At the age of 34, and as an ostensibly experienced news media industry veteran, Andrew Feinberg was surprised to learn that Sputnik News Service (SNN) — an English-language propaganda arm of the Russian state — was not committed to honest production and distribution of information.
Feinberg wrote of his five-month tenure at SNN in a Monday-published article at Politico, documenting his realization that SNN was committed to damaging America:
I began to realize that Sputnik’s mission wasn’t really to report the news as much as it was to push a narrative that would either sow doubts about situations that weren’t flattering to Russia or its allies, or hurt the reputation of the United States and its allies.
Despite SNN’s subversion of truth in pursuit of its political agenda, Feinberg still wants taxpayer funds to be diverted toward news media production at home and abroad: “State-sponsored news organizations, including the BBC … Agence France-Press and Al-Jazeera … all do excellent work.”
In a Tuesday interview with Sirius XM’s Julie Mason for POTUS, Feinberg reiterated his support for state-sponsorship of news media:
[State-funded news media outlets] do amazing work … BBC does great work. Al-Jazeera does amazing work.
I don’t see why a state-funded outlet in and of itself is a bad thing. In fact, I think there’s an argument that tax dollars should go toward the gathering and dissemination of news in an unbiased and aggressive fashion. … At the end of the day, I think that putting public money into news is something that should always happen in a free society that values a free press.
Describing SNN as a “bizarre environment,” Feinberg noted that SNN wanted him to reveal details of his sources to management:
They wanted to know the names of my sources, who I was meeting with, when I was meeting with them, and they didn’t want to pay for expenses … they didn’t seem to have any understanding of the way journalism is practised in this country.
English-language Russian state propaganda is generally anti-American and not “pro-Trump,” noted Feinberg, rejecting a narrative framing SNN and RT as boosters of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2015-2016 presidential election cycle:
[Believing SNN/RT are pro-Trump] is a misconception that a lot of people have about Sputnik and Russian media and President Trump. I was never told to write pro-Trump stories. Even one particularly pro-Trump reporter who used to work there has told me that she was never told to write pro-Trump stories, she just did that on her own. The thing that happens is that the stories aren’t pro-Trump, but they highlight instances where the United States is maybe hypocritical, or things like protests against Trump.
RT covered the Occupy protests wall-to-wall, and it creates this narrative that the U.S. is crumbling and corrupt, and of course, no better than Russia — “they have no reason to lecture Russia on anything”— and that’s what it is, it’s not so much pro-Trump, it’s anti-American.
Feinberg was terminated by SNN when he refused to inquire about the murder of Seth Rich in his capacity as an SNN operative in questioning White House spokespersons during White House press beifings.
Listen to Feinberg’s interview with Mason below.
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