Relive the Final Moments of Putin’s Stoogefest RT as DirecTV Pulls the Plug

As MRC’s Free Speech America Noted Tuesday afternoon, DirecTV yanked RT America off its airwaves due to its role as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s personal mouthpiece in the U.S. as he wages war against the innocent people of Ukraine. And, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, they made good on their promise, roughly 45 minutes after Axios’s Sara Fischer broke the news. 

Scott Whitlock took a look at some of the worst moments from the past week, so we’ll taking a look at their final hour of programming on one of America’s largest cable providers. They showed us, it’s not surprising that they made the right call.

The moment in itself. The end of the company show BoomBu$t, RT America ran a Medicare enrollment ad and then five separate promos, which consisted of two for RT as a network (including one that boasted RT doesn’t “skew the facts” It is also available in English. “solid”Media “alternative”) , one for Jesse Ventura’s Jesse’s WorldOne for, one for Holland Cooke’s Big Picture.

At the moment Cooke’s ended, the screen went black with this message, accompanied by a DirecTV logo: “This channel is no longer available.”

Going back to the programming, the noon hour kicked off with In Question host Manila Chan peddling Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavarov’s telling the U.N. that, in Chan’s words, it should be of “the utmost importance” to the world that Ukraine be barred from “acquir[ing] nuclear weapons.”

Chan had two reports from Ukraine and, in one of them, correspondent Maria Finoshina repeatedly insisted the Russian military airstrikes on Kyiv’s TV tower were unverifiable. 

But she reacted badly to her own statements defending Russian airstrikes. “technological objects of Ukraine’s security service and telecommunications facilities”They were causing harm to the Russian military.

Finoshina, not surprising, left out the section about injuriesAnd that’s not all A Ukrainian monument to Holocaust victims was damaged.

Furthering Putin’s narrative about the people of Donestk and Luhansk being oppressed by the Ukrainian government, Chan lamented that those in Dontesk “are terrified with people’s lives and homes still being lost eight years after Ukrainian military and militias began indiscriminately bombing Donbass.”

It was Russia, of course. Back separatists proRussian.

The Russian lies were brought up later in the discussion by her panel, which included George Galloway (former U.K. Parliamentary Representative) and Michael Maloof (former Pentagon Official). Chan began by discussing the European Union’s banning of RT, wondering: “Why don’t they not want Europeans to have a choice in what they see?”

Galloway concurred because, in his view, it was a slap in the face to any discussion of “freedom” and “liberty,” at a time when “more and more people are determined to find the other side of the story.”

Maloof should be warned about pro-Ukrainian sentiments before he goes off to meet you “mercenaries” Chan, who was running roughshod over Chan, then made a pitch for the Portable TV App, stating that it could be downloaded “anywhere, any corner of the Earth.”

Maloof, for his part, stated that RT should be removed from the airwaves. “an absolute violation of our democratic principles that we claim we’re fighting to…cherish and protect,”Addition “it’s insanity.”

After citing RT as the most recent example of how to, “nothing tastes better than the forbidden fruit,”Chan and Galloway gave their explanations Putin’s dangerous (and false) reasoning for invading Ukraine, which was to remove (drug-addicted) Nazis who’ve taken over the country (click “expand”):

CHAN: George, no media here in America is bothering to ask why Vladimir Putin called for “the denazification of Ukraine.” Are Europeans wondering what he meant? Maybe you’d be able to explain the steps taken by Stepan Bandera, and Svoboda in Ukraine.

GALLOWAY : Mike and I tried our best to make this happen, but we were unsuccessful. Stepan Banderas was the spiritual leader in the right sector, as well the right-wing fringe. Although not all Ukrainians support Nazism, the heroic resistance of Ukraine against Nazi invaders in World War II saw it lose a tremendous number of its citizens. However, a substantial amount of Ukrainians teamed up with the Nazis’ leader Stepan Banderas. He was an infamous Jew murderer. He ordered his men to massacre the Ukrainian Jews and Polish Jews, and even killed them before the SS arrived. He collaborated with the SS battalions and put them to death. [sic]These people were transported on death trains, and then mass murders took place. Industrially murdered. Children, women, and men are all victims. His picture is carried by right-wing Ukrainian armed forces. They are the ones currently holding up Mariupol. These are the people who have been dipping their guns in pork fat because they anticipate coming up against Muslim Russians of the Chechan Republican, and might even be doing so. Manila, they don’t hide their feelings. They give the hitler salutes and fly swastikas. They are adorned with SS insignia and jackboots. They are believers in Bandera. If these people are your friends president Biden or Prime Minister Johnson, then I’d rather have you than them.

