RT America was a U.S.-based news channel headquartered in Washington, D.C. Owned by TV Novosti and operated by production company T&R Productions, it was a part of the RT network, a global multilingual television news network based in Moscow and funded by the Russian government. The channel said it reached an audience of 85 million people in the United States, but this figure is disputed. It was distributed through select cable providers, over-the-top services, a live stream through its website, and three low-power digital subchannels. Since the channel’s closure, viewers who tune into the cable channel or their live stream are being shown a live feed of an RT International broadcast instead.
Among the channel’s shows at its closure were Dennis Miller + One with Dennis Miller, CrossTalk with Peter Lavelle and The Keiser Report with Max Keiser. Other shows included News with Ed Schultz (2016–2018) and Larry King Now (2012–2020). Additional personalities included Rick Sanchez, Stacy Herbert, Chris Hedges, Jesse Ventura, Sean Stone, Lee Camp, Mike Papantonio and Ben Swann.
Incidents centered upon RT America include Breaking the Set host Abby Martin’s 2014 statement of her opposition to Russia’s intervention in Ukraine,[8] which was followed the next day by anchor Liz Wahl’s on-the-air resignation, which she issued on account of her belief that RT was a propaganda machine for President Vladimir Putin. In 2017, David Z. Morris wrote in Fortune that, “according to a[n unnamed] social network analyst interviewed by The [New York] Times, RT is not simply a platform for a right-wing agenda. Rather, it fuels fringe viewpoints across the political spectrum, providing grist for libertarian, far-left, and anti-globalization factions as well.” James Kirchick wrote in The Washington Post that the channel was “not a ‘news service’ in any meaningful sense of the term”.
After losing the majority of its cable and satellite coverage following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the channel ceased operations of all live programming on March 3, 2022, with T&R Productions indicating the layoffs of all off- and on-air staff would be permanent