6/17/2023 0 Comments Lee camp redacted tonight‘Moments of Clarity’ went for three years and three-hundred-some episodes and it’s all the same stuff that I’m doing now,” he said. “I have immense freedom to say the same things I’ve been saying since long before I came to RT. He said RT’s reliable Russian funding allows him to criticize everything other networks can’t, and called allegations that he is a Russian propagandist “hilarious.” When asked about it, he lambasted mainstream American media, which he claimed is so dependent on advertising that criticizing corporations is taboo. There are no signs that the Russian-government funding bothers him. “They came to me and they said, ‘Can you create a comedy show?’ and I basically said, ‘Let’s do it!’” Camp recalled. Then, the network saw the potential for something more. RT first started inviting him as a commentator on other shows. It became the prototype for “Redacted Tonight.” “It became pretty clear that I couldn’t be on a network who is funded by advertisement because they don’t want you really attacking corporations,” he said.Īs he performed stand-up, he channeled his TV dreams into a YouTube channel, which included a news-commentary series called “Moments of Clarity.” The series had low production values, but its weekly schedule got him in the habit of writing political comedy quickly and consistently. “I wanted to at least leave a little something in the mind of the audience that wasn’t just laughter.”Īccording to Camp, his political views killed his chances of landing a TV gig. “I wanted to be talking about something important,” he said. But as his career progressed, so did his political consciousness. Lee Camp began to perform stand-up comedy at 17, with dreams of becoming a TV comedian like Jerry Seinfeld. “America funds all kinds of stuff,” he said. But it seemed very objective to me.” Danash compared RT to Voice of America, a US-government-financed global media organization. “If I started seeing things that are obviously propaganda, then I would be bothered. “But RT, they were actually talking about the issues,” Diane, his companion, added.ĭid the channel’s Russian funding bother them? “I don’t know,” Diane said. “ is like a big show, a production, with no substance. “But RT, they were actually talking about the issues,” Diane, his companion, added. They had followed election night on RT America. They looked hip, dressed in muted colors and no logos. Some were longtime Camp fans, others were first-timers, attracted by the promise of a grittier Jon Stewart. When I visited the show in November, the audience was a ragtag assemblage of contrarians across the age spectrum. “You know you’re part of a sentiment, a passion, an energy that grows in the country,” he said. He thinks of “Redacted Tonight” as an activist collective. Camp is a left-wing populist in the tradition of Occupy Wall Street, and his show is a sustained critique of American neoliberalism or, more broadly, the “system.” “Outward anger is a representation of an internal anger that’s real, about our situation,” Camp told me.īy “our situation,” he means an unchallenged corporate kleptocracy that, he claims, controls mainstream American media, rigs elections and marginalizes dissent. Camp’s own style is dense and preachy, and he expresses himself in a flat, nasal shout. studios of the Kremlin-funded TV network Russia Today, branded RT America in the U.S.įor more than two years, Lee Camp has hosted RT’s satiric weekly “Redacted Tonight.” It’s a show in the spirit of Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show.” That means punchy comedic riffs, plus displays of outrage, news clips and crudely photoshopped collages. election, and we were in the Washington, D.C. While a production assistant hooked a cable up to his ear, Camp spread the lapels of his blazer and rotated his body, slowly, so all could see that his t-shirt bore a logo for Ingsoc, the ruling party from George Orwell’s “1984.” Raucous cheers and applause greeted him as he reached his desk and began to hover over his chair. Then, the much-anticipated entrance: Our host, comedian Lee Camp, 36, with his asymmetric middle-part and Jesus beard, appeared abruptly through the door and traversed the small crowd. “You guys feel comfortable? No? Excellent!” shouted correspondent Naomi Karavani. Those of us on our feet had been warned not to bump into the giant camera around which we were huddled. There were no seats, so the audience had to stand or settle for the floor.
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