val: hi, i'm val zavala. we americans seem to be living through a new kind of election, a sort of reality tv show where you get to choose whose version of reality you want to believe. well, caught in the heat of this extraordinary election, it's easy to forget that who wins will have a profound impact around the world.. woman: how has the u.s. election been covered by media outlets in your part of the world? man on left: as president? man on right: they are so stupid. man: the majority of americans are worried that either hillary clinton or donald trump will be elected as the next u.s. president. val: in this episisode of "mosaic," wewe look at how these and othther broadcasters araroud the worldld are covering the 206 u.s. presidential elelection.n. let's start in russia. the u.s. and russia have over

3,000 nuclear warheads aimed at each other. they're at odds in the syrian conflict. russia objects to nato in eastern europe. russians are hacking u.s. institutions. and the u.s. maintains sanctions on russia over ukraine. trump: : i don't know putin. . e said nice things about me. if we got along well, that woululd be good. look-- moderator: wait, wait, wait. trump: from everything i see, has no respect for this person. clinton: well, that's because he'd rather have a puppet as presidenent of the united state. trump: no puppet. no puppet. she doesn't like putin because putin has outsmarted her at every step of the way. moderator: mr. trump-- trump: excuse me. val: no surprise, then, that the russian state-funded english language channel rt has plenty of love for donald trump. reporterr: critics have blasted donald trump and p predicted a quick demise of his political career, only to find out that millions of americans agree with him. as hisis opponents continued to defend american interventions in wars overseas,

donald trump blasted them. trump: our foreign policy i is a complete and total disaster.. reporter: donald trump injected ideas into the national debate that flew in n the face of the washingngton establishment. trump: we don't really need nato in its currrrent form. nato is obsololete. i believe we will have a very gooorelationshship with russia.i think i'd get along very wellll with vlvladimir p putin. singer: ♪ money, money, money val: the strange bromance between donald trump and russia has helped to give this election its reality tv-like quality. in 2015, putin appeared to make the first move, as cnn reported. reporter: also, trump previously said he feels he would get along very well with the russian leader if he was elected president. and it appears today that that feeling is mutual. puttin reaffirming their bromane by calling the gop front runner quote, brilliant and talented. val: but when cnn's fareed zzacharia asked putin aabout hs statetement, putin was

dismissive, as this s video from rurussian president makes c cle. zacharia: you made some comments aboutut the american republican presumptive nomiminee donald trump. you called him bririllia, outststanding, talented.. putin: well... [applause]e] [speaking russian] translator: you personally are very famous in our country. why are yoyou juggling with whwt i said?d? i only saidid that he s s a brht perern. isns't he brht? he is.s. val: and indeed, as anotherer russian governrnment-controlledd media souource, "russia insider" proved, putin did not say "brilliant." man: vladimir vladimirovich, what do you think of donald trump? translator: he's a very colorful person. talented without any doubt. but it's not our affair to determine his worthiness. that's up to the united states

voters. val: yes, putin said "colorful," but he didn't stop there. translator: but he is absolutely the leader in the presidential race. he wants to move to a different level of relations, to a more solid, deeper relations with russia. and how can russia not welcome that? we welcome that. val: but every reality show needs a mean girl. as the fbi resumed investigating clinton's emails in the last week of the campaign, rt has continued to hammer her. but even on october 8, as news reports around the world focused on donald trump's locker room video, rt was much more interested in this story. anchor: now, wikileaks has thrown another spanner in the works of the u.s. presidential campaign by leaking transcripts of hillary clinton's private paid speeches to major financial institutions. clinton: we've got to make sure that wall street never wrecks main street again. and we will. woman: in private, though, she said something very different. >> i represented and worked with so many talented principled

