Neoconservatives Behind RT Anchor Liz Wahl’s Resignation?

RingofFireRAdio ^ | 3/19/2014 | admin

[mac_truck]

Liz Wahl’s recent resignation from Russia Today (RT), due to the network’s coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine territory, was nothing more than a secretive power play by neoconservatives desperate to revive Cold War tensions, according to a new investigation by Truthdig.

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 Wahl’s resignation.

According to the investigation, which included interviews with six current RT employees, Wahl was considered apolitical until she became involved with James Kirchick, a 31-year-old writer working for the Foreign Policy Institute (FPI), a neoconservative think tank located in DC. Kirchick reportedly “helped craft Wahl’s strategy and exploit her resignation to propel the agenda of a powerful pro-war lobby in Washington.”

[mac_truck]

Some inside baseball on what was going on behind the scenes before the on-air resignation of Liz Wahl.

[Agog]

Interesting take from a far left website. Friends of yours?

[Zhang Fei]

Kirchick on Russia Today:

The next day, Kirchik's opinion piece titled "Why I ambushed Russia's news network with rainbow suspenders" got published by The Washington Post.[25] In it Kirchik claims that despite "swearing off appearing on any news channel funded by an authoritarian government", he accepted RT's invite to join a panel discussing the Bradley Manning sentencing when a sudden idea popped into his head about using the opportunity "to publicize the abominable anti-gay laws passed by Russia's lower house of parliament". In the piece, Kirchik further denounces RT as broadcasting "sophisticated conspiracy theories and “anti-establishment” attitudes to push a virulently anti-American and illiberal agenda" while relying on "a pool of talking heads, including 9/11 truthers, anti-Semites and other assorted extremists, who espouse the sort of views found where the far left and the far right converge".

He's right. Richard Pipes once said something to the effect that Russians were a threat to the Free World not because they were Communists, but because they were Russians. The business of Russia since Ivan the Terrible has been universal empire under a Russian sovereign. The Soviets merely added Marxism and Leninism to the mix. What makes Russia more dangerous than even under the Tsars is the mix of revanchist and irredentist thought that continues dominate the Russian worldview. Due to its possession of tens of thousands of nukes, Russia was not decisively defeated at the end of the Cold War. As a result, the stab-in-the-back theory is alive and well in Russia, ready for someone like Putin to take up in the next Russian quest for martial glory. In the long run, the few decades after the Cold War's end may be remembered much as the period between WWI and WWII was - the interwar years, the calm before the hurricane.

[clintonh8r]

Double the whackiness of MSNBC and you’re getting close to the insanity at Ring of Fire.

[mac_truck]

Not particularly, but James Kirchick is a flaming homosexual with an agenda.

Is he a friend of yours?

[Agog]

Never heard of him. What is your involvement with the “Ring of Fire” website? Interesting company you keep.

[mac_truck]

Double the whackiness of MSNBC and you’re getting close to the insanity at Ring of Fire.

Never heard of them before, but that doesn't really change the substance of this story does it?

[dfwgator]

Double the whackiness of MSNBC and you’re getting close to the insanity at Ring of Fire.

And it burns, burns, burns...

[elhombrelibre]

He is one of our Putinistas. No source is too stupid for them if it supports Putin’s worldview or his aggression.

[clintonh8r]

Perhaps, but it makes me pretty skeptical of its origin and veracity. I happened to surf onto Ring of Fire on some obscure DirecTv channel a couple of weeks ago. Some guy named Papantonio was on. The nuttiness was mesmerizing....

[1rudeboy]

Never heard of them before, but that doesn't really change the substance of this story does it?

LOL

[mac_truck]

I think I understand why Mr. Putin makes you feel uncomfortable, and I promise not to tell anyone.

[elhombrelibre]

He makes me feel uncomfortable because he’s disturbing and endangering the peace and security of Europe. That is dear to my heart. I don’t want to see another war in Europe. I don’t want to see small and weak countries bullied by an strutting, blowhard like Putin playing Mussolini. The lives of the Ukrainians should not be harmed for Putin’s ego. Anything else you want to imply should be said explicitly so people can see how shallow and foolish you are. It will show that you’re situationally a supporter of a tyrant.

[mac_truck]

Do you want to vouch for this protégé of Bill Kristol and Bob Kagan?

James Kirchick