What's it like to work at a Russian government-funded
news outlet in the United States?
... why you should tell all your friends to listen to 105.5 FM.
Radio Sputnik, we're the network they don't want you to listen to,
because you might actually figure out, it's not Russian propaganda.
In 2014, a Russian government news agency in Moscow launched
Sputnik News, and opened a bureau in Washington, D.C.
Its tagline: Telling the Untold.
Then last summer,
Sputnik acquired 105.5 FM and launched its first radio shows in the U.S.
One of the station's hot new hires was Lee Stranahan.
Lee starts his days early with bacon.
So how did you end up with a radio channel?
I was here for the inauguration, I was working for Breitbart,
as their lead investigative reporter.
And I saw how big the Women's March was,
and I immediately felt like, "okay, it's on."
The Democrats are ready to get Trump out of office now.
Back then, Lee was working at Breitbart, the far-right news outlet, under former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.
But, after the inauguration, he wanted a new way of reaching is audience,
So he went to Sputnik.
Do you have any misgivings about working for
media organization funded by the Russian government?
None, none whatsoever.
The Trump-Russia narrative, I never bought into it.
In January the CIA, FBI and NSA released a joint report,
referring to Sputnik as part of Russia's state-run propaganda machine.
Around that time, Andrew Feinberg joined Sputnik, as the agency's White House reporter.
I started the Monday after Trump as sworn in.
I took the job because I needed a job.
There were a lot of things that,
as time went on from the day I started that I was uneasy with.
Sputnik is pretty closely controlled by the Russian government.
Feinberg was fired from Sputnik in May.
He says for refusing to push conspiracy theories.
I'd get asked, "Can you ask about this, can you find out about this, Moscow would like to know."
Once I was asked to ask about
reports that the sarin gas attack in Syria,
possibly being committed by Syrian rebels,
or had been staged.
They wanted me to ask such a question in a
nationally, internationally televised briefing of the White House press secretary.
So, it would give legitimacy to what's a ridiculous argument.
And that, what you hypothesize is because Assad and Vladimir Putin are close?
Well, I mean, I don't think they're dating,
but yeah, they're close allies.
Tell me about your show on Sputnik.
It's me, a Trump supporter, and
Garland Nixon is my co-host, a Bernie supporter.
Both of us are real skeptical
of the military industrial complex.
Do you feel like Sputnik's able to ride both waves?
The Bernie bro wave and also the Trump supporter wave.
Establishment versus anti-establishment.
I don't like my country. I don't like Democrats and Republicans.
I don't like the CIA harboring war criminals and lying to the media about it.
So is it more fair to be funded by the Russian government than the United States?
In this case it clearly is.
The debate you and I were just having,
I could get you on the show to talk about that, and you say every single thing you just said.
Okay, but I'm having you on NBC News, so we can both do that.
Well I know, but let's see how it goes.
In September, Yahoo News reported that Sputnik is being investigated,
for violating the foreign agents registration act,
which requires foreign lobbyist to register with the U.S. government.
Normal news organizations don't have to register,
but propaganda outlets do.
So which is Sputnik?
Citing their usual policy, the FBI and DOJ wouldn't comment on any possible investigation,
but Andrew Feinberg says he was questioned by both the FBI and a federal prosecutor about Sputnik's internal operations.
I got a call from an FBI special agent
I gave them very e-mail I ever sent or received while I worked for Sputnik.
Over 6000.
Sputnik disputes Feinberg's story.
A spokesperson told me he was fired for performance reasons,
and with respect to that Syria question, it was fair game,
that Sputnik was questioning the government's line on Syria.
It seems to me, that maybe a secondary goal is to
put forward the idea that the U.S. government is lying or that U.S. media organizations are lying
Yes.
So you can't know the truth, no one can know the truth.
A lot of what Sputnik does is attack
the traditional media establishment
and through that, the idea of objective truth.
It's a lot like the Trump administration's embrace of alternative facts.
For most of his career, Lee Stranahan had nothing to do with facts or
with Journalism.
We worked jobs in graphics and animation and comedy,
for a little while, when he was young, he did erotic photography.
Back then Lee was a Democrat, an Obama voter, but about a decade ago,
he started blogging and through blogging he connected with the ultra-conservative
publisher, Andrew Breitbart.
What happened was, I liked interviewing people,
and I found out a friend of mine knew Andrew Breitbart.
He was super controversial, so I'm like cool, he's super controversial, I can get to him, great.
We became friends immediately.
So it wasn't just a business relationship, we talked constantly.
I thought about it and I'm like,
you know,
if Andrew is a conservative, and I looked at everything and said, I guess I am too.
Lee started reporting for Breitbart,
he gained some influence and he grew more interested in Russia.
Why in your view,
do you think the United States and other countries
have it out for Russia?
The establishment, is clearly on one side, and Russia is clearly on the other side.
There was no invasion of Crimea, the Russians were there already,
there was no one killed, and --
There were little green men sent in,
there were troops sent in.
But don't be metaphorical, there were troops that were there already.
Let's just say, we didn't get anywhere with this.
You're listening to the most disruptive radio show in America,
it's Fault Lines.
I call out both sides, I call out the Republicans, I call out Democrats,
I call out, I'm a Trump supporter, I call out Trump.
Lee's show is mixxed.
He discussed Russian hacking allegations, which he's really skeptical of.
But he also talked about Las Vegas and Harvey Weinstein and the weather.
Normal morning radio stuff,
at least that day.
You may notice there's people with cameras hovering in the background.
People could be like, "What's up with that?" And develop a conspiracy theory.
But we have a crew here from NBC's Left Field,
they're following me around.
I was making bacon this morning, they got some fantastic b-roll of bacon.
I think, I think it's probably good.
CIA and FBI cameras are all hidden,
they're in the lights, they're in the smoke detector.
They could have just picked up the CIA feed,
you could have saved a lot of money on a crew, by just picking up the CIA feed,
the CIA are huge fans of us.