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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow Cold War-Hungry Neocons Stage Managed RT Anchor Liz Wahl’s Resignation
Posted on Mar 19, 2014
By Max Blumenthal and Rania Khalek
The Freedom selfie from James Kirchicks Twitter feed.
For her public act of protest against Russia Todays coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory and supposedly advancing the agenda of Vladimir Putin in Washington, D.C., previously unknown news anchor Liz Wahl has suddenly become one of the most famous unemployed people in America. After her on-air resignation from the cable news channel, Wahl appeared on the three major American cable news outletsCNN, Fox News, MSNBCto denounce the heavy-handed editorial line she claims her bosses imposed on her and other staffers.
Whats clear is whats happening right now amid this crisis is that RT is not about the truth, she told CNNs Anderson Cooper. Its about promoting a Putinist agenda. And I can tell you firsthand, its also about bashing America.
Wahls act of defiance eventually earned her invitations from The View and The Colbert Report, offering her the opportunity to introduce millions of Americans to a Russian government-funded network whose Nielsen ratings have been too low to measure, but which commands a massive following on YouTube. Wahl was the toast of Washington, winning plaudits from a variety of prime-time pundits, from MSNBCs Chris Hayes (remarkably badass) to the conservative Amanda Carpenter (Liz Wahl is proud to be an American and in the last five minutes I think she made everyone else proud to be one, too.)
The celebration of Wahl fed directly into a BuzzFeed expose on How The Truth Is Made at Russia Today, with writer Rosie Gray painting a portrait of an atmosphere of censorship and pressure on American staffers toiling in RTs D.C. offices.RT had long been the subject of criticism and ridicule for its promotion of Zeitgeist-style trutherism and libertarian paranoia, but Wahl now placed RT under unprecedented scrutiny, with mainstream U.S. media sounding the alarm about a bulwark of soft Russian power situated just blocks from the White House.
Behind the coverage of Wahls dramatic protest, a cadre of neoconservatives was celebrating a public relations coup. Desperate to revive the Cold War, head off further cuts to the defense budget and restore the legitimacy they lost in the ruins of Iraq, the tightknit group of neoconservative writers and stewards had opened up a new PR front through Wahls resignation. And they succeeded with no shortage of help from an ossified media establishment struggling to maintain credibility in an increasingly anarchic online news environment. With isolated skeptics branded as useful idiots for Putin, the scene has been kept clean of neoconservative fingerprints, obscuring their interest in Wahls resignation and the broader push to deepen tensions with Russia.
--snip--
In fact, Kirchick was a senior fellow at FPI, the neoconservative think tank that had hyped up Wahls resignation minutes before she quit. Launched by Weekly Standard founder William Kristol and two former foreign policy aides to Mitt Romney, Dan Senor and Robert Kagan (the husband of Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland), FPI grew directly out of the Project for a New American Century that led the public pressure campaign for a unilateral U.S. invasion of Iraq after the Bin Laden-orchestrated 9/11 attacks.
In 2010, when FPI rose from the ashes of PNAC, whose name had become synonymous with warmongering, mendacity and strategic blundering, it pivoted away from Iraq toward rising resurgent powers, including China and Russia, according to its mission statement. Through a series of letters and manifestos urging President Barack Obama to take a more confrontational stance toward Russia, FPI has assiduously sought to establish the groundwork for a new Cold War.
The story began at 5:07 p.m. Eastern time on March 5.
MUCH MORE at:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/how_cold_war-hungry_neocons_stage_managed_liz_wahls_resignation_20140319
jsr
(7,712 posts)Apparently the WOT isn't cutting it as a replacement for the Cold War.
It was a lot easier back then for RW authoritarian hardliners to play the tough good guys heroically defending the homeland against the big bad Evil Empire.
Response to KoKo (Original post)
Post removed
KoKo
(84,711 posts)or with 15 Posts you are suspect of being intrusive.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)I see that you are posting about Kirchick's Antics. I did try to withdraw my alert...but am not allowed to.
I think your video shows another side of Kirchick that needed to be seen.
I think it's up to a Jury...but I might have mistakenly alerted on you. If so...apologize.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Twitter site has him going back and forth with Kirchick about NeoCon Influence.
Catherina
(35,568 posts)I'm glad more people on the Left are seeing through their manipulation and charade.
Kirchik is also a fellow at PNAC's "Foundation for Defense of Democracies"
Thanks for posting that article.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)but it depends on who watches RT and who doesn't and the rest just don't get it......and I can understand if they don't watch or RT is unavailable..or their lifestyles only allow them few moments of media and RT watching would seem VERY FOREIGN.
For the rest of us, though, this is a big deal and we who have opportunity to be informed need to inform the REST. SEIZE THE MOMENT.
This whole fiasco goes into how our MEDIA is Manipulated!
Catherina
(35,568 posts)Phil Donahue was talking about the corrupt politicians who voted for IWR when he wrote this but it applies to the MSM too
A smoking gun will become a mushroom cloud.
A gun smokes after its been fired.
Saddam has more weapons of mass destruction than Hitler ever had.
The longer we wait the more dangerous he becomes.
Saddam is training al-Qaida in bomb making.
The beat went on, the breathing became more rapid and the drums of war grew louder.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/03/19-4
Every intelligent person knew the media was lying through their teeth. They fired anyone who didn't agree and promoted the loudest cheerleaders for lies and war. Everyone remembers how the NYT, the New Republic, the Washington Post printed lie after lie to convince people that Iraq was a righteous war.
So when did that MSM leopard, still under the same corporate management, change its spots?
The MSM shuts out important news like Occupy and they won't give a platform to anyone on the Left except to ridicule them. I think that's what they hate the most about RT- giving a platform to voices and opinions they try to shut out. And right now, with how many wars going on with more on the books, they're desperate to shut out dissenting voices.
Our MSM has a credibility problem and they're only making it worse now.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Pap and Seder: RT Anchors Publicity Stunt Resignation Exposed
Ring of Fires Mike Papantonio and Sam Seder discuss former RT anchor Liz Wahls resignation earlier this month, and how it was staged by neoconservatives from the very beginning.
G_j
(40,366 posts)well..not really
KoKo
(84,711 posts)I wake up most days now thinking "Unbelievable" and wonder who I can contact to express my frustrations. My List comes up blank.