That question, posed to Russia Today correspondent Polly Boiko, kicked off a fascinating exchange this morning on Twitter.
Boiko responded thusly:
@ukTanos what am i spreading?
— Polly Boiko (@Polly_Boiko) July 18, 2014
Then Sara Firth (or perhaps someone pretending to be her?) jumped in with this surprising admission:
@Polly_Boiko @ukTanos Lies hun. We do work for Putin. We are asked on a daily basis if not to totally ignore then to obscure the truth
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
Whoa. Firth (like Boiko) is a correspondent for Russia Today. Here are screencaps of her on the air:
Readers thanked Firth for her honesty:
@Sara__Firth @Polly_Boiko @ukTanos really, that's shocking, a BBC or Sky reporter would never be asked to do such a thing
— Daniel Masterton (@DanielMasterton) July 18, 2014
@Sara__Firth @Polly_Boiko @ukTanos That's quite an admission! Sara, I really admire your attempt at real integrity! 🙂
— Edward Cam. (@Bf28Edward) July 18, 2014
Firth responded with this:
@Bf28Edward @Polly_Boiko @ukTanos Thank you! It's an exercise in honesty. I've been doing it far too little lately.
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
And this:
@cathyraats @Polly_Boiko honestly we're not. We're taking a paycheck and for that we have to always obey.
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
And this:
RT style guide Rule 1: It is ALWAYS *Ukraine's fault (*add name as applicable)
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
Was her account hacked, perhaps?
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@shaunwalker7 Not hacked Shaun. I don't think the admissions are too surprising really.
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
Most readers are taking the tweets at face value:
https://twitter.com/Dem_Tilly/status/490095665973067777
#ff @Sara__Firth for having the conviction to call out Russia Today for its blatant misrepresentations. Hope she gets a new position soon.
— James Willby ?????? (@JamesWillby) July 18, 2014
Looking 4 new job? RT @Sara__Firth @cathyraats @Polly_Boiko honestly we're not. We're taking a paycheck and for that we have to always obey.
— Rob S (@RobPulseNews) July 18, 2014
Follow @Sara__Firth's feed for interesting reflections on working for @RT_com pic.twitter.com/DSZdyc0gNo
— Jack Farchy (@jfarchy) July 18, 2014
(I suspect soon to be former) RT correspondent @Sara__Firth goes rogue and says RT pays to peddle Putin's lies.
— Daniel Pashley (@eurodan) July 18, 2014
Well done @Sara__Firth for calling what her employer RT does by its real name.
— Oliver Bullough (@OliverBullough) July 18, 2014
The @Sara__Firth account, set up more than five years ago, is unverified. A hoax seems unlikely, but the possibility cannot be ruled out completely. Stay tuned as this story unfolds.
[Updates]
I resigned from RT today. I have huge respect for many in the team, but I'm for the truth. pic.twitter.com/mZ1g0R7N0D
— Sara Firth (@Sara__Firth) July 18, 2014
Firth reportedly told BuzzFeed, “I couldn’t do it any more, we’re lying every single day. Every single day we’re lying and finding sexier ways to do it.”
BuzzFeed reports that Firth’s resignation was “in protest” of Russia Today’s handling of Thursday’s Malaysia Airlines crash.
“It was the total disregard to the facts. We threw up eyewitness accounts from someone on the ground openly accusing the Ukrainian government [of involvement in the disaster] and a correspondent in the studio pulled up a plane crash before that the Ukrainian government had been involved in and said it was ‘worth mentioning’.”
“It’s not worth mentioning. It’s RT all over, it’s flirting with that border of overtly lying. You’re not telling a lie, you’re just bringing something up. I didn’t want to watch a story like that where people have lost loved ones and we’re handling it like that.”
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