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| Comrade Art: More Communist than the folks running RT News |
When Abby Martin condemned Putin's actions in Ukraine, RT didn't fire or reprimand the host. Instead, the network offered her a chance to visit Crimea to do on-the-scene reporting.
"Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn’t beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air. This is the case with Abby’s commentary on the Ukraine," the Russian government-subsidized network told Huffington Post.
"We respect her views, and the views of all our journalists, presenters and program hosts, and there will be absolutely no reprimands made against Ms. Martin."
Martin has often been expansively critical of the corruption, authoritarianism, and hypocrisy of the US government. She was similarly unsparing in her criticism of Russia's deployment of military assets to Crimea.
"Just because I work here, for RT, doesn't mean I don't have editorial independence and I can't stress enough how strongly I am against any military intervention in sovereign nations' affairs," Martin declared on-camera. "What Russia did is wrong."
JBS CEO Art Thompson spent three weeks trying -- with no discernible success -- to explain why Americans should see RT News as part of an insidious "Soviet" plot to subvert the Western mind. He insisted that conservative and libertarian-leaning Americans were being seduced by the network into focusing solely and exclusively on the evils of the US government, while being diverted from Moscow's oh-so-subtle campaign for world domination.
Even truth is a weapon in the strategic arsenal of the incomparably wily "Soviets," according to Art: "When Moscow starts telling the truth, you can bet they have something in mind."
Stipulating to the fact that Putin is a repellent individual, the regime over which he presides -- like nearly every other, Washington's emphatically included -- is a ghastly criminal enterprise, and RT News is a propaganda outlet, it's noteworthy that Abby Martin enjoyed more editorial freedom in her official capacity than I did, while employed by The New American, on my own time. As an employee of people who ultimately answered to the "ex"-KGB officer who now rules Russia, Abby Martin faced no professional reprisals for going "off-message" and biting the hand that wrote her paycheck.
The professional even-handedness displayed by the leadership of RT News makes for an interesting contrast with the behavior of the Politburo in Appleton in their dealings with me. My supposed firing offense was to start a personal blog in August 2006 and publish writings deemed unsuitable by The New American -- including one essay in which I offered a principled dissent regarding the immigration issue.
"You do not understand that once you are a public figure everything that you say or do publicly reflects on the organization you work for, particularly when these things are in opposition to the position and principles of The John Birch Society and Robert Welch," pontificated Art in the letter of termination he sent to me. "Also, you do not understand that once we have rejected an article or nuance, you cannot go around us to post it elsewhere, identifying it as rejected material and publicly criticizing your employer for the rejection.It is not a matter of freedom, or control, it is a matter of responsibility to your employer."
That was written by the same Art Thompson who, in three embarrassingly inept video presentations, attempted to persuade anyone foolish enough to seek wisdom from him that RT News is a Communist propaganda organ.
Abby Martin didn't disagree with the Russian government in a matter of "nuance," nor was her criticism oblique. Yet her "Communist" supervisors didn't fire her for failing to fulfill her "responsibility to [her] employer"; they recognized the principle of editorial freedom and the limits of their legitimate control over her editorial decisions. The network's editor-in-chief has reiterated the organization's commitment to editorial freedom and described how the US media -- which is much more tightly aligned with the nation's power elite -- has been peddling exactly the same line about RT News that Art Thompson was a year ago.
RT News exercised institutional self-restraint with respect to something Martin had said and done on the job, in a program that network produced. My "firing offense" consisted of publishing my views in a personal blog, on my own time.
Not content merely to fire me without cause, the JBS hierarchy has lied to people about my character and professional performance, purged nearly everything I have written or produced from its archives and catalog, blocked me from commenting on articles published at The New American and videos posted to their YouTube channel, and otherwise treated me as if I had become an un-person.
We are defined by what we do, not who we claim to be. I can testify from personal experience, buttressed with copious documentation, that in some circumstances Art Thompson and his little clique are more Stalinist than the people running RT News.
3 comments:
Thank you Will. I've always had a deep respect for you. As you're well aware, the JBS has been tainted with problems almost since the day you left. I'm a former chapter leader (and member) and have been deeply disappointed with the organization ever since. Keep up your great work.
As I look back on the years I spent as a dedicated staff member for the JBS I do so with much regret. I left my Christian ministry out of a sense of duty to God and country. My father was a chapter leader, then section leader followed by a stint as the inside Coordinator in the San Marino California office of the JBS. I spent many an hour as a teen in the back office stuffing envelopes and doing other volunteer work along with my brothers, all with a sense of mission and respect for the JBS leadership at the time. I met many fine individuals. My first job as a High School Junior was doing the twice weekly janitorial service at the west coast office.
Then Mr. Welch passed away followed by the capture of Congressman Larry Mc Donald who was held by the Soviets for many years. The wonderful Israeli Jewish members of the JBS who documented this fact offered through Bill Jasper an opportunity to try to get photos of the congressman and Chairman of the JBS in the yard outside his cell through their connections in the gulag system. Of course Gertrude V. Smith shut this down and ordered the official policy statement to be that Larry was killed. He did not want him to return as that would stop him from taking complete control of the society to fulfill his own selfish designs to take the organization in a new direction subject to his wild ideas of religious prophecy.
Gertrude V Smith in my opinion is a religious narcissistic sociopathic bigot and a totally unethical incompetent.
I became the first second generation member of the JBS field staff, full of vim and vigor to help save the Republic. Unfortunately Chuck Amour was removed from leadership in a coup led by the despicable untalented visionless petty little woman’s shoe salesman who could not lead people out of a burning house. Soon the JBS culture became that of the petty losers religious cult. Team visitation teams had to dress in the official uniform of the Mormon Church, the three fold vision of the JBS was the same as his church and of course good Christian men had to be removed through un-Godly pressure, lies and schemes to be replaced with his own religious team. Highly intelligent and educated fools like the agnostic T Gow were used as his agents. A blind sighted editor who was supposed to expose global conspiracy could not recognize evil conspiracy when it overcame his own office and did what he could to preserve the petty little tyrant. Of course they great leaders lost all of the capital and facilities of
Robert Welch University and its assests were and continue to be used to support the small minded little bald midget and his minions in Colorado as he enjoys retirement with the hope of ruling his own planet and impregnating young women for eternity. The coward Jack R. Mc Anus took no stand for right but as a typical coward did anything to protect his paycheck and title , until of course the evil Smith tried to remove his majesty as he had so many others. Then Mc Anus decided that all those of us fell for standing for truth were correct and helped remove the caner of the Smith Gow tyranny. Instead of heeding the advice of men like Jasper, Edlum and Grigg and making amends with those who had the foresight and courage to sound the alarm and tell the people, the still petty little cowards Mc Anus, Scholl and Thompson chose to hide their own folly and cowardice and attack and defame us even more.
Does anyone even hear of the JBS anymore?
I canceled my subscription as soon as I found out you were fired. I made sure to let them know in a letter that you were the only reason I read their magazine, and they never contacted me again.
Too bad for them that your views have exploded in popularity and coverage thanks to lewrockwell publishing your work! If their goal was to stop your views from becoming more mainstream, they failed miserably. You are the go to man on the police state - and you have changed the minds of countless people about supporting their local police.
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