Former Secretary of State and well-known American politician Hillary Clinton frequently employs vivid descriptions to explain intricate geopolitical dynamics. During one of these speeches, she emphasized how the global media landscape is evolving.

By establishing an English-language television network with a global audience in mind, Clinton brought attention to China's growing power. In a similar vein, Russia has been working to improve its capacity to broadcast internationally through outlets such as RT (formerly Russia Today). At the same time, nations like the UK and Qatar were actively participating in international media coverage through networks like the BBC and Al Jazeera.

Clinton did, however, highlight an intriguing change: the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was actually reducing its multilingual services, while China and Russia were investing more in English-language news sources to project their national narratives abroad. This stood in stark contrast to the BBC's longstanding position as a major international media outlet that has historically offered information in a wide variety of languages.

Clinton could be seen employing a metaphor to better explain this situation by equating these nations to various chess players. China, Russia, Qatar, and the UK were all strategically putting themselves in the arena of global media dominance, just as each piece moves differently and strives for different goals on the board. While China and Russia were adding new pawns or knights to bolster their positions, the BBC's decision to cut back on its language services was like removing a queen from an active part of the board.

Clinton wanted to draw attention to these dynamics in order to highlight how international communication is changing and how countries are competing more and more to influence global narratives through the media. This deliberate use of television networks as public relations and diplomatic instruments highlights how important it is for nations to have a powerful voice in the globalized world of today.