people who made their living in finance. i represented them and did all i could to make sure they continued to prosper. woman: and this private/public difference is not limited to domestic affairs. it runs to international policy, too. as we know, the u.s. is ramping up its rhetoric on imposing a no fly zone in syria. that's clinton's public position. cclinton: i do still supupport o fly zone because i think we need to t t in safe hahavens for thoe poor syrianans who are fleeing both asaad and isis. woman: in private, though, she admits, quote, a lot of syrians would be killed. >> to have a no fly zone, you have to take out all of the air defense, many of which are located in populated areas. so our missiles, even if they are standoff missiles so we're not putting our pilots at risk, you're going to kill a lot of syrians. val: wikileaks first released its hacked dnc documents on the eve of the democratic convention. u.s. officials

quickly pointed the finger at russia, as abc and cbs news reports described. repoporter: the u.s. intelligene community said in a statement that it is confifident thahat russsia's enior-most t officiais dirirted the hackining of emails from the demratic natitional committee a and otherer politicl orgganizatioions. moscscow thenn provideded the stoton emaiails o websites dclcleaks and wikileaks thihis summerer, which inin turn pupublisheded them right beefore hilillary clilinton's nomominatg convention. reporter: itit all seems part of the well-k-known russian cyber ops playbook, having already hacked into servevers at the e white house, the pentagog, and the state department. val: by october, rt had constructed its rebuttal. reporter: the obama administration formally accused russia of being behind the cyber attacks with the aim of influencing next month's election. man: it's a g gain absurd. tensf thousands of hackers daily attack mr. putin's website. many of them are tracked to u.s. territory. and we don't blame that on the white house or cia.

man: julian assange spoke to rt's "going underground," and he said this is actually not the first time the democratic national committee has been hacked. julian: did they hack the dnc? hhas at least one state hacked the dnc? if you read very carefulllly, they say it''s been hacked many times over r the last few years. and r sources say y that the dnc's security is like e swiss cheese. manan: critics ofof the way the government has responded and others have pointed out that they feel like there's an effort to vert the conversation away from what these leaks actually say to rather, possible theories about their origin. val: but why the vitriol against clinton? in 2013, putin saw then secretary of state clinton as meddling in russia's election. putin: [speaking russian]

val: not surprisingly, then, the russians appear to favor donald trump. the bbc explored the situation. here's what they found. man: there was a survey recently by the yougov polling agency. it found that in nearly all of the g20 countries, the world's largest economies, from brazil to china, if people there could vote in an american election, they would vote for hillary clinton. there was just one exception to that. russia. according to the survey, people here would vote for donald trump. [all speaking russian]

val: for this election, what matters most in the middle east is the battle against isis, the war in syria, and the flood of refugees they have created. in the u.s., d donald trumump's ste on n muslim immigrants is controversial. but how does it play in the middle east? saudi broadcaster rotana halijiyah played a famous video clip. trump: donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. val: the program focused on the effects of anti-muslim rhetoric on the 70,000 saudi students in the u.s. translator: there are many states where pepeople completely disapprove of trump'ss statements. thehe americans themselves understand that these kinds of statements present a danger to america and its politics. val: but their comments were laced with criticisms of the

election process. translator: i think the distorted image is a result of the western media. more specifically, the american media, which makes money off of what happens in the middle east. val: but qatar's al jazeera english was m more specific. thy highlighted the clinton campaign's cozy relationship with the e ess based d on wikileaks revelations. reporter: like most goverernment totowns, washington has seen its share of political hacks. this one was different. there are plenty of emails written by clinton staffers discussing which reporters were friendly and potentially useful. that is not unusual. however, the degree of cooperation the campaign got was, including from the group that calls itself america's newspaper of record. man: so they selected a "new yoyork timimes" reporter by y te ofof mark leleibovich, s sayingt he seememed sympathetic. . welle week after they selected him for the interview, he emails the clinton campaign and he gives them a list of the questions he

