Russian 'Propaganda Machine' Selects Kansas City As Its Second Radio Broadcast Site

[90DayFinancier 910]

 

By CHRIS HAXEL • JAN 25, 2020

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  Screenshot from a livestream of the Jan. 24, 2020, broadcast of 'Fault Lines' on Radio Sputnik.
  CHRIS HAXEL / KCUR 89.3

Commuters interested in conspiracy theories about George Soros, Hillary Clinton and the Republican National Committee have a new option, courtesy of the Russian government.

Early this month, a radio station based in Liberty, Missouri, signed a three-year deal to broadcast Radio Sputnik across Kansas City.

The English-language programming airs for three hours each morning and again in the evening on three frequencies controlled by KCXL: 1140 AM, 102.9 FM and 104.7 FM.

It’s produced by the U.S.-based branch of an organization created in 2013 by Russian President Vladimir Putin to promote Russian interests abroad.

The organization, Rossiya Segodnya, hopes to restore a “fair attitude to Russia in every country in the world,” according to court records. 

For now, Radio Sputnik only broadcasts in two American cities: Kansas City and Washington D.C., where its programming has aired since 2017.

“We’d love to broadcast in all major U.S. markets,” a Radio Sputnik spokesperson told KCUR via email. “But unfortunately, U.S. authorities are working really hard to prevent us from doing so.”

Rossiya Segodnya

Many details about the deal are known only because of a 1938 law called the Federal Agents Registration Act, or FARA.

The act requires people lobbying for, or otherwise acting on behalf of, a foreign government to register with the U.S. Department of Justice as a foreign agent.

In this case, that agent turned out to be a Florida man named Arnold Ferolito.

Ferolito brokered the deal between KCXL and Rossiya Segodnya, a Moscow-based organization that controls both Radio Sputnik and RT, a television news network formerly known as Russia Today.

Ferolito also brokered the deal to broadcast Radio Sputnik in Washington D.C., and court records detailing his negotiations with Rossiya Segodnya indicate he offered to put their programming on the air in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Boston.

It isn't clear why those other deals fell through.

The government pressed Ferolito and Sputnik to register under FARA after U.S. intelligence agencies investigated Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. One report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded that Radio Sputnik is part of a “state-run propaganda machine” that served as a “platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.”

[laylalex 7,285]

Sorry to bug you, 90Day, but is there a link to the original story? I want to send it to someone.  

[90DayFinancier 910]

 

Sorry Layla, inline

 

Russian 'Propaganda Machine' Selects Kansas City As Its Second Radio Broadcast Site

https://www.kcur.org/post/russian-propaganda-Sorry Layla, inlinemachine-selects-kansas-city-its-second-radio-broadcast-site#stream/0