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Russia Today Anchor Quits On Air Noting RT “Whitewashes the actions of Putin”
| WTF News |
The Ukraine situation has produced strange allies and applied pressure to existing faultlines. To wit, the propaganda wheel spins.
Daily Beast
An American anchor working for state-owned television station Russia Today quit on air on Wednesday. Liz Wahl, in the network’s D.C. bureau, announced she could no longer be “part of a network that whitewashes the actions of Putin. I’m proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth, and that is why, after this newscast, I am resigning.”“It actually makes me feel sick that I worked there,” Wahl told The Daily Beast exclusively.
She had been planning this move for some time. “When I came on board from the beginning I knew what I was getting into, but I think I was more cautious and tried to stay as objective as I could,” she said, explaining that she was repeatedly censured by her superiors.
The Kremlin’s influence over RT is subtle, Wahl said, but management manipulates its employees, punishing those who stray from the narrative. “In order to succeed there you don’t question,” Wahl explained.
RT has had some doozies recently, like “Self-defense forces ranks swell in anticipation of Crimea showdown with radicals” and “Tea, sandwiches, music, photos with self-defense forces mark peaceful Sunday in Simferopol.”
On Tuesday, RT anchor Abby Martin denounced Putin’s invasion of Crimea. “I can’t say enough how strongly I am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation’s affairs. What Russia did is wrong.” Soon after, Martin’s bosses said they would sent her to Crimea, which she declined.
“I just think it’s absurd that we’re just a few blocks away from the White House and this is all able to go along,” Wahl said.
In case you missed the news from yesterday, Zero Hedge posted more info about Abby Martin’s statement against RT “propaganda”
Today’s drama takes to a entirely new level the statement voiced by another RT presenter who also denounced as “wrong” Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
“I can’t stress enough how strongly I am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation’s affairs,” Abby Martin declared in her news programme.
RT said it respected Ms Martin’s views, and that she would not be reprimanded.
Ms Martin made her remarks at the end of her Breaking the Set show, broadcast from a studio in Washington.
“Just because I work here doesn’t mean I don’t have editorial independence,” she said, adding: “What Russia did was wrong.”
The outspoken presenter admitted that she did not possess in-depth knowledge of Ukraine’s history or “cultural dynamics”, but insisted that military intervention was not the answer.
“I will not sit here and apologise for, or defend, military aggression,” she said.
RT responded as follows:
In response to the journalist’s on-air statement, the Russian TV channel said: “Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn’t beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air.”
The broadcaster added that it would send Ms Martin to Crimea to “give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story”.
So far Ms. Martin has not taken up RT’s offer to provide unbiased reporting from the “epicenter” of the story.
