1. There's a story to be told about how figures on the American populist left are being captured by Putin and weaponized in service of his effort to make American political culture more like contemporary Russia's.
2. Listen to minutes 22 to 26 of this podcast interview with Ed Schultz, a pro-Bernie populist who I used to listen to on Air America. nationalreview.com/podcasts/the-j…
3. After protesting to the interviewer about how free he is to say whatever he wants on RT, he then waffles and hems and haws in response to a simple question: Is Putin's human rights record atrocious, like you used to say it was when you weren't with RT?
4. Ed sounds like he's in a hostage interview, carefully reciting the exact talking points Trump used when he was interviewed by O'Reilly---well look, no country is perfect, America's done bad things too, etc, etc.
5. I don't share much of @Jamie_Weinstein's politics, but he deserves kudos for asking hard questions of Ed.
6. It seems pretty clear to me that Ed's primary mission is to cultivate an audience of low-information, American "progressives" who are willing to cut Putin a ton of slack, because "you can't trust the corrupt American political establishment and their MSM lackeys."
7. According to Ed, Russia is a "sovereign democracy." Putin's super popular with the people because he's a progressive. Locking up political opponents? Killing journalists? Destroying opposition media outlets? Pshaw...all just a myth.
8. It's also worth noting that Ed's also become the sort of "progressive" who has a great tendency to "grudgingly admit" that Trump has had "many successes." Just look at his fairly minimal Twitter timeline: @NewswithEd
9. At this point, so few people watch RT in America that it's not really that big of a deal. But given the decline of unions and other organizations that shape working class political subjectivity, it appears that RT has rushed in to fill that void.
10. I think it's important for us to avoid rehashing old Cold War, anti-Russia narratives.
11. But I think it's also important for us to recognize that Putin has a geo-political agenda that he seeks to further in part through his control of the media and political culture. The work of @mashagessen and @juliaioffe has demonstrated that clearly.
12. I'm not saying Ed should be censored in any way. I'm just saying that despite his claims that he's merely speaking his authentic truth on RT, he sounded squirmy as hell in that interview with Weinstein.
13. Also worth noting that in many markets RT is one of the few news outlets freely available to those who can't afford cable. If you're pulling in TV via antennae, you have a choice between Sinclair channels or RT. Different flavors, same ice cream.
