analyse relevant news reports by NTV and REN TV. Conflicting information about the Manezhnaia disturbances was refracted by the four channels through a set of consistently utilized interpretative lenses reflecting official myths, semi-academic theories and popular interpretations of events: first, 'the friendship of the peoples'; second, 'ethnic criminality'; third, 'culture conflict' or 'inter-ethnic strife'; and fourth, 'conspiracy of power' theories. Of all the four channels, NTV most consistently reproduced ethnic and racial prejudices, as it relentlessly stereotyped minority communities according to the 'ethnic criminality' lens. REN TV's weekly news programme Nedelia made the clearest attempt to interpret the riots as part of a broader inter-ethnic problem, and was the most explicit in its criticism of extreme Russian nationalism and manifestations of racism.
