Former RT America news anchor Liz Wahl says she
announced her resignation on live television because "the propagandist nature of RT came out in full force" during the current crisis in Ukraine.
CNN's Anderson Cooper
noted that Wahl had been working for the Russian government-owned network for two and a half years, and asked what made her decide to quit on Wednesday.
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Wahl said that an interview she did with former congressman Ron Paul earlier in the day aired with a question she asked him about how the United States should respond to Russia deleted. She also said she was uncomfortable with the network repeating Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that Ukrainian opposition members are neo-Nazis.
While elements may hold such views, she said, "to portray the entire operation as being part of this right-wing extremist group is going along with the narrative that Vladimir Putin wants to go along with."
While "middle management" at RT America is American, she said, upper management is Russian. Many young people at the network are eager to please management and soon learn "a form of self-censorship."
"RT is not about the truth," she said. "It’s about promoting a Putinist agenda."
Wahl was based in Washington, D.C., and her resignation comes a day after fellow RT anchor Abby Martin criticized Russia's invasion of Crimea on air.
RT
responded to CNN via a written statement.
The network said Martin spoke "in the context of her own talk show, to the viewers who have been tuning in for years to hear her opinions on current events, the opinions that most media did not care about until two days ago."
The statement said Martin has been speaking out against U.S. military intervention only to be ignored by the mainstream news outlets. "[B]ut with that one comment, branded as an act of defiance, she became an overnight sensation. It is a tempting example to follow."
The statement said that Wahl, as a journalist, should have taken her grievances to her editor, and, if they could not be resolved, she should have "quit like a professional." RT accused Wahl of making "a big public show of a personal decision" that was "nothing more than a self-promotional stunt."