Instructions For Detailed Budget Forms And Budget Narrative: Fill & Download for Free

Massachusetts Budget ProcessThe Governor gets the ball rolling and actually is allowed to send their budget to the House as a Bill, this is not the case in all states. This is the process:1. Governor's BudgetThe annual budget process begins each year when the Governor files recommendations as a bill with the House of Representatives. Under the state Constitution, the Governor must submit a proposal by the 4th Wednesday in January or, in the event of a new term, within five weeks later. This bill is called 'House 1’ or ‘House 2’ depending on the year.2. House Ways & Means BudgetThe House Committee on Ways and Means examines the Governor’s proposal and releases its own recommendations for the annual budget for deliberation by the House of Representatives. Prior to release of the House Ways and Means Budget, Joint Ways and Means Committee budget hearings are held across the state.3. House BudgetThe full House of Representatives considers amendments to the House Ways and Means recommendations and debates their inclusion in the bill. The House of Representatives then approves a final, amended version of the bill which is then sent to the Senate for consideration.4. Senate Ways & Means BudgetThe Senate Committee on Ways and Means examines both the Governor’s proposal and the House proposal and releases its own recommendations for the annual budget for deliberation by the Senate.5. Senate BudgetThe full Senate considers amendments to the Senate Ways and Means recommendations and debates their inclusion in the bill. The Senate then approves a final, amended version of the bill.6. Conference CommitteeThe House and Senate appoint three members each to a "conference committee" to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate proposals. One member of the minority party must be appointed by each branch. The conference committee reports a final compromise bill to the House and Senate for a final vote of acceptance in each branch.7. Governor's ActionsThe Governor has 10 days to review the budget and take action to either approve or veto the budget. The Governor may approve or veto the entire budget, veto or reduce specific line items, veto outside sections or submit changes as an amendment to the budget for further consideration by the Legislature. (NOTE: Governors in many states have the line item veto, the President of the US does not.)8. Legislative OverridesThe Legislature can override the Governor’s vetoes with a two-thirds vote in each branch. The House must vote first to override any vetoes before they may be considered by the Senate.9. Final BudgetFollowing any Legislative overrides, the budget is finalized and is commonly referred to as the “General Appropriations Act” for the upcoming fiscal year.This process takes about 7 months.Massachusetts Budget ProcessNew York State Budget ProcessNew York State uses an executive budget model. Under this system, the Executive is responsible for developing and preparing a comprehensive, balanced budget proposal, which the Legislature modifies and enacts into law. The Governor is required by the State Constitution to seek and coordinate requests from agencies of State government, develop a “complete” plan of proposed expenditures and the revenues available to support them (a “balanced budget”), and submit a budget to the Legislature along with the appropriation bills and other legislation required to carry out budgetary recommendations. The Governor is also required by the State Finance Law to manage the budget through administrative actions during the fiscal year.The State’s fiscal year begins April 1 and ends on March 31. However, the actual “budget cycle,” representing the time between early budget preparation and final disbursements, begins some nine months earlier and lasts approximately 27 months – until the expiration of the State Comptroller’s authority to honor vouchers against the previous fiscal year’s appropriations.1. Agency Budget Preparation (June–September/October)http://...Preparation of budget requests varies among agencies reflecting their size, complexity and internal practice. Typically, budget development begins at the program or subdepartmental level, with staff preparing individual program requests. The head of the agency or its top fiscal officer may hold internalhearings at which program managers outline their budgetary needs.Although agencies begin to analyze their budget needs as early as May or June, the formal budget cycle begins when the Budget Director issues a policy memorandum - the “call letter” - to agency heads. The call letter outlines, in general terms, the Governor’s priorities for the coming year, alerts the agency heads to expected fiscal constraints and informs agencies of the schedule for submitting requests to the Division of the Budget. The call letter signals the official start of the budget process.By early-mid fall, a final program package is assembled by each agency, which is guided by the instructions set forth by the Division of the Budget, reviewed for consistency with the call letter, and approved by the agency head.2. Division Of The Budget Review (September/October–December)http://...In accordance with the schedule outlined in the call letter, agencies typically submit their budget requests to the Division of the Budget in early-mid fall, with copies provided to the legislative fiscal committees. Examination units within the Division then analyze the requests of the agencies for which they have responsibility. Examiners