Abby Martin, the Russia Today host who went spectacularly off-message on Tuesday calling Vladimir Putin’s actions over Ukraine “wrong” live on air, appeared on Piers Morgan Tonight, on Wednesday evening, sparring with the British host over the nature of the Russian network.
In a lively exchange, Martin compared her situation on RT, which is financed by the Kremlin, to that of an American TV network during the Iraq war.
"I knew going into that that I could put my job on the line considering how the corporate media has fired multiple anchors for simply speaking out against the Iraq war," she said. "So, I did know that, you know, going against the editorial line of my network I could put my job on the line. Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet."
The RT anchor added that she enjoyed total editorial independence on the network, while saying that its pro-Russian outlook was "no different than every other corporate media station".
"We're talking about six corporations that control 90 per cent of what Americans see, hear and read," she said. "The lead-up to the Iraq war, parroting exactly what the establishment said. I mean you could reflect the exact same criticism on all of the corporate media channels."
Martin even managed to rattle the soon-to-be out of work CNN host, claiming that he was beholden to advertisers. Mr Morgan did not like that at all…
On Wednesday, Liz Wahl, an Washington-based anchor on Russia Today, dramatically quit live on air in protest at the network's "whitewashing the actions of Putin".