Russian government-funded Russia Today has abruptly shut down its U.S.-based operations following international criticism of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, says Holland Cooke, host — until this week — of RT's show, "The Big Picture."
The company broke the news to its staff Thursday during an "all-hands meeting," writes Cooke.
"We've been canceled, by cable/satellite/online distribution platforms," Cooke wrote in a post for Talkers.
"In cable news dog-years, four+ is a good run. Immensely grateful for having had this opportunity, I head home to Block Island to deactivate my on-vacation voicemail greeting and return client phone calls," he added.
RT was dropped in Europe and Canada earlier this week following the invasion.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday said the "Kremlin's media machine" would be banned in the EU.
"The state-owned Russia Today and Sputnik, and their subsidiaries, will no longer be able to spread their lies to justify Putin's war," she tweeted. "We are developing tools to ban their toxic and harmful disinformation in Europe."
Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler told Fox News that RT wages propaganda "in a time of war, during a conflict," and "during peacetime."
"They constantly malign the United States and misrepresent foreign policy objectives," she added. "I'm just saying that tilts the level playing field towards Russia when we allow their propaganda channels to broadcast in an unfettered [way]."
The U.S. government in 2017 required RT to register as a foreign agent.
"RT is 100% a Russia government-controlled channel and its sole intent is to predispose the American population, and wherever they are broadcasting, towards the Russian point of view and to present the events on the ground as the Russians want the rest of the world to see them. So if the United States did not want that to happen then it would be appropriate to shut down the channel," Koffler said.
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