Second correspondent resignes from RT Russia Today

[eipstudios]

Russia Today Anchor Resigns, Admits To Spreading 'Lies' For Putin

Sara Firth, a longstanding London-based correspondent for Russia Today, resigned on Friday in protest at the channel’s coverage of the Malaysia Airlines crash.

Firth, who joined the channel in 2009, told BuzzFeed that she decided to resign from the Kremlin-funded news channel because she felt it was “disrespectfully” attempting to pin the blame for Thursday’s Malaysia Airlines disaster on the Ukrainian government.

“When this story broke I ran back into the newsroom and saw how we were covering it already and I just knew I had to go,” she said.

“It was the total disregard to the facts. We threw up eyewitness accounts from someone on the ground openly accusing the Ukrainian government [of involvement in the disaster], and a correspondent in the studio pulled up a plane crash before that the Ukrainian government had been involved in and said it was ‘worth mentioning’.

“It’s not worth mentioning. It’s Russia Today all over, it’s flirting with that border of overtly lying. You’re not telling a lie, you’re just bringing something up. I didn’t want to watch a story like that, where people have lost loved ones and we’re handling it like that.

“I couldn’t do it any more. Every single day we’re lying and finding sexier ways to do it.”


Russia Today has been hit by high-profile staff resignations before, most spectacularly when anchor Liz Wahl resigned live on air earlier this year.

Firth, a Briton who graduated from City University in 2009, worked out of the news channel’s Moscow base initially, before coming to work in London. She claims that inexperienced staff would be assigned to important stories in order to ensure they did not go off-message.

“The way it works with a story like this is that the people who are assigned are very obedient. The second you start to question or report honestly then you’re a problem.

“The first thing that happens is that they assign the usually least experienced in RT, the second is everyone else who’s involved [starts] phoning guests that have a particular viewpoint and are going to say a particular thing.”

Sara Firth @Sara__Firth

RT style guide Rule 1: It is ALWAYS *Ukraine's fault (*add name as applicable)
2:38 PM - 18 Jul 14

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Sara Firth @Sara__Firth

@cathyraats @Polly_Boiko honestly we're not. We're taking a paycheck and for that we have to always obey.
2:35 PM - 18 Jul 14

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While many journalists are attracted to Russia Today by healthy salaries and the prospect of a secure job, Firth said there was a belief there that you could stay “within the system and fight against the bad forces”.

She insists she never lied in any of her reports but became concerned about the airtime given to her journalism and was concerned that her reports were “lending credibility” to the channel’s other output. She alleges she was pulled out of Syria by channel bosses the day after filing a report highlighting the suffering of civilians in areas opposed to the Assad regime, which is backed by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

Firth said she had immense respect for her “talented” colleagues and said the vast majority of journalists at the channel were working hard to tell the truth, but that the management “ignore that and push the rubbish”.

“It’s great team, so talented. But at the heart of that organisation it’s rotten. Until they have people operating at the top level who want to tell the truth and tell the facts then it’s not going to change.”

“There is a perception of RT as an evil genius but it’s actually just dangerous incompetence.”

[baddog]

When I first got into watching the foreign news channels I included RT in the mix; they were more full of shit than Fox and MSNBC combined

[EddyTheDog]

They fucked me off as well. One interview was verging on ridiculous...

[Cherry7]

A TV channel where the journalists actually care if they tell the truth and resign if it doesn't......

Unbelievable - they Russians are that stupid....you have to really vet journalists, make sure they understand whose boss, that they went to the right school and if they buck the system they will never work again.

Learn from how the BBC interview the Israelis, never ask them if they have the bomb, never ask the spokesman how comes he speaks such great English, never ask what is Zionism.... The true art of deception

[evy97]

I was surprised that she was not fired before. She openly criticized Putin after Russia & China vetoed UN move to refer Syria to international criminal court.

Imagine someone criticizes Obama on CNN after UN veto which favors to Israel.

Originally Posted by Cherry7

Learn from how the BBC interview the Israelis, never ask them if they have the bomb, never ask the spokesman how comes he speaks such great English, never ask what is Zionism.... The true art of deception

Yep, They are doing a very good job.

Pro-Palestinian protest outside the BBC today against our news coverage of #Gaza

https://twitter.com/deefinnerty/stat...24917599010817

[Barry-xlovecam]

The wheels of the propoganda machine break down ...

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 transcripts

Déjà vu?

[Mutt]

Originally Posted by Barry-xlovecam

The wheels of the propoganda machine break down ...

Korean Air Lines Flight 007 transcripts

Déjà vu?

Passenger pain and suffering was an important factor in determining the level of compensation that was paid by Korean Air Lines.

Fragments from the proximity fused R-98 medium range air-to-air missile exploding 50 metres (160 ft) behind the tail caused punctures to the pressurized passenger cabin.[54] When one of the flight crew radioed Tokyo Area Control one minute and two seconds after missile detonation his breathing was already "accentuated", indicating to ICAO analysts that he was speaking through the microphone located in his oxygen mask, "Korean Air 007 ah... We are... Rapid compressions. Descend to 10,000."[121]

Two expert witnesses testified at a Court of Appeals trial on the issue of pre-death pain and suffering. Captain James McIntyre, an experienced Boeing 747 pilot and aircraft accident investigator, testified that shrapnel from the missile caused rapid decompression of the cabin, but left the passengers sufficient time to don oxygen masks: "McIntyre testified that, based upon his estimate of the extent of damage the aircraft sustained, all passengers survived the initial impact of the shrapnel from the missile explosion. In McIntyre's expert opinion, at least 12 minutes elapsed between the impact of the shrapnel and the crash of the plane, and the passengers remained conscious throughout."

[crockett]

I remember a year ago having people on this board telling us all how honest and unbiased RT was.. Where are they now.. LoL

[Mr. Garibaldi]

shes hot, id hit it... and she can leave the canon on...

[oppoten]

Originally Posted by Cherry7

A TV channel where the journalists actually care if they tell the truth and resign if it doesn't......

They care more about their careers. They must surely have known what to expect when they started working for RT.

[bronco67]

Lying for Russia is only bad when 300 people die. In other news...you're hot.

[RummyBoy]

Originally Posted by baddog

When I first got into watching the foreign news channels I included RT in the mix; they were more full of shit than Fox and MSNBC combined

Bull......... FOX is much worse.

RT actually has some interesting programs....... notwithstanding all of that propaganda.

[Cherry7]

Just listened to the BBC followed by RT

BBC had to interviews both with US critics of Russia


RT had interviews with Russian and US for and against plus footage from ground.


Democracy Now and independents more trusted, but doubt everyone, question everything.