RT anchor, former Saipan reporter, quits on air over Putin ‘whitewash’

As the CNMI remains in wait-and-see mode on the Ukraine-Russia crisis’ impact, if any, on the U.S. visa waiver program for CNMI-bound Russian tourists comes another story miles away with connection to the islands. A Washington, D.C. bureau anchor with U.S. network “Russia Today,” Liz Wahl, a former KSPN 2 reporter on Saipan, quit on the air Wednesday afternoon, saying the Kremlin-funded television network “whitewashes” the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Within minutes and hours of Wahl’s dramatic resignation, she started getting interviews with national and international media outlets including CNN.

“Indeed as a reporter on this network I face many moral and ethical challenges,” Wahl said on Russia Today. “That is why personally I cannot be part of [a] network funded by the Russian government that whitewashes the actions of Putin. I’m proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth. And that is why after this newscast I am resigning.”

Wahl worked as a reporter for Saipan-based KSPN 2 from 2009 to August 2011, and later worked for Russia Today.

Bob Coldeen, news director for KSPN 2, said Wahl is “very professional,” “very opinionated” and “very dependable.”

“She took her job very seriously. I’m not surprised she would do that,” Coldeen said, referring to Wahl’s resignation on air.

Coldeen said he saw some of Wahl’s work with Russia Today, and found them to be “straight” and not slanted.

“I wish her nothing but the best,” Coldeen said.

Even on social media, CNMI residents near and far were posting and reposting Wahl’s on-air resignation and interviews.

In her final anchoring on Russia Today, Wahl said her grandparents came to the United States during the Hungarian Revolution to escape Soviet forces, and she feels lucky to have grown up in America. She said she’s a daughter of a veteran and her partner is a physician at a military base “where he sees every day the first-hand accounts of the ultimate prices that people pay for this country.”

Wahl began her televised resignation by referencing co-worker Abby Martin, who made headlines by denouncing Russian intervention in Ukraine earlier this week.

Within hours, Wahl told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, “What’s clear is what’s happening right now amid this crisis is that RT is not about the truth. It’s about promoting a Putinist agenda. And I can tell you firsthand, it’s also about bashing America.”

Meanwhile, the Inos administration, along with the Marianas Visitors Authority, is “closely monitoring” the Ukraine-Russia crisis, which would have a negative impact on CNMI tourism if the United States imposes economic and travel restrictions against Russia.

At stake is the CNMI’s estimated $130 million annual economic revenue from Russian tourists if the U.S. imposes travel restrictions against Russia.

But MVA managing director Perry Tenorio said flights from East Russia to the CNMI “continue as scheduled” and that arrivals from Russia to the Commonwealth “remain extremely strong.”

The CNMI’s tourism agency, nevertheless, is “monitoring the evolving crisis in the Ukraine with great concern,” he said.