At a conference last week in Utah, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney decried the over-reach of Russia’s state-sponsored news outlet RT. Concerned with the obvious parallels between the agendas of RT and Vladimir Putin, Romney exclaimed, “I mean, I turn on my TV here – and there’s RT.”
Who wouldn’t be concerned about a foreign country’s propaganda being spit out 24 hours a day?
This isn’t a new revelation for Romney. Since his presidential campaign in 2012, he has pointed out the danger of Russia’s hostility toward other countries and its attempts to influence American culture in particular.
RT was kind enough to publish a response to Romney’s criticism, which was very animated if nothing else. Unsurprisingly, RT claimed to be completely ‘truthful’ and to not be a propaganda machine, acting bewildered at Romney’s accusations.
The RT commentator went on to ask, “Has anybody ever said that what is being promulgated here is not the truth? That there’s something wrong with it? That it’s factually incorrect?”
Well what about that time one of RT’s own news anchors quit because they were ‘whitewashing’ Putin’s military actions? Or when RT unabashedly lied about 2nd Amendment rights activists?
Interestingly, other politicians like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry have also expressed concern for Russia and RT. But Romney was the one who was trashed far and wide in 2012 for even considering Russia to be antagonistic. At least now, most seem to agree that RT is a lie-manufacturing machine.