asked and a few of the answers that hillary clinton gave that he thought that the clinton campaign would object to. he gave them veto power, his words, to sort of excise whichever questions s they didn't like. val: al jazeera english is a credible news source, but some middle east english broadcasasts are purely in it for the propaganda.a. iran's press s tva standout in this regard. here are highlights of one commentator on the u.s. election. woman: thanks for joining us here on press tv. now this third and last debate, it was just two people going at each other. man: yeah. unfortunately, the u.s. presidential election has become a complete farce and a joke. the u.s. is not a democracy, it's a farce. this is, you know, the entertainment channels pushing out two idiots who are trying to like score points on each other with more than likely trump being so obnoxious that ultimately clinton will win, which will

ultimately lead to some sort of psychotic war 'cause clearly clinton has got serious bipolar issues and psychological issues. i mean, she's crazy. they're both crazy. val: but other arab language media are more thoughtful in their analysis and commentary. al jazeera p plus arabic used trump's muslim statement as a jumping off point, exploring a difffferent direction. woman: trump puts his company name on a resort located in the uae that i includes a mosque. trump makes millions of business projects with businessmen from severalal muslim countries. most of f them are hotelels, resortsd real estatetes. his controversil statements towards muslims forced the landmark group to stop dealing with him. val: yusef el hussaini, a well-known egyptian commentator, had this to say. translator: muslims inside and outside of the states, americans, students, visitors. he mixed all of them together.

you have to listen to his speech. his extremist speech isn't any different from any terrorist's or extremist's. listen to this. trump: donald j. trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. [cheers and applause] translator: the issue is not donald trump's words, the issue is the cheering and the applause we can hear echoing to his words. val: ironically, the one rare uplilifting moment in the campaign i involved a muslim, khizr khan, the father of a decorated mamarine killed in iraq. he was a sensation at the democratic convnvention, whe he called trumpmp's proposesed n of muslims s unconstitutiononall jazeera's interviewer andnd commentators seemed proud that khan stood up for muslims. they commendeded him, calliling his defensnse a "ball of fire" tossd

between media and political elites. translator: trumump has not exempted anyone from being atattacked-d--the pope, m mexic, muslims. but picking on muslims was a big mistake on his part, because this s was the first time e in his camampaign that he suffered a setback. val: the washington bureau chief of the londonon-based "al hayat" newspaper, joycyce karam, n notd tthat khan i is a simple man. translator: khan is an american citizen, not a democratic politician and not a member of congress. inin 7 minutes he was able to expose trump p and to rallyly the vetes to his side. so ththey came ouot and demanded that their elected officicials denouounce trump. what we witnessssed between philadelphia and clelaland is the rivalry between n american fear and amamerican hope. khan's speech will remain in the memoryry of many people in timeses to come. va but then, d donald trump stirred more controversy and response from aj+ arabic.

trump: ifif you look k at his w, she was standing there, , she hd nothihing to say.he probly--maybe e she wasn't allowed to have anything to say. you tell me. reporter: statetements from d dd trump against ghazalah khan, a mother of an american n soldir who was killed in iraq in 2004. the answer came from muslim women through the hasashtag canyouheararusnow. "hey, trump, what muslim girl broke your heart? why you so salty?" "proud to be from a family where my mothth, sister,, aunts, and cousins are working professionals." "hey, d, i spend my time creating solutions with presidents and alike, so i guess we'll never meet." "i was raised by proud muslim parents who taught me that i was equal to any man." val: mexico has come to stand for especially difficult issues in this election. what matters most--trump's plan to build a wall and to curtail immigration in an attempt to bring jobs back to the u.s. the drug trade has