And before the show wrapped, Galloway compared the Ukrainians to al-Qaeda and ISIS while Maloof warned of “more treachery” (click “expand”):

GALLOWAY: They’ve emptied all the prisons, did you know that — 

CHAN: Mmhmm.

GALLOWAY: — in Ukraine? Every prisoner with military experience, including murderers, is being released on bail and handed a firearm. These groups are also killing one another in Kyiv. This is because right-wing organizations, much like ISIS and Al Qaeda kill more people than the other. It’s an absolutely desperate situation. 

Mike’s final thoughts about CHAN 

MALOOF: Yeah, I think that we’re going to seeing is a lot more treachery. We’re going to see a lot of — a lot more of our — we’re going — we’re going to have greater imposition of — of obstacles put in our way. We will lose our rights. We’re going to see this all time. We’re —

CHAN: Do you think it’s going to ripple back this way? 

MALOOF: — it’s going to ripple back here. It will. That’s what I am afraid of and I’m concerned that by what George and I have been pointing out this morning that with — with this involvement like this, you’re going to ease into an involvement that is beyond anything we want. This would mean Article IV implementation, rather than Article V where other member countries see the NATO situation and choose to join. Or, countries of willingness as was the case in Libya. 

CHAN: Well — 

MALOOF

The final hour of RT will be broadcast. BoomBu$t Featured host Rachel Blevins — who’s Uncle criedMore having her Twitter account be slapped with a label denoting she’s with “Russia state-affiliated media” — couching supposedly straight-ahead business coverage with a pro-Kremlin stink (click “expand”):

BLEVINS: [T]It is only days before the Federal Reserve announces its expected first interest rate rises since 2018. The Fed is just days away from its first expected interest rate hikes since 2018. However, the Fed has begun to abandon the easy money policy it had for almost two years. Credit Suisse’s most senior strategist has compared the situation to 2008’s Lehman brothers crisis. He warned that exclusion of certain Russian banks will result in missed payments. It will be similar to Lehman’s ability to make payment due to clearing banks’ unwillingness to send them on its behalf. He went on to say, “history does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

(….)

BLEVINS – Oil prices continue to climb with an international benchmark for burned crude oil rising up to seven percent to one dollar per barrel, before falling back to around $100. While sanctions against Russia are not intended to affect Russia’s energy supply directly, the recent moves have raised concerns about the impact they will have on the global economic recovery and the economy. How high can prices rise and what does the new tension mean for future supply?

(….)

BLEVINS – Another topic I want to mention when it comes down to the reactions here is that BP has announced it will sell its 20% stake in Rosneft, a Russian oil giant. This move is expected to cost the British company about $25 billion. You ask, “What is behind this move?” Is it a benefit to BP? 

TODD HORWITZ (Yes, they may look better, but we’ll have to see if this is real or just lip service. You know, a lot of people say a lot of things in the heat of the battle and to make sure that they look like they’re on the right side of the battle. Let’s wait and see what happens. Let’s see if they’re willing to take that $25 billion hit and see if it doesn’t cure itself out before it is said and done. Again, remember, a lot of people say things they do not necessarily mean at the moment they say them and it could be just for — you know, almost not political, but to make the company look better for the moment until things settle down a little bit. 

BLEVINS – Yes, they are definitely talking to their PR personnel.

She explained to viewers, before she signed off, how viewers can watch RT through their smartphone apps. Blevins’s situation is not good. also announcedTuesday afternoon it said that it would eliminate RT applications.

Click here to view the March 1 transcript of RT America.