Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Editor's Note:

In mid-October, the Russia-backed broadcaster Sputnik was shut down in the Washington-based market and at three stations in the Kansas City. Some US media outlets said the closure was due to the local radio station carrying "antisemitic content" and "false information" about the Russia-Ukraine war. Other US media sources attribute the shutdown to US government sanctions. In September, the US State Department accused Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik's parent company, of conducting "covert influence activities," and imposed sanctions on it.

In her I-Talk show, Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen interviewed Ted Rall (Rall), a political cartoonist and guest on Sputnik's programming. Rall has worked for several US media outlets and was a Pulitzer finalist. He said that you never hear about free speech in the US.

GT: What do you think of the reasons being given for the shutdown of Sputnik in the Washington-based market and at three stations in the Kansas City?

Rall: It's incredibly insulting to everybody who ever worked at Sputnik to think that "antisemitic content" would ever have been tolerated there. It doesn't exist, never happened. It's a lie. 

In terms of false information about Russia-Ukraine crisis, what's false and true is obviously completely subjective, particularly in a time of war. So, there's a lot of disputes over what's true and what's not true. For example, did it really start in 2022? Did it start in 2014? Who was involved? Did Ukraine provoke it or not? But these are matters of opinion. The purpose of a news network like Sputnik is to talk about these questions of opinion. We were always very careful to be truthful and accurate. Nobody there was ever told what to say or what to think about Russia or Ukraine. I think what happened was, obviously, the kinds of people who were comfortable working for Sputnik were the kinds of people who, for the most part, are probably not very believing in US narratives about foreign policy or imperialism. 

GT: RT America was banned more than two years ago. Did you expect Sputnik to face a similar scenario? 

Rall: RT did not register as a foreign agent, so I think that made them more vulnerable. But in the end, they come for everybody. I can't say that it was a shock or a surprise. But it's very extreme for the US government to shut down an actual media outlet.

GT: What kind of information do you think the American public should hear? Now, in the US, you hardly hear any news from the Russian side. How will such one-sided information mislead the American public?

Rall: I suppose you could hope that all of the information that is one-sided is accurate, fair and balanced. But what are the odds of that? Very low. And especially what are the odds of that when it's one-sided in a war? War is always the most controversial topic. 

If you're trying to get a sense of a conflict between two countries, Russia and Ukraine, you would probably want to hear from at least those two countries, so that people could decide for themselves. You can be very well educated and well informed by American standards, read and watch a lot of news and never hear the Russian point of view. It's very one-sided. There's really no way for the American people to be able to make any kind of intelligent assessment of the situation. 

GT: You admitted that you are a leftist - anti-war and anti-capitalist. How difficult is it for voices from the left to be heard in the US? How much influence do these voices have in the US?

Rall: It's virtually impossible now. They are doing everything they can to shut people like me up. 

The interesting thing is: With the internet, I think it's very difficult for them because there's a demand for alternative voices. People want to hear alternative voices. You can tell the US government is so frustrated. That's why they tried to create this Disinformation Governance Board two years ago under the Biden administration. This is why they're shutting down tiny little outlets like RT and Sputnik that had very small audiences in the US. They're very worried because they know that people will go on the internet and go through social media. I think it's less about how important I am and more about how it is that the US government itself is losing credibility. 

GT: Based on your own experience, what is the difference between working for the American media and working for the Russian media?

Rall: I think the Russians had to be very, very careful about censoring American voices for the simple reason if, at any time, they had told us what to do, we might have quit. They didn't do that. I have to say that I've never worked anywhere where I've been less censored or told what to do than when I worked at Sputnik. 

It was a good fit for me because I didn't have any major political differences with them. Most of my concerns are about US domestic politics, not telling people in other countries how they should run their governments. 

GT: As US authorities try every possible means to curb what they call "Russian propaganda," what do you think of democracy and freedom of speech in the US?

Rall: This is like, if you drive a Ferrari, a car that can go very fast, theoretically you have the ability to go very fast, but you always choose to drive it very slowly. Theoretically, American news outlets have the right to drive the free speech car very fast under the US Constitution First Amendment. But in reality, they choose to drive like a little old lady, dropping off the kids at school. So, is there free speech? Maybe theoretically, but you never hear it because corporate speech is completely self-censored and circumspect. 

It's not like the White House calls up the Chicago Tribune and says, "run this, don't run that," - it doesn't work that way. Everyone who works at the Chicago Tribune knows what they can and what they can't do without getting into trouble, and they just don't do it. 

It's more insidious than that. The short version is that this is a direct act of censorship, and it sends a chilling message. The truth is, if the president of the US can shut down a media outlet, even a Russian media outlet, they can do it to a Canadian media outlet or an American news outlet. Real free speech is when you have a robust exchange of ideas among a lot of different points of view from lots of different types of people. We don't have that. 

GT: The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been going on for more than two years. Why do you think it cannot be ended?

Rall: A number of factors are at work here, and maybe the simplest one is that the two sides have been kept more or less evenly balanced in the battlefield. If Ukraine had not been assisted by NATO, the US and the West, obviously Russia would have prevailed already, because it has superior weaponry and it has a much better trained, much bigger military force. 

But, on the other hand, if the West had decided to support Ukraine completely, provide it with US troops and all of the technology that the US has, then it could have defeated Russia. 

They're choosing to give it just enough to keep its head above water, but not enough to win. Just keep it, drag it down into a quagmire or a stalemate that goes on and on. And nobody but the policymakers know exactly why they're doing that. The practical effect of it is to just make the weapons manufacturers wealthy and to keep the war going indefinitely. 

In the end, this war will end like so many other proxy wars. And when outside parties like the US stop funding it, there will have to be either peace talks or things will move on the battlefield one way or the other. I hope that the peace talks start right away.