Ever since they first invaded Ukraine last week, Russia has received massive pushback from amongst the world stage. (That is, except from a certain former U.S. president and a certain current Fox News host.) Sanctions have gone into effect. On a lesser note, Hollywood studios have pulled future films from the nation’s release calendar. And on Tuesday, the station RT — born as Russia Today, and piping Russian propaganda into millions of American households — was dealt a major blow.
As first reported by Axios, DirecTV — which, along with DISH, were the only American cable providers willing to carry the channel — formally cut ties, removing it from its service. A spokesperson for DirecTV told CNN that they were already considering yanking RT from their coffers, but the nation’s invasion of Ukraine sped up the process.
RT was removed in the midst of a commercial blizzard. Luckily, one enterprising Twitterer managed to preserve RT’s final moments on DirecTV.
Here were the final moments of RT (Russia Today) as @DirecTV removed it at 1:00 p.m. Eastern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
RT ran a Medicare ad & five promos (including one that said RT doesn’t “skew the facts”) before a message read, “This channel is no longer available.” pic.twitter.com/QYGLBEZMJY
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 1, 2022
Among the ads were one for Medicare and numerous promos for RT programs. One was The World According to Jesse, hosted by wrestler-turned-Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura. (“Question more!” he bellows in the ad for a station that has been widely derided for questionable news coverage.) Ventura, a registered Independent who was formerly a member of the Green and Reform parties, hooked up with RT back in 2015. According to The Washington Post, at the time he boasted that he was “working for the enemy of mainstream media now.”
Alas, only DISH subscribers will be able to watch his show. In related news, a spokesperson for that cable provider told CNN that they couldn’t comment on whether they, too, would be severing ties with RT, they supported Ukraine and were “closely monitoring the situation.” If Ventura is looking for someone to blame, perhaps he can finally turn on Vladimir Putin.