also proved divisive. but the financial roller coaoaster ride this election has created for mexico and world markets is getting attention n from cbs ne, ndtv, and japan's nhk. amoso: invtors we particullyly ctiouous as the e markets s opened aadad ofe debate.e. but as s they watatchd clinton and trump trade blows,, they started to relax and fll more confnfident. reporter: we saw the mexican peso, which had fallen to to an all-time low just before this debate started. mexican peso has been an indicator for a possible trump victory. cordes: clintonon's stronong performance v vis-a-vis trump lt night appears to have triggered a rise in u.s. stock futures, the asian markets, even the mexican peso. analysts say that's because the financial markets view her as more predictable than trump when it comes to trade e and foreign policy. val: for investors, mexico's peso has become almost a prime indicator of which candidate is ahead. how the campaign influences ththe peso is explaid

by the "wallll street journal's" charles forelle and riva gold.d. forellele: why is the mexican po moving on the debate? gold: the mexican peso has basically become this sort of risk proxy for donald trump in the markets. donald trump earlier in his campaign kind of sisignaled that he was interested inin renegotiating certain key trade deals, relooking at nafta, and also potentially building a wall between the two countries. forelle: so the mexican peso is basicallyly the donald trtrup peso ththese daysys. val: and that is having a very real impact on everyday mexicans, as seen in these intervwsws concteded bpan ameranan brocaststerelesurur woman: [speaking spanish] translslator: there are dozezenf us who don't have much money to purchase medicine. and now i go to pharmaciaia del dias and thee isn't any. and the one across the street, it's just as expensive. so yes, prices have gogone up a lot. val: the peso i is also part of trump's plan to build the wall between mexico and the u.s. his plan isesescrib herere

hispav. reporter: [speakining spanish] translator: donald trump guarantees that if he bebecomes president, h he will force the mexican government to pay for the wall he promises to build along ththe border. for this, he presented a plan to block billions of dollars in remittances that immigrants send to mexico. the republican presidential candidate said, "this is a good deal for mexico. it would make a single payment of 5 to 10 billion dollars to build this 1,000 mile w wall." obama: the e notion that we're gogonna track every western u un bit o of moneney that's bng sent to mexico, you know, good luck with t that. val: this 2015 clip from telesur explains why remittances matter. translator: i don't want to imagine what would happen to these families if their remittances didn't arrive. if today we have 50 million poor people, imagine the poverty conditions that we'd have in these areas if they didn't receive their remittances.

val: prpresident obama agrgrees those stakes h haven't changed. obamama: then we've got the isse of the impmplications for thee exican ecoconomy, which in turu, iif it's collapsing,g, actually sends more immigrants north becausese they can't find jobobs back in m mexico. val: china has been at the center of this year's election. the key issue, trade. currency manipulation and the loss of american jobs are also hot topics. and china's aggressive policies in the south china sea have had an impact. this documentary on the u.s. election from state broadcaster cctv aired in early october, and the producers didn't hold back their criticism. translator: one is a raving billionaire with no political experience. the other is a scandal-packed former secretary of state with 30 years of expxperience. they both claim to make the u.s. stronger, yeyet they d do nothig but slander each other. during

this u.s. presidential election, the candidates' performance overshadows their policies. now "chinese perspective" brings you the storory. anchor: interest in the election is spreading like wildfire. media reports a about this yea's presidential elecection have cacalled it the most attention-n-getting presidenentl elelection in u.s. history, the mosost unothodox election in momodern u.s. historory, the mot chaotic election, and d more. wy has it been labebeled with so oy mosts? b because this electition is filled withth a variety o of confusing events. one article described it as slander and lies allied wiwith money and politic. hhas the u.s. election bececome pure e entertainment? val: the documentary focuses the lion's share of atattention on how china is being g portrayed y the candidates. translator: trump spared no

effort in harshly playing the china card, and he mentioned china dozens of times in one speech, which was made into an internet v video. trump: china. i have to have my china. china. china b because china,a, china, china, china, china, china. traanslator: during the first televised debate of thehe u.s. election on september 26, tmpmp began b by putttting blame on china againi. trtrump: you look at what chchis doing to ouour country in t ters of makingg our proroduct. they e valuing t their currency y and there is nobody in n our goverernment to fight them. val: shortly after that debate, cctv's english news offered these rebuttals to trump's statement.t. reporteter: trurump made several accusations against china, saying essential that when it comes to trade, china doesn't play by the rules. but in 2015, the imf said that the yuan is no longer undervalued. trump repeatedly has argued u.s. leaders hurt the american economy by borrowing too much from china, but he's--he himself has also turned to china repeatedly to raise capital for his business ventures. in fact,

