Notorious propaganda outfit Russia Today is running commercials bashing the media for being too cozy with power? No, really. In an ad airing on RT’s Policking With Larry King, journalist Erin Ade promoted the network: “When politicians and the mainstream media work side-by-side, the joke is actually on you. At RT News, we have a different approach.”
Russia Today has been called “the Kremlin’s propaganda outfit” by the Columbia Journalism Review. It’s also funded by the Russian government. Yet, as video appeared of journalists laughing with politicians, Ade lectured, “The news of the world just is not this funny. You guys stick to the jokes. We’ll handle the news.”
Russia Today will handle the news? This is the same outlet that had an anchor quit on-air, saying, she “cannot be part of a network, funded by the Russian government, that whitewashes the actions of Putin.”
Ade is a host on RT America’s Boom Bust. One might ask what veteran American journalist Larry King is doing on such a network.
A transcript of the commercial, which aired at 9:28pm on October 29 during Politicking With Larry King, follows:
Russia Today ad
10/29/15
9:28pm
[Clip from Correspondents dinner.]BARACK OBAMA: I know CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have taken some knocks lately, but the fact is I admire their commitment to all sides of the story, jut in case one of them happens to be accurate.
ERIN ADE: That was funny, but it’s closer to the truth than you might think. [Montage of journalists laughing.] Because when politicians and the mainstream media work side-by-side, the joke is actually on you. At RT News, we have a different approach. Because the news of the world just is not this funny. You guys stick to the jokes. We’ll handle the news.
