Russian TV host Anissa Naouai, responded to charges of bias by CNN's Christiane Amanpour by noting Amanpour's husband is former U.S. State Dept. spokesperson James Rubin and accusing Amanpour of following the "line" of the State Dept. 15 years.
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Naouai, who attended Hunter College in 2000-01 and who joined RT ("Russia Today") in 2006, bridled when Amanpour asked on CNN Nov. 21, "Do you feel that ‘Russia Today' and other state-sponsored media is specifically designed to counter what your government, your president (Vladimir Putin) believes is a bad image problem, an unfair shake in the West?"
Naouai, answered by saying that Putin "is not my president. I'm an American. He's the Russian president. RT airs to a global audience. So it's not really watched in Russia. It's in English. Many people across Russia don't really turn to RT to get their news." RT always tries to show "both sides" of an issue, she added later. Putin wants "stability for his country and his region," she said.
Naouai Charges Bias
Warming to the subject, Naouai said "It's an absurd question coming from someone that's propagated the line of the State Dept. for over 15 years. I mean, it's absolutely absurd."
"Well, are you talking to me?" asked Amanpour, who later said the exchange would be dropped from program.
"Absolutely," answered Naouai. "You've propagated the line of the State Dept. for over 15 years, starting with Yugoslavia and all the way into Syria." She said she has seen lots of Amanpour's reports and none where "you question the U.S. government and their policy."
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Naouai said Amanpour's audience should be aware that she is married to James Rubin, spokesperson for the State Dept. from 1997-2000 when Bill Clinton was president. Amanpour and Rubin were married in 1998.
Despite Amanpour's threat, CNN published a transcript of the show. However, it left out Naouai's reference to Rubin. In its place was a notation, "Crosstalk." The RT version quotes Naouai as saying, "I'm glad they do, [follow Amanpour's reports] and I'm sure they know who James Rubin is, I'm sure they watch your work in Yugoslavia."
Rubin Has Media, Academic Career
Rubin had various news, academic and political posts after leaving the State Dept. He was an anchor for Sky News, taught at Columbia University, was editor of the opinion section of Bloomberg View, was a partner in Brunswick Communications in 2002-3 and worked on the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton in 2008. He is currently at the Rothermere Institute at Oxford, London, working on a book on U.S. military operations overseas.
Amanpour was born in England, the daughter of Mahmoud Amanpour, an Iranian, and "Patricia," a U.K. citizen. She was raised in Tehran and studied journalism at the University of Rhode Island. She joined CNN in 1983 and has worked for it since almost without interruption. She was also with ABC-TV in 2010 as an anchor.
The mention of Rubin caused Amanpour to say, "When you become ad hominem to me, that's a problem." She then added, "You can be sure I'm not putting this on the air, Anissa. It's a personal attack." At another point, she said to Naouai, "You've lost me, babe."
Amanpour also heatedly denied that she had followed any ‘line" of the U.S. State Dept., saying Naouai had not done sufficient research on that.
Naouai to Moscow in 2001
Naouai attended Hunter College of City University of New York from 2000-01, studying world history, French and English. She speaks Russian.
Her bio on LinkedIn says she worked at Pamela's Café (no location given) from 1998-2001 and was a founder and actress of the Studio Six Theater Co., New York, an acting company introducing Russian dramatic theater to American audiences. Current productions are on its website.
Naouai ended her studies at Hunter in 2001 to attend the Moscow Art Theater School where she studied masters, acting, theater history, Russian language, movement and dance from 2001-05.
She hosts the "In the Now" show on RT from Monday to Thursday.
RT, funded by $300 million in Russian government funds, claims an audience of 630 million worldwide. Pew Research found that it was the most popular news show on YouTube, surpassing Fox News Channel, which was in second place. It was the first channel to reach one billion views on YouTube.
Larry King, CNN host from 1985-2010, has two shows on RT—"Larry King Now" and "Politicking."
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