may seek additional information from the agencies and may hold informal hearings or meetings with agency management to clarify agency requests and seek a more precise definition of agency priorities. By the end of October, examination units have also usually determined funding requirements to continue agency programs at current levels in the new year.In November, the Budget Director conducts constitutionally authorized “formal” budget hearings, giving agency heads an opportunity to present and discuss their budget requests and giving the staff of the Division of the Budget and the Governor’s office an opportunity to raise critical questions on program, policy and priorities. As provided in the Constitution, representatives of the Legislature also participate in the hearings.Under reform legislation passed in January 2007, a “quick start” budget process was instituted to help provide an earlier understanding of the state’s available funding resources. By November 5, the Division of the Budget, the Assembly, the Senate, and the comptroller release detailed forecasts of revenues and expenditures. After a public meeting with the respective staff members of these parties, DOB, the Senate, and the Assembly release a consensus forecast of the state’s financial position by November 15.Through late November, the Division’s examiners transform agency requests into preliminary budget and personnel recommendations which are reviewed in detail with the Director. They also prepare the appropriation bills and any other legislation required to carry out these recommendations. Concurrently, the Division of the Budget’s fiscal planning staff is reassessing economic projections, investigating possible changes in the revenue structure, analyzing trends in federal funding, and preparing the Financial Plan that describes and forecasts the State’s fiscal condition. The Financial Plan is prepared both on a cash basis and according to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP).By early December, the Division of the Budget will normally have completed its preliminary recommendations on both revenues and expenditures, and presented them to the Governor and the Governor’s staff. Budget staff then prepare the tables and the narrative (the “budget story”) that accompany each agency budget, and the descriptions and forecasts of individual revenue sources.3. The Governor’s Decisions (November - January)The Governor’s staff, who are also preparing the annual “State of the State” message to the Legislature, work with the Division throughout the development of the budget. The Governor is kept up-to-date on changing economic and revenue forecasts and confirms that executive program priorities are accurately reflected in the budget. Based on the preliminary recommendations and the most current reading of the economic and fiscal environment, the final Executive Budget recommendations are formulated in a series of meetings between Division of the Budget staff and the Governor. These sessions focus on major fiscal and policy issues and may lead to significant revisions in agency budgets.4. Legislative Action (January–March)http://...Typically by mid-January – or, following a gubernatorial election year, by February 1 – the Governor submits his Executive Budget to the Legislature, along with the related appropriation, revenue, and budget bills. The State’s five-year Financial Plan, Five-Year Capital Program and Financing Plan, and financial information supporting the Executive Budget are also submitted with the Executive Budget. The Executive Budget documents are available here.The Legislature, primarily through its fiscal committees – Senate Finance and Assembly Ways and Means – analyzes the Governor’s spending proposals and revenue estimates, holds public hearings on major programs, and seeks further information from the Division of the Budget and other State agencies. Following that review, the Legislature acts on the appropriation bills submitted with the Executive Budget.Under budget reform legislation passed in 2007, the Legislature is required to use a conference committee process between the two houses to organize its deliberations, set priorities, and reach agreement on a Budget. In addition, the State Finance Law requires that the Executive and Legislature convene a consensus economic and revenue forecasting conference and issue a consensus report on tax, lottery and miscellaneous receipts on or before March 1. If the parties fail to reach consensus, the Comptroller is required to issue a binding revenue forecast by March 5.Based on their separate and joint deliberations, the two houses reach agreement on spending and revenue recommendations, which are reflected in amended versions of the Governor’s proposed appropriation bills and related legislation, and approved by both houses. These amended bills are available from the Senate and Assembly Document Rooms located in the Capitol and the Legislative Office Building, and on the Internet.The appropriation bills, except for those items which were added by the Legislature and the appropriations for the Legislature and Judiciary, become law without further action by the Governor. The Governor must approve or disapprove all or parts of the appropriation bills covering the Legislature and Judiciary, and may use the line item veto to disapprove items added by the Legislature while approving the remainder of the bill. As provided in the Constitution, the Legislature may override the Governor’s veto by a vote of two-thirds of the members of each house. The appropriation bills