Russia Today news anchor stuns everyone by ripping invasion

Or did she?

This is a bit of a fluid story, but the gist of it is that Abby Martin, an American anchor for Kremlin-run Russia Today, went very off-script this morning and condemned the Russian invasion of Crimea. This is notable because Russia Today is in fact a government-owned and operated news source that peddles the Kremlin's point of view to an international audience. It's roughly the equivalent of Voice of America but with none of the First Amendment tradition you'd expect from a U.S.-based news source. Not that nothing on RT is ever the truth, but you certainly don't expect an independent opinion that takes a truly critical look at something like the Crimea invasion. But as you can see here, RT apparently has a pretty independent spirit on its hands in Abby Martin: Now RT has issued a statement claiming that this is all just fine with them. Via Huffington Post:

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"Contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn’t beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions, not just in private but on the air. This is the case with Abby’s commentary on the Ukraine. "We respect her views, and the views of all our journalists, presenters and program hosts, and there will be absolutely no reprimands made against Ms. Martin. "In her comment Ms. Martin also noted that she does not possess a deep knowledge of reality of the situation in Crimea. As such we’ll be sending her to Crimea to give her an opportunity to make up her own mind from the epicentre of the story." Or is she going to Crimea? According a post on her Facebook page, made about 2 p.m. today, no: First I get called a "Russian propagandist" for toeing the RT line, now I am getting vitriol from people claiming I "sold out" to Western imperialism because I voiced an opinion that I believe in. I am against military intervention. Period. And no, I am not going to Crimea. I wonder if her bosses are on board with her declaration that she is "not going to Crimea." At any rate, the next time some American journalist acts all courageous for "speaking truth to power" or whatever, keep in mind the example of Abby Martin. For all I know she could be a huge liberal - and some other things I saw on her Facebook page make me wonder - but that's really irrelevant here. It took a lot of courage for her to do what she did, and let's pray she doesn't face any recriminations for doing it.

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