Here is a postscript to our story the other day about how everybody in the whole world doing unfair cancel cultures to poor, put-upon RT, the Russian state-run propaganda organ with subsidiaries all over the globe. CNN reported late Thursday that RT America has quit production and fired everybody.
To which we reply GOOD RIDDANCE, GOOD-FUCKING-BYE, and best wishes to those who got laid off, at least those who are glad they no longer will be paid in Russian blood money. Good luck finding new employment quickly.
For those who think this is somehow terribly unfair or "America is worse than Russia" or whatever they teach during Zoom breakout sessions at Kremlin TV, fuck you.
RT America will cease productions and lay off most of its staff, according to a memo from T&R Productions, the production company behind the Russian state-funded network, which CNN obtained.
Misha Solodovnikov, the general manager of T&R Productions, told staff in the memo that it will be "ceasing production" at all of its locations "as a result of unforeseen business interruption events."
"Unforeseen business interruption events" is a very good euphemism for "our big boss in Moscow is an evil fucking murderer who's busy massacring an innocent country."
"Unfortunately, we anticipate this layoff will be permanent, meaning that this will result in the permanent separation from employment of most T&R employees at all locations," Solodovnikov wrote.
Fabulous.
The news would mean an effective end to RT America.
Gorgeous. Five stars. Would read paragraphs again.
As we noted the other day, many places that carried RT and RT America have been in the process of telling them to fuck off. Roku and DirecTV cut the cord on RT, and on-air talent like Dennis Miller and William Shatner were pulling out. Jesse Ventura was still a holdout when we wrote that story, but he heard the call:
20 years ago, I lost my job because I opposed the Iraq War and the invasion of Iraq. Today, I still stand for peace. As I've said previously, I oppose this war, this invasion, and if standing up for peace costs me another job, so be it. I will always speak out against war.
— Jesse Ventura (@Jesse Ventura) 1646244925
One of RT America's erstwhile hosts told CNN how sad it was when her staff found out they were all getting laid off. Like we said, we feel sorry for people who were just doing a job, but this host said, "I have never felt more heartbroken as they have nothing to do with this conflict." That's not true. If you were part of RT America, you were part of Putin's propaganda machine, the same propaganda machine that's currently lying to Russians and telling them Ukrainians are bombing themselves and that Russia is engaged in a noble "special military operation" to save people from neo-Nazis who use children as human shields.
All Russian state-run media is basically the same, but RT specifically in the past several days has run chyrons that said "RUSSIA: NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS LEFT NO CHOICE BUT TO START MILITARY OPERATION" and "MILITIA SAYS 40 TOWNS AND VILLAGES NOW LIBERATED IN CURRENT OFFENSIVE." They've been running feel-good bullshit about "RUSSIAN SCHOOLS WELCOME HUNDREDS OF SCHOOLCHILDREN FROM DONBASS." Hit those links for more of what Russian TV has been saying.
So yeah, if you worked for RT in any capacity, you helped prop that up. And now newly former American employees of RT America have the opportunity to not help prop that up.
Also, we are just curious if the host who spoke to CNN anonymously right there was Scottie Nell Hughes, the MAGA Trump idiot who's been a host at RT America for several years now. Remember her? Haha, you're like "no." Anyway, if you want to hop over to RT America's Wikipedia page, which is now all past tense (!!!), you can look at the list of hosts and wildly speculate who you think it might've been.
Meanwhile , in other related news:
The National Association of Broadcasters has issued a statement calling on broadcasters to stop carrying Russian-sponsored programming that's affiliated with the Russian government "or its agents."
— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin)1646343000
Good.
Does that include Tucker? We know Tucker took a half-assed second to try to pretend he hasn't been spreading Russian propaganda all these months, but on Wednesday night, he was back to his tricks, somehow feeling compelled to Just Ask Questions about whether it was a good idea to remove Putin from office.
Tucker Carlson pushes back on calls for Putin's removalpic.twitter.com/h4iSVYGzk8
— nikki mccann ramírez (@nikki mccann ramírez) 1646270495
Watch the whole thing if you want to hear Tucker go through the stupidest line of questioning imaginable about what happens to Russia if its economy is destroyed and what if Putin is deposed and what if Russia descends into chaos and what if Russia's nukes fall into the wrong hands (as opposed to the good hands they're in now?) and WHAT IF WHAT IF WHAT IF!
Stupid as his questions were, reporter Julia Davis notes that they all seemed to insinuate that it'd be best for everyone if Putin could keep on keepin' on.
And now to tie Tucker back to the original point of this post, remember Liz Wahl, the former RT anchor who famously quit in 2014 on air, because "I cannot be a part of a network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin"? She's got a great article in the Daily Beast this week about how Fox News and folks like Tucker are sometimes "indistinguishable from Russia's own propaganda."
Hooray for Wonkette tying it together at the end! Hooray for the death of RT America! RT America is dead long live RT America haha just kidding stay dead!
And that's another outlet Wonkette has outlasted.
The end.
[ CNN]
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RT America Cancel Cultures Self
Americans prefer FOX over RT for their foreign-owned disinformation source.
At least Putin will have Onan (till the end of March), Newsmax and Tucker Comrade Carlson to desiminate Russian Agit Prop.