Russia Today anchor Abby Martin appeared on CNN with Piers Morgan to discuss her recent criticism of Vladimir Putin’s military intervention on her parent network. This comes on the heels that anchor Liz Wahl quit the network over a crisis of conscience, claiming that the network is whitewashing the truth about what’s going on in Ukraine.
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Martin compared the situation to how the American media covered Iraq in the buildup towards the war. “I knew going into that that I could put my job on the line considering how the corporate media has fired multiple anchors for simply speaking out against the Iraq war,” she said. “So, I did know that, you know, going against the editorial line of my network I could put my job on the line. Fortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.”
“We’re talking about six corporations that control 90 percent of what Americans see, hear and read,” she said. “The lead-up to the Iraq war, parroting exactly what the establishment said. I mean you could reflect the exact same criticism on all of the corporate media channels.”
Martin then criticized Morgan who was beholden to advertisers. Morgan snapped back at her saying, “I’m free to say what the hell I like.”
Abby Martin’s criticism of the corporate media by comparing it to government media is dishonest.
She works for a government funded network, rather than a free market one. You may not like the agenda of Fox News or CNN, but pressure from advertisers is a completely different situation than being funded by a government. Advertisers cant back up their influence with force, governments can. A comparison of corporate funded stations to government funded ones is not the same.
Martin’s disdain for corporations has clouded her judgement about right and wrong. Any libertarian can see the problems arising from crony capitalism, AKA Corporatism, however those problems all point back to one source: government. If Martin believes somehow that an authoritarian government who has been disseminating lies and propaganda about the conflict in Crimea is comparable to Fox News’ cheerleading of the war in Iraq, then she has a lot to learn about the difference between market forces and government forces. The American government did not fund Fox News to create propaganda for Iraq. However the Kremlin funds RT to whitewash the crisis in Crimea.
One opinion is funded by the free market, the other is not.
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