Department of….
..knock me over with a feather.
“If the stories broadcast by the Trump-endorsed One America News Network sometimes look like outtakes from a Kremlin trolling operation, there may be a reason. One of the on-air reporters at the 24-hour network is a Russian national on the payroll of the Kremlin’s official propaganda outlet, Sputnik.
Kristian Brunovich Rouz, originally from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, has been living in San Diego, where OAN is based, since August 2017, reporting on US politics for the 24-hour news channel. For all of that time he’s been simultaneously writing for Sputnik, a Kremlin-owned newswire that played a role in Russia’s 2016 election interference operation, according to an assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.
Rouz’s on-air reports for OAN include a wholly fabricated 2017 segment claiming Hillary Clinton is secretly bankrolling antifa through her political action committee. Clinton, Rouz claimed falsely, gave antifa protesters $800,000 that “went toward things like bricks, hammers, bats and chains.”
Other smears target billionaire financier George Soros, a longtime Kremlin bête noire. In one segment, Rouz amplified a thoroughly debunked claim that Soros collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, when the Jewish philanthropist was 14 years old. Another Rouz story accused Soros of secretly funding migrant caravans.”
Apparently Rouz is also a guitarist who once played with an indie band, White Tar.
But he and band-mate Jov Paradice had a falling out:
(bolds mine)
”Paradice said he and Rouz frequently clashed over their differing world views.
“We kind of had a thing musically, but we were total opposites,” said Paradice. “When Trump was getting elected he went into full sports coat mode. He had an indie style before—the whole blurred-line-of-sexuality thing—then he was wearing red ties and a suit. I said, ‘I'm not getting on the stage with Trump.’"
Good call, Jov.
It’s kind of like you’re in a band and find out your guitarist is stealing your gigs and giving them to the indie band across town.
Only that other band is dedicated to the destruction of your country.
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[cross-posted to PolitiZoom]