the bank of china was one of the entities that financed a $950 million trump building in new york city. val: cctv america's "world insight" program reveals a china with deep concerns about the u.s. election. woman: are we gonna see an electition dominated by thoughts and opinions of elites, or rather by opininions and choices made by either the e redneck or ththcommon folksks? davvid: wewell, you've asked a keyey question. the urban population in the ununited stats has becomeme separated fromm thehe interests of the rerest of the population i iincome terms or value terms and so forth. so the question really is s is how big is this disaffected group? that's s the key issueue. woman: is china's role now in the u.s. presidential e electio, has it evolved? david: if f you ask what reaealy motivates people to g go vote, it's gonna be thihings like healthcare, , social security, d

so forth. china is not a mamajor issue, , but it's a verery connvenient, what we might call straw man. what r reall-chihina has come to stand for is a dynamic economomy that has been rising as t the united states, n the min of many i in the united sstates, has not made the prorogress itseself that it wis. woman: who is more likekely, professor langstn, from y your knowledge of these two peoeople, in terms of undnderstanding thee real natature of this relationsp and the necessity that the two couuntries really haveve to work togetherer to avoidid crisis. david: right. i think mrs. clinton for whatever you want to say, and i think many americans have misgivivings, inclclding m, bbut on balance, she h has been part of a a policy for over two decades t that's had its s ups d downs, had its problems, had its things china doesn't like,

the chihinese people, governmen, and many otothers, but on balan, she's dedicicated to mainintaing thfabric of a a constructive rerelationship. i believeve tha. val: but don't expect china to cheer for mrs. clinton. as secretary of state, her actions made her an unpopular figure in chinese media. cctv ran this story just before the democratic convention. they reminded their citizens that she favored the philippines in china's ongoing dispute over control of the south china sea. clinton: the united states does not take a position on any territorial claim, but they do not have a right to pursue it through intimidation or coercion. translator: on that day, right after clinton signed the manila accord with the philippines, she used the philippines self-made term "west philippine sea" when she referred to the south china sea in her speech. vaval: if neitither candididates especially appealing to

the chinese, at least a propaganda point or two can be scoreded. the same mandarin-n-language documentary extolled china's less democratic but morere orderly political stem through the voicice of an expert, ruan zongze ofof the china institutute of international studies. zongze: they have to choose the lesser of two evils. neither candidadate appeals to them and neitither of them m could do m f anything if they getet into ththe office, so they choosose t to votte. they giveve up the rit to vote. so we have s seen the voting r rate in the u.s. fall lower andnd lower. this is called a democratic deficit. val: the documentary ends asking questions we americans may be asking ourselves. trtranslator: a serious politicl election has turned into a wild pararty for all. memedia outlets have called d the u.s. elelectin a political reality show. behind the halo of f democracy, itt reflects the trends of polititical history, the risisef entertainment and fall of politics. val: will 2016 prove to be the year when entertainment triumphs at the expense of good

governance? ultimately, american voters will decide. look deeper into how the world is reporting this election at kcet.org/mosaic. i'm val zavala. thank you for watching "mosaic." and remember to vote on november 8.

>> this is a production of china central television amererica. >> a barrier is something that can keep people apart. it can prevent communication or even progress in one's life, but breaking barriers is often where growth happens. this week on "full frame," we talk with those who are breaking barriers and taboos in the world of arts and culture, from embracing creative expression new to their society or building awareness around issues people just don't want to talk about. i'm mike walter coming to you from the heart of new york city's times square. let's take it full frame.