legally authorize the expenditure of funds during the new fiscal year.Prior to passage of the appropriation bills, the Legislature must issue a summary of the proposed changes to the budget to its members. The Division of the Budget is also required to prepare a report that summarizes the impact of the Legislature’s actions on the State’s multi-year Financial Plan. Once the Governor completes his review of the Legislature’s actions, the Division then issues a comprehensive Enacted Budget Report that contains the State’s official Financial Plan projections for the current and successive fiscal years. The Legislature must also issue a report describing appropriation changes and the effect of the Enacted Budget on State agency employment levels.5. Budget Execution (April–March)At this point the budget process enters a new phase: budget execution. As a first step, the Division of the Budget approves “certificates of allocation” informing the State Comptroller that accounts may be established as specified in the certificates and that vouchers drawn against the accounts may be honored.In addition, the Division of the Budget keeps a close watch throughout the year on the flow of revenue and the pattern of expenditures against its projections. This information is reflected in quarterly updates of the Financial Plan which are provided to the Legislature as required by law in April (or as soon as practicable after budget enactment), July, October and with the Executive Budget for the ensuing year (usually January).The Debt Reform Act of 2000 requires the Governor to report on the State’s compliance with statutory caps placed on new debt issued after March 31, 2000. The State annually reports these findings in the Financial Plan Update closest to October 31.These updates serve as the basis of financial management during the fiscal year, and may alert both the Governor and the Legislature to potential problems in maintaining budget balance as the State fiscal year unfolds.Shortly after the end of the fiscal year, the Division of the Budget issues a comprehensive report that (1) compares unaudited year-end results to the projections set forth in the Enacted Budget and in the final update to the Financial Plan and (2) summarizes the reasons for the annual change in receipts and disbursements.The Budget Process, New York StateTexas State Budget ProcessIn Texas, the legislature, specifically the Legislative Budget Board is responsible for preparing the preliminary budget. Since the state has a divided executive branch, the state comptroller is also involved in the process.The Texas budget process begins during the year prior to each regular session of the state's Legislature, which are held in odd-numbered years.1. Legislative Appropriations RequestsEach state agency prepares a detailed legislative appropriations request (LAR) under the guidelines of the state's Legislative Budget Board (LBB). These LARs itemize the funding each agency feels it needs to pursue its various tasks, and include performance measures designed to ensure the money is spent efficiently and effectively.These LARs generally are sent to LBB, the Comptroller's office and several other state agencies by the end of summer or in early fall.2. LBB and Governor's Office of the Budget, Planning and Policy Hearings.The LBB and the Governor's Office of Budget, Planning and Policy hold hearings on their content.In the fall before the session, LBB uses the LARs as a basis to prepare a draft of the state's general appropriations bill, which will provide state agencies and institutions with funding for the following two fiscal years.3. State Comptroller Issues the Biennial Revenue Estimate.At the beginning of the legislative session, the Comptroller's office issues its biennial revenue estimate (BRE), a careful estimate of the funds likely to be available from taxes and other revenue sources over the next two years. The Texas Constitution makes the BRE a cap on legislative spending for this period.4. House and Senate HearingsBoth the Texas House Committee on Appropriations and the Senate Finance Committee hold hearings on the general appropriations bill, and make changes to it reflecting the BRE's limits and their funding priorities.5. Approval of House and Senate hearing versions.When the committees complete their versions of the bill, they send them to the full House and Senate, respectively, for approval.6. Bicameral Conference Committee to resolve differences in billsThese two bills then go to a conference committee made up of members of both the House and Senate, which resolves their differences to produce a single bill reflecting the wishes of both bodies.7. Both Houses Vote on Combined Bill.8. Certification by State Comptroller.Once approved, it goes to the Comptroller's office for "certification," a formal statement from the Comptroller that the bill spends no more than the amounts reflected in the BRE.9. Governor's signature.The bill then faces a final hurdle, the governor's signature. Texas has a "line-item veto," allowing the governor to trim individual spending items from the bill as he or she sees fit. (This veto can be overridden a two-thirds majority vote in each house, but in practice the governor's decisions are rarely challenged.)Once signed, the bill becomes law, directing the state's finances for two more years.http://www.texastransparency.org/State_Finance/Budget_Finance/Budget_Primer.phpEach state's budget process is slightly different so if you want to know about a specific state I suggest you go to that state's website to find out.

