It was a scene right out of a movie. But, no, if it was in a movie you’d think it was too dramatic. Real life could never unfold that way, but it did. American reporter, columnist and activist James Kirchick was on government-funded Russia Today from Sweden, brought on as talking head to discuss the then-upcoming verdict on Bradley Manning for leaking documents to Wikileaks. Instead, he blasted Russia’s anti-gay laws as bluntly and directly as in any peak moment in a movie’s dramatic arc:
Strapping on rainbow suspenders he instead took aim at Russia’s recent anti-gay law banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.”
“Being here on a Kremlin-funded propaganda network, I’m going to wear my gay pride suspenders and I’m going to speak out against the horrific anti-gay legislation that Vladimir Putin has signed into law,” he said on air, adding that the law “effectively makes it illegal to talk about homosexuality in public.”
RT anchor Yulia Shapovalova cut in: “Yes, James, of course we’ll discuss it later, but what about Bradley Manning?
“I’m not really interested in talking about Bradley Manning.” Kirchick shot back. “I’m interested in talking about the horrific environment of homophobia in Russia right now.”[CBS News]
CBS News notes that Manning is a fellow at the conservative-leaning Foreign Policy Initiative, and has been highly critical of Russia in many of his writings in the past.
Still, this was authentic high drama — and somewhere Mr. Putin’s associates must have been grabbing their cell phones, or reaching for their vodka bottles.
“I don’t know how as a journalist you can go to sleep at night, seeing what happens to journalists in Russia, who are routinely harassed, tortured and sometimes killed by the Russian government,” he told Shapovalova and her on-air co-workers.
“RT has been Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden twenty-four-seven. I haven’t seen anything on your network about the anti-gay laws that have been passed in Russia and the increasing climate of violence and hostility towards gay people. Where is the coverage of that?”
RT’s news editor Ivor Crotty defended the station’s coverage, noting that earlier in August they hosted a panel on the issue.
“I think you’ll find it very informative,” Crotty told Kirchick. “It’s an issue we take very seriously on the channel.[CBS News]
Russia Today quickly got another reporter onscreen and cut his mike. But it didn’t end there. The network was clearly not happy:
He tweeted later on Wednesday, that the network had called the taxi company they paid to bring him to and from the shoot, and instructed them to stop and leave him “on the side of the highway on way to Stockholm airport.” Soon after, he assured his followers that the taxi company delivered him to the airport safely [CBS News]
If it was in a film, you’d say it could never REALLY unfold that way. Judge for yourself:
Russia is coming under increasing fire for its anti-gay laws — such a popular actor and screenwriter who decided not to attend a high profile film festival:
Actor and screenwriter Wentworth Miller today rejected an invitation to attend the St. Petersburg International Film Festival, citing Russia’s anti-LGBT laws. In a letter to the Festival’s Director, the ‘Prison Break’ star stated that “as a gay man, I must decline.” Miller goes on to say that he is “deeply troubled” by Russia’s lawful brutality toward the LGBT community. “I cannot in good conscience participate in a celebratory occasion hosted by a country where people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly,” Miller concludes.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.