Seems there's more than one version of the truth when it comes to the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which killed all 298 people on board. (Getty Images)
We still don't know who is responsible, but many Russian outlets have tried to deflect blame onto Ukraine during their coverage of the crash. (Via Vesti.ru)
"The aircraft was brought down by a missile presumably coming from the positions of the Ukrainian military." (Via RT)
And it's that coverage, especially from Kremlin-funded network RT, that reporter Sara Firth says pushed her to resign.
Friday she tweeted, "I resigned from RT today. I have huge respect for many in the team, but I'm for the truth." (Via Twitter / @Sara_Firth)
"Once you start asking tough questions and once you start to try to tell a story that doesn't really fit with their narrative then you run into real trouble." (Via Channel 4)
Firth tweeted, "RT style guide Rule 1: It is ALWAYS *Ukraine's fault."
When you do step back and take a look at RT's coverage on the MH17 tragedy you'll see headlines like these, which definitely reflect the Kremlin's view of events.
RT did respond to Firth's allegations, saying in a statement "Sara has declared that she chooses the truth; apparently we have different definitions of the truth. We believe that the truth is what our reporters see on the ground, with their own eyes and not what's printed in the morning London newspaper." (Via Channel 4)
And western media hasn't been shy about presenting a perspective.
Although it's still unconfirmed that Flight 17 was actually shot down by a missile... (Via Ukraine Interior Ministry)
Articles like these are noticeably leaning towards the idea that Russia could be responsible for the supposed attack. (Via Time, The Federalist, The Globe and Mail)
Blame game case in point: new reports that the Russian government edited the Wikipedia page on the MH17 incident. Mashable reports the original entry said, "The plane was shot down by terrorists of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic with Buk system missiles, which the terrorists received from the Russian Federation." It was then reportedly changed to "The plane was shot down by Ukrainian soldiers."
The change was caught by a Twitter bot that focuses on Wikipedia edits done from Russian government IP addresses.
The edit was quickly reversed, but it didn't exactly help credibility for either side. (Via The Telegraph)
Firth is the second, now former RT employee, to publicly resign claiming biased reporting.
Back in March, former American anchor, Liz Wahl, resigned on air, claiming RT "whitewashes Putin's actions." (Via CNN)
There has yet to be a credible, official investigation into what exactly happened to Malaysian Airlines flight 17.