There are a gazillion and one ways to organize the workflow and production process for recording tracks. However, there are a few time honored traditions that serve as foundations for a variety of production types. Most production processes are variations on these basic models.Large EnsembleFor large ensembles, such as orchestra and choir, the most common working method is to record all the instruments and/or voices in one pass. It’s just too time consuming and expensive to do it any other way when there are 30-60 musicians involved. In this case, the players must be very good at what they do. One little mistake by one player costs everyone else their time. It’s pressure. Usually, there will be several takes of each significant portion of the program and sometimes sections of each take will be edited and pieced together for a final version.Huge EnsembleWhen tracking music for mega-production film scores, the elements are divided up among different teams of specialists and then later assembled by a mixing engineer.Quite often, the process will begin with a computer and keyboard generated version of the film score, created by the composer and overseen by the musical director. When the decisions and details of the composition have been ironed out, the computer/keyboard version will be used as a guide track for live instrument ensembles and then discarded. That is, of course, if the live sessions prove to be better than the computer generated score. Sometimes the final version contains parts of both.If the orchestra and choir are both enormous, then each will be recorded in an independent session. As the production moves into the mixing and assembly phase, all the elements of dialogue, music, sound effects, foley and background ambiences are passed along to some poor soul called the “mixing engineer,” who now has to deal with 140 channels of audio that must be perfectly balanced and synchronized to the action and movements of the visual components. Picture if you will, a mad genius who is also an extreme adrenaline junkie who never needs sleep. :-)Popular MusicIn music styles that feature an artist who uses a hired studio session band, the process is pretty straight-forward. Most commonly, recording begins with a session called “rhythm tracking.” In this scenario, we’d most often see drums, bass, keyboards and a guitar or two playing together in one pass while the featured artist sings a scratch track, just as a helpful guide. The instrumental musicians will be aiming for final takes as quickly as possible and the vocal scratch track is later replaced.Next come additional sessions for instrumental solos, backing vocals and then sweeteners. Sweeteners can be any incidental idea or additional instrument track that the artist or producer envisions and could include hand percussion, synthesizers, string or horn sections, etc.In most cases, the final vocal sessions come last in the process in order to afford the featured artist the best opportunity for being inspired by and responsive to the final instrumental and backing vocal tracks. Vocals may involve as little as 15 minutes per song and as much as a full day for each song. I once saw a producer cue sheet from a Whitney Houston session where every note and every phrase was marked with instructions from the vocal coach regarding inflection, vibrato intensity, vibrato speed, loudness and a variety of other expressive nuances.BandsI’ll define “bands” as a circumstance where all the players are publicly recognized as a part of the ensemble, as opposed to the singing artist or group where the backing band is of secondary importance in the marketing package.Quite often, the “band” tracking scenario will be the same as the studio session player date -- rhythm tracks first, then instrumental solos, backing vocals and sweeteners. But, it would be just as common to see bands tracking everything they have in one pass, doing multiple takes of each song, choosing a favorite take, then replacing or repairing whatever tracks or sections of tracks that may not be suitable.There’s a fabled story about Eric Johnson doing a guitar solo over and over again, late into the night. The engineer finally wore out and set Eric up with a remote control in the tracking room so he could work by himself. Reportedly, the engineer went home, got a decent night’s sleep, came back the next morning and Eric was still working on the same solo. I don’t know if this is true but it was written in a credible industry magazine.I also recall reading in George Martin’s book, “All You Need Is Ears,” that Paul McCartney’s release of “Blackbird,” was take number 38. Wshew!JazzAll the Jazz artists I’ve ever worked with track everything in one pass. In