Chris Hedges: When Are Journalists Foreign Agents? (Video)
The Truthdig columnist discusses the Foreign Agents Registration Act at a panel hosted by the Columbia Journalism School and the Harriman Institute.
Are we in an era of new McCarthyism? Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges and fellow journalism experts discussed media and the Foreign Agents Registration Act during a recent panel hosted by the Columbia Journalism School and the Harriman Institute.
Hedges was joined by Maria Snegovaya, a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Columbia University; Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation; and Jeffrey Trimble, deputy director of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors. The discussion was moderated by Steve Coll, dean of the Columbia Journalism School.
Columbia’s Harriman Institute writes:
In November 2017, the U.S. forced RT, a Russian-financed international news outlet, to register as a foreign agent. Within weeks, Russia responded by labeling U.S.-funded Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty foreign agents. The actions come in the wake of a January 2017 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused the Kremlin of using RT America as a tool “to undermine faith in the US Government and fuel political protest.”
Hedges, who hosts a show on RT, speaks at length about how corporate control of media in the U.S. has pushed him into other outlets. He also discusses the “degradation of journalism” and the importance of progressive sites like Truthdig.
Watch the full panel discussion in the player above.
–Posted by Emma Niles.
Your support matters…Independent journalism is under threat and overshadowed by heavily funded mainstream media.
You can help level the playing field. Become a member.
Your tax-deductible contribution keeps us digging beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that unearths what's really happening- without compromise.
Give today to support our courageous, independent journalists.
U.S. defense contractors and their lobbyists use a business model that counts innocent Yemenis' deaths as the cost of doing business.
The foreign funding of think tanks is a vital part of the way other governments try to influence policy in this country.
A corporate censorship is being imposed, inch by inch, step by step. It begins by silencing the demonized. It ends by silencing everyone.
Because it had the gall to give airtime to critics of imperialism and U.S. policy, the broadcaster has been forced to register as a foreign agent.
