'They print pretty much whatever they want': Ex-Sputnik reporter describes his time at Russia's 'most dangerous' news outlet
A former reporter for a Russia state-owned news outlet, Sputnik, left the publication earlier this year.
"So I figured they were satisfied by my answer," Feinberg said.
But it wasn't long, he said, before he was asked to write things that either lacked appropriate context or had a decidedly pro-Russian slant that he argued distorted reality — for example, Russia's annexation of Crimea being the product of a "referendum" rather than an invasion. (An article from April 27, titled "Brussels to Keep Denying Crimean Self-Determination Until Trump Says Otherwise," refers to the referendum several times, as do previous articles.)
He said his managers, most of whom "were on the young side, in their 20s or 30s," scolded him after he asked former White House press secretary Sean Spicer earlier this year why the US was not sending weapons to Ukraine, he said, to help the army fend off pro-Russian separatists in the country's east. (He ended up filing the story, anyway, and it was published.)
Feinberg said he couldn't be sure how much instruction his higher-ups were getting directly from the Kremlin. And if they supported President Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, it wasn't obvious.
ask Spicer about Seth Rich, a Democratic National Committee staffer whose death has spawned conspiracy theories on the far right. Police say he was the victim of a botched robbery, and the investigation is ongoing.
Fox News published a story advancing the theory in May that was subsequently retracted and is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by Rod Wheeler, a detective hired by Rich's family to investigate his death.
Wheeler alleged that he was misquoted in the Fox story and that the White House, including President Donald Trump, had knowledge of the story before it was published. The lawsuit claims that a wealthy Trump supporter worked in concert with a Fox News reporter to push the story. Fox News has called the claims contained in the lawsuit "erroneous."
Sputnik said that Feinberg "started on a merry note, and ended on a sad one," adding, "we hope the fruits of his rich imagination [do] not create more conspiracy theories around Sputnik."
Feinberg, for his part, rejected the notion that he ended on a "sad" note.
"I signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement that covers proprietary material, sources and methods, all of that. But bulls--- is not a proprietary source or method," Feinberg said. "And in terms of rules against disparagement — well, all I'm telling is the truth."
He added: "I
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