most cases, the interactive nature of Jazz musicians playing straight from the hip and responding to one another’s cues requires this. Many of the Jazz artists I’ve worked with also insist on one take and one take only. Their intuitions dictate that it’s not Jazz if the details have been perfected.The majority of Bluegrass and Old-Time musicians I’ve worked with also operate under the same principle and track everything in one pass.The One-Man ArtistAnd of course, this could also be the One-Woman Artist. In this scenario the featured artist plans to do all or most of the tracking themselves and is assisted by a recording technician to manage the technical setups, workflow, equipment, etc. This, by the way, is how the musician, Prince worked with his engineer, Susan Rogers -- only two people present in the studio for tracking, the musician and the engineer.For this production style, I’ll always start by tracking a scratch version to a click track. For the scratch, the client typically plays an instrument and may sing along or possibly just narrate instructions that map out the location of particular points in the song. As the artist accumulates enough additional final tracks to keep their place in the song, the scratch tracks are discarded. Tracking continues at the artist’s discretion, one instrument or vocal per pass at a time until the song is complete.In situations where musical time-keeping and/or pitch references are vague in the early tracking stages, I’ll play a MIDI keyboard or MIDI percussion track and quantize it strictly to the tempo and recording timeline to use as a temporary reference that’s discarded as soon as it’s no longer needed.The Solitary ProducerThis is a setting where only one person is present in the studio, doing both the engineering and the music. This method was pioneered by artists such as Paul McCartney and Todd Rundgren in the mid-1970s, and is extremely common today across many genres and budget levels.In cases where I have a singer/songwriter client who needs a studio backing band, I will often provide their backing tracks working as a solitary producer.My personal workflow begins with mapping out the structure of the song on a computer DAW timeline, where I create markers for, Intro, Verses, Breaks, Chorus’s, Solos, Turn-Arounds, Bridges, Outro’s, or whatever the form of the song may be. The tempo, meter and any rubato sections are also visually noted or mapped on the click track.With the song mapped out visually and the click track audible, I’ll quickly hammer out a crude version of MIDI percussion and bass with no regard to expression or nuance and quantize them exactly to the tempo and timeline. After a few of the live instruments are then recorded, I’ll then replace the static sounding, quantized MIDI percussion with bass guitar and MIDI percussion, played with attention to expression and musicality. If the song arrangement is involved, I’ll sometimes have the singer/songwriter come into the studio for a scratch vocal to serve as an aid to expressing the instrumental tracks as well as possible.For instruments and backing vocals that are beyond my level of expertise, I have studio musicians at distant locations who can provide those accompaniments via the Internet. In this case, I make a rough mix of the work in progress, email an MP3 to the studio musician, receive their finished track via Drop Box, YouSendIt, or whatever and pay them by way of PayPal. It’s really kind of fun and cool because we no longer have to schedule each other’s time and since there’s no travel involved, their work is far more affordable.So there we have the basics and the typical models. Most productions either fit the models closely or are variations. That said, the role of a producer is to know what works under what circumstance, anticipate a process and workflow while always being alert to knowing when and where exceptions and changes need to be made. There will always be unexpected snafu’s and even points of crisis in most recording projects. Fortunately, our current state of technology is giving us the tools we need to work in just about any way that may be required to get the job done.Which brings me to one last little story about recording and technology. Several years ago, my friend and client Csilla Muscan, called me, excited that she’d just thought up a new song while driving. She sang the new song idea into her phone which was recorded onto my answering machine. I transferred the phone message to my DAW, used it as a scratch guide and played a few simple instrumental parts go along with it. Csilla liked the simple arrangement, so she came into the studio and spent five minutes singing a final version ... and that was it.From phone message to song in about 90 minutes time, here’s the final version of the release:

