How many Americans had even heard of RT before today? Some influence...
Not a lot of Americans, maybe others.
I found RT by accident, setting up a new TV for over-the-air broadcast channel search.
My local county junior college's broadcast TV station ran English language news broadcasts from foreign states worldwide. Russian RT, German DW, Japan NHK, France 24, South Korean, they had 'em all.
I figured out why after watching a little, every one had an anti traditional American bias, and a pro UN - Globalist push.
Of course, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, the most progressive Marxist Liberal degenerate place on Earth, and this was DemoRat controlled, public taxpayer funded, "education".
Funny thing, as soon as George Soros and the IslamoNazi HomoFeminst color "revolution" started having trouble taking over Ukraine and Russian natural gas transit, RT disappeared like magic from American DemoRat TV.