Right-wing websites have been useful for more than just putting a Republican wash over the white nationalist policies of the “alt-right.” According to a former employee of Russian state-run media service Sputnik, those sites were also vital in spreading stories created by the Russian government to sway US attitudes.
Former Sputnik White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg was willing to ask Sean Spicer leading questions about Russian sanctions and the status of Ukraine. However, he ultimately decided to quit rather than go along with voicing conspiracy theories about murdered DNC staffer Seth Rich. But just because Feinberg was reluctant to spread these lies, doesn’t mean they didn’t find an outlet.
Feinberg: What I can tell you is that many of the most popular articles about things like Wikileaks and Pizza-gate and other conspiracy theories were prominently featured on the Sputnik web site. … And then they get picked up by other American outlets — InfoWars, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit — right wing outlets. Sputnik functions as part of this right wing media ecosystem.
Feinberg’s refusal also wasn’t shared by Fox News, where multiple reporters and hosts—in particular Trump mouthpiece Sean Hannity—were all too happy to spread Kremlin propaganda that demeaned Rich and injured his family.
But for months, right-wing media outlets have floated unproven theories that Rich was the person who provided Wikileaks with thousands of internal DNC emails, and suggested his death was retribution for the supposed leak. No real evidence has been provided to support such claims. … Hannity and other Fox News personalities seized on the story and have pushed the discredited theory.
The Seth Rich story crossed the line even for the most visible American employee of Russia’s own international news service. But it wasn’t too much for Hannity. And it wasn’t too much for right-wing websites. Feinberg left no doubt about where these stories originated.
Feinberg: My editors … would come to me and say “Moscow wants this. Moscow wants that.” … the Sputnik and RT parent company gets their instructions from the Kremlin. … Based on my experience there, I would make the argument that Sputnik is not performing as a bonafide news organization.
Other former RT and Sputnik employees also spoke out against the distribution of propaganda and “white washing” of Russian positions. This testimony is contributing to the FBI’s insistence that Sputnik register as a foreign agent.
Russia may have invested in hacking into the DNC for distribution of emails through Wikileaks, they may have used Facebook to organize anti-immigrant rallies and purchase targeted political ads. But the activity of sites like Breitbart and InfoWars is a free bonus for Russia. They are volunteer members of Vladimir Putin’s war on democracy. And they’re not just add-ons. They’re multipliers who have far more reach than the sites Russia funds directly.
Sputnik and RT are state-run news services that the Russian government uses to feed propaganda both to their own citizens and an international audience. In the United States, foreign news services—even those with long histories and reputations for accurate journalism—rarely get significant play unless their stories are first filtered through a local source. State-run media outlets generally only make the news when the media is trying to give a sense of what some distant regime wants to say, such as the propaganda that comes out of North Korea following bomb tests, and are not seen as accurately reporting on the events.
Breitbart, InfoWars and other sites of the alt-Reich performed an invaluable service for Russia in taking state-crated propaganda, scrubbing off Putin’s signature, and putting it forward as actual “news.” The value of that service may exceed all Russia’s expenses in the 2016 election. Right-wing sites allowed Russia not just to win, but to win cheap.