Propaganda, of course, exists in each of these countries, but is done differently and has very different effects. In particular, in the US propaganda is protected under free speech, but so is more adequate reporting - you can easily find both.The simplest form of propaganda is passive - the modulation of media resources. For example, out of ten articles, suppress the few that disagree with you, while those closest to the desired "party line" can be shown more prominently and kept online for longer. Any one news source has editorial policies of this sort (which is not necessarily bad), but the entire national media would need to somehow conspire to achieve such an effect deliberately at a larger scale. Without conspiracy or at least careful coordination, a competing commercial news source would quickly fill in the omissions by others and lure viewers away, increasing its advertisement revenues. In the US, most media are commercial and made up of competing sources (while some of them are owned by the same investors, they have independent editorial policies), while nonprofits like the PBS not affiliated with political parties. Also, the US has a roughly even balance between two major parties (right now, republicans control the Congress, but are less represented in the media, and the legal system is viewed as much less political), whereas in Russia and China, a single party dominates the political landscape by a large margin, controls most media (as well as the legal system), and has the power to shut down everyone else when needed (including harassment, arrests on trumped up charges, lengthy investigations, and prison time).In the US, there is plenty of right-wing neocon propaganda on Fox News, while CNN tends to dumb down subtle issues to simple America-centric memes dear to Joe Schmoe. MSNBC is left-wing, while the New York Times is less so and tends to verify everything (which limits what they can actually say and how quickly they can react to events). As a result, the US media rarely misses the most important themes, but does not have much bandwidth left for subtleties in foreign news and also reports with delay. In most cases, it gets things right eventually, whereas in Russia the past can be as uncertain and variable as the future. On topics like MH17, Russian state propaganda prefers to muddy the waters by spreading contradictory information, innuendos, and calls for more detailed investigations. A common manuever in Russian propaganda is to try and discredit conclusions by other, for example by claiming that the investigators had ulterior motives. China's media tries to stay cool and strongly prefers consistency and would rather get away with empty cliches about the importance of peace and international cooperation rather than be as rude and in-your-face as some Russian officials (who often have to eat their words later).In Russia and China, most of the media are controlled and coordinated by the government, and deliberate omissions often go unfilled (except by poorly-funded media sources with small audience). It is not rare that specific articles or documents that diverge from the governement narrative get removed or cleansed of data within a few hours of appearing online. Some topics, such as the Chinese industrial slump are barely covered in Russia. Russia also uses the "extremism" label very broadly to attack opposition opinions and harrass specific people, while government-approved Russian politicians routinely engage in what amounts to threats and "incitement of hatred", unrestrained. Russia and China routinely ban specific people, pages, and news sites for various reasons, whereas this is reatively rare in the US.In the US, the freedom of speech reigns supreme. It is legally allowed to blackmouth the president, call anyone a nazi, advocate communism or even the Nazi ideology. Not because these are great things, but thanks to the freedom of speech in its purest form. In contrast, Russia, Ukraine, Germany and a few other countries ban things like Nazism from the media (which seems reasonable, but does not give full freedom of speech). Moreover, the US and Western Europe allow foreign newsmedia on their markets, including the BBC, Al-Jazeera and Russia Today. These can and would complain bitterly about any censorship. In contrast, Russia and China severely limit foreign newsmedia on their territories. China goes as far as to block the entire Facebook, Google Web search and GMail, Twitter. China can also blacklist specific keywords when needed. Censorship is considered normal. Russia does not block Facebook or Google, but now requires all personal data to