Featured Post

The white-Left Part 1: The two meanings of white

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Meltdown at RT over Ukraine/Russia coverage?

There's something going on at the Kremlin financed network formerly known as Russia Today. Yesterday it was RT's Abby Martin who "broke the set" by breaking entirely from the pro-Russian propaganda being spread by RT on the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, Abbey Martin, who hosts the show "Breaking the Set" went entirely off script and spoke truth to power yesterday
"Just because I work here, for RT, does not mean that I don't have editorial independence," she began. "And I can't stress enough how strongly I am against any state intervention in a sovereign nation's affairs. What Russia did is wrong."
RT anchor Abby Martin speaks out against Russian invasion of Crimea | 4 March 2014


Today her colleague Liz Wahl went even further, resigning on the air this evening saying:
"Last night, RT made international headlines when one of our anchors went on the record and said Russian intervention in Crimea is wrong," Wahl said in reference to Abby Martin's attention-grabbing comments decrying Russia's recent actions in Ukraine. After describing the "many and ethical moral challengess" she said she faced as an anchor for the Kremlin-funded network, Wahl then got down to business: "That is why personally I cannot be part of a network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin," she said. “I’m proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth, and that is why, after this newscast, I am resigning."
Liz Wahl Quits RT on air over coverage of Ukraine | 5 March 2014


As these two women have been speaking out against Russian imperialism, others in the American Left have been blindly supporting it, as exampled by Ray McGovern who even went so far as to confuse Russia with the old Soviet Union on Amy Goodman's Democracy Now on Monday:
"You know, it’s not so hazy. It’s a choice between the EC and Western Europe and the Western Ukraine and the Soviet Union. And in this case, the Soviet Union has all the cards. And so, somebody [inaudible] should say to the president, "Look, Mr. President, you know, however much we would like to have regime change according to our own wishes, there are strategic realities that we have to remind you of, Mr. President. And one of them is that Putin and no Soviet leader is going to abide NATO infringing on the Ukraine."
It is hoped that the courageous voice of these two women will cause other on the Left to rethink their support for Russian imperialism both in the Ukraine and in Syria. We must resist both NATO and Russian imperialism. We must resist imperialism no matter what its source.

Other recent blog posts;
Budapest Memorandum and CounterPunch corruption
Why I consider Libya a revolutionary success story
Bringing David Swanson's imagination back to reality

No comments:

Post a Comment