RT and the Media War

I seem to have picked up the flu, so even reading is difficult, and writing doubly so. But I did want to weigh in on the whole RT non-issue.

As you may have heard, RT American anchor Liz Wahl quit, live on air, on Tuesday. A day prior, her colleague Abby Martin - anchor of the popular investigative show "Breaking the Set" - had some harsh words for the Russian government. The Western legacy media immediately swarmed like sharks smelling blood. Proof that RT is just vile Putinist propaganda! they all exclaimed in unison. Having reached that conclusion independently and impartially, of course.

But RT's editor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, pointed out the other part of the story:

See for yourselves what they did to poor Abby. First, she openly voiced disagreement with Russia’s stance on air – and was virtually made an American hero. But then Abby reminded everyone how much she disagrees with America’s stance as well, adding she takes pride in working at RT, where she is free to express her views. Less than an hour passed before Abby had her name dragged through something I have difficulty finding a decent name for this late at night.

It is no secret that I've been a frequent guest on RT, in particular over the course of the Ukraine crisis, but also many times before. All my engagements with RT are pro bono. They are not paying me for being a guest. Neither is the Russian government. And nothing I say on the air is in any way different than what I've written here, or at Antiwar.com, or at the Reiss Institute, in English or in Serbian. I don't need to lie to bolster my case; truth is not only more powerful, but requires far less effort.

Back in March 2008, when a group of Serbs gathered in front of the White House to protest the shameful "independence" of occupied Kosovo-Metohija, several crews showed up to cover the event. Being the designated media contact for the group, I spoke with all of them. CNN used one sentence of mine, plucked out of context to support their Serbophobic story. A local network didn't even use the clip. But the RT crew heard me out.

Now, I know a thing or two about the media, though journalism is not my profession. Back in Bosnia, in 1995, I'd worked with damn near every news house that had a correspondent in Sarajevo. None of them thought a thing about spiking the truth if it didn't correspond with the narrative they were tasked with manufacturing. On the other hand, RT has never censored me, never asked me to walk back a statement, never spiked an interview.

And what of the integrity of their journalists? When I read Alexei Yaroshevsky's report from a place he was emotionally tied to, I couldn't help but relate to my own experience - one no American (save, perhaps, those from Detroit) can imagine: watching your entire world torn to shreds before your very eyes. If fate is particularly cruel, you'll live through the torment, maimed and broken, and be condemned to living in the ruins. Oh yeah. I can relate.

But I'm not asking you to trust my feelings. I am not even asking you to trust my logic. Those who have made up their minds about Russia being evil, and RT being propaganda - an opinion helpfully prepackaged for them by the mainstream media octopus, natch - won't be swayed by proof. However, my conscience demands that I declare my belief - based on nearly two decades of observing the media - that RT is a hell of a lot more independent and objective than any supposedly "independent and objective" outfit that answers to the State Department, Langley, Whitehall, or corporate boardrooms somewhere.

Make of that what you will.