US media gets craven over RT being named a foreign agent

The Nation, in a good piece by Aaron Mate, has the silence of American media — and American and international human rights groups — over the U.S. government's recent requirement that RT, the former Russia Today, has to register as a foreign agent.

First, it has less than 30K daily viewers. Nielsen doesn't list it among its top 94 cable networks.

Related, whether Russian-related purchases of ads in the U.S., and the minuscule amount spent on them, influenced our election last year or not (pro tip: it didn't), nobody's traced any of those buys to RT.

And yet, this:

RT has found few defenders among the foremost advocates of media freedom and free speech in the United States. The Nation sent queries about RT America’s foreign-agent designation to the leading US civil-liberties and media-freedom groups. Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, the Poynter Institute, and Columbia Journalism Review did not respond. Human Rights Watch and the National Coalition Against Censorship declined to comment. The silence by Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders contrasts sharply with their condemning of the ongoing Gulf-state effort to close Al Jazeera. 

There are some exceptions. Michael W. Macleod-Ball, a legal adviser for the American Civil Liberties Union, says the foreign-agent investigation of Russian outlets “highlights the potential for mischief” in having FARA applied unequally, but that not enough is known about the government’s criteria to reach a conclusion.

Pathetic.

But not quite as bad as this:

At a recent Atlantic Council event, columnist and Brookings Fellow James Kirchick advocated “private sector initiatives…to name and shame and isolate RT and push it out of the respectable precincts of society.” For “young up-and-coming 22- and 23-year old journalists in the West,” considering employment at RT, Kirchick explained, “maybe they won’t take that job offer if they know they will never get a job afterwards at any reputable news organization.” On Twitter, a former Daily Show producer has just urged fellow comedians who work at RT’s comedy news show, Redacted Tonight, to stop being “useful idiots,” and instead “get work elsewhere.” 

Horrible.

Meanwhile, Google is reportedly considering banning RT. Other tech companies are looking at similar.

What's also shameful is the bipartisan collusion behind it.

As the action came from the Department of Justice, this arguably is AG Jeff Sessions throwing a bone back to President Donald Trump over Trump's alleged continuing anger over Sessions recusing himself from the alleged Russia collusion investigation, which necessitated the naming of Robert Mueller as special counsel.

For Democrats, this is another way to beat the Putin Did It drums and try to disempower Trump at the same time.

Both political parties, right along with journalists and journalism organizations, are showing their contempt for the First Amendment.

Beyond wingnuts who don't trust "the media," many intelligent left-liberals and leftists don't trust it for other reasons. Like this.