He got invited to RT to talk about Bradley Manning and his impending sentence. The gay journalist James Kirchick got invited to argue his viewpoint that Manning wa a traitor who deserved to be put to death. (I wonder what his newfound liberal groupies would make of that?).
Instead, he used his airtime to go off on a tirade about how Russia has criminalized homosexuality (no, it hasn’t – but who cares about facts?) and to recycle all the canards about how RT is a Kremlin mouthpiece.
His rant lasted a whole two minutes, before RT’s host – having failed to steer Kirchick back on topic – finally kicked him off the channel. After rudely hijacking the show, the troll even had the gall to complain that RT wouldn’t pay for his taxi ride back.
There are many things one can say of this episode. One can highlight Kirchik’s sheer rudeness, chutzpah, and presumption. One can point out that Kirchick is only preaching to his own crowd here, while doing his utmost to validate the stereotype of the hystrionic homo as far as people who don’t much like homosexuals and need to be persuaded otherwise – that is, the majority of Russians – are concerned. Alternatively, one can note that Nikolai Alexeyev, the leader of Russia’s LGBT movement, basically calls him out as a hypocrite and then pens an article for RT with his own, far more nuanced views on the challenges facing the LGBT community in Russia.
I for one will note that if cutting off someone for incessant trolling makes RT a Kremlin mouthpiece, then…
… what does this make the “free” Western media?
That Alekseyev article is gold I tell you. GOLD!
Kirchick is in fact a neocon and a protégé of the New Republic’s longstanding windbag owner, Marty Peretz. The combination of moral grandstanding, inaccurate factual statements, and theatricality comes naturally to propagandists of his stripe, with their long experience selling “humanitarian” interventions abroad.
Kirchick is definitely a Neocon. Has called for war with Iran for a long time. He is supposed to be a member of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. Those are hardline neocons.
If the IOC stabs Putin in the back, there won’t be much sympathy for the gay community in Russia. By that time Syria will be toast. Putin will look like a slavic prided fool who got separated from his money. Kirchick is right about RT spending way too much time on Manning and Snowden, or Assange for that matter. Perhaps we can give Kirchick some anti-American propaganda in a form more amenable to him coming from a slightly different perspective.
http://espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/9301042/puerto-rico-richard-carrion-declares-ioc-presidential-bid
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Troberg
Hi from France.
This guy is typically the kind of person living on another planet.
They could extinguish Mankind without regrets.
This should be our priority now – extinguish them before they kill us.
Often I made this nightmare.
These people walking with heavy weapons to kill anybody facing them.
Or again, this bad vision of people dying when a Satanis LGBT walks down a street, leaving desolation and unhappiness.
Gay lifestyle brings to Death. Gay lifestyle brings to poverty for all.
Gay lifestyle is the contrary of normal life. These people should be cast away like those islamists walking our streets.
Islam in no religion and no faith.
So it is for gay.
I sign for immediate exclusion.
Dear Anatoly,
I have nothing to add to this fine article with which I am in complete agreement. I would merely mention that on the two occasions I have been interviewed by RT the idea of asking them to pay my taxi fare never occurred to me. Perhaps I’m the one who is being naïve.
not only that hes also pure russophobic, this is what he said about russians after live broadcast
He is a shameful and dishonest troll. Recently I stumbled upon a recent slanderous hit piece of his on Nikolai Alexeyev.
I was also offended by his sanctimonious appeal to the RT journalists’ conscience. He starts from premise that Russian journalists face persecution, then asks them how they can sleep at night. It is just so typical chicken-hawk, neo-con grandstanding, to ask others to put themselves in perceived peril and fight his fights for him.
We should kill gays