be stored in Russia. The founder of VK (the Russian version of Facebook) is now in exile because he resisted requests to handle personal user data to State Security.In all countries, Business media tends to be more honest than the more conventional media, perhaps because diverging from reality can cost the audience money, and they might not return. In the US, this would be Bloomberg and the Wall St Journal. In Russia - RBC and the Commersant. They tend to be apolitical on the one hand (which makes them look fair and unemotional), but critical of any particular piece of information they work with. Of course, Russian business media still has to work with the claims made by the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Department of Defense, and whatever limitations are imposed on reporting (for example, the casualties in the Russian Military are considered a state secret).Omissions are very difficult to detect if you follow a single media source, but become obvious if you compare coverage of the same events by multiple sources. This also makes spin obvious. Also, many types of spin can vanish in a few months. For example, Russian media claimed for about 8 months that Ukraine was overrun by a fascist coup. As no fascists materialized while the same people remained in power, the rhetoric had to be toned down.Compared to China, Russia and even the UK, the US does not have serious budgets for domestic media. Even externally, the budgets for Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty and Voice of America are fairly small, and these sources remain relatively unknown. When the US government wants to advocate something, this is done by organizing media appearances, writing op-eds, and so on. Russia and China have a lot more resources at their disposal, except that China tends to focus on the domestic market. Russia, in addition to Russia Today, apparently employed a "troll factory" where people were paid for creating Internet content with biases requested by political handlers (detailed descriptions are available from several people who worked there).I read news from Russia, Ukraine and the West daily, and comparing coverage gives you a glimpse into various propaganda techniques. For example, Russian media widely uses unnamed "sources" to report fairly arbitrary things that often turn out to be completely false. For example, the saga with the French Mistral ships was covered with various promises that the ships are about to be delivered, that France is paying huge fines, or that Russian sailors took over one of the ships at their dock. Not all such claims can be debunked reliably, and this creates fertile grounds for propaganda. When a claim needs to be retracted, the retraction can appear very briefly, so that most readers don't notice it. As a result, Russian media created an inflated image of Russia in the minds of Russian people, but also deliberately confused them on actual events by introducing incompatible versions and dismissing what looks like reasonable explanation.Another technique is to publish interesting content with useful details, to get attention, but blend it with innuendos, half-truths and unexpected conclusions. For example, some Russian sources publish analytical surveys on particular topics such as the recent replacement of Latvia's Railway Chief who was somewhat pro-Russian. The survey I read gives decent background on what happened, including the facts that the guy was arrested on corruption charges with half-a-mil Euro in a suitcase when crossing the border after business negotiations. What's the conclusion? - - That this was done on instructions from the Western secret services. Of course, no specific evidence is given. The rationale is expressed in vague terms, like "it is well-known that", "we cannot fail to notice that", " everything points to", and so on. Russian readers programmed for such twists (blaming the USA, for example) don't find this strange at all, whereas many US readers are used to evidence-based arguments. On the other hand, Fox News has a level of discourse similar to what you find in Russian state-sponsored media: ideology-based back-filling, where current events are only used as a vehicle for predetermined conclusions. For interesting details, see Former RT anchor: I became the target of a Russian propaganda conspiracy theory.Here is a specific investigation by the British media watchdog institution OFCOM that concluded that RussiaToday violated regulations on media bias: PDF file on ofcom.org.uk. An example of what is considered "in breach"Bombing the wheat fields to make sure there’s famine. Kiev’s leaders repeat Hitler’s genocidal oath. And Ukraine’s kids taught to occupy Western Europe.