Lee Camp

In a recent interview with the Global Times, RT America former host Lee Camp pointed out that the US mainstream media acts as a conduit for pro-war talking points because the US really is a "war machine."

"Our economy is wrapped up in war. Our media is wrapped up in war. Our politicians are wrapped up in war. There really is not a minute that goes by that the US is not involved in war," he continued.

According to Camp, the US mainstream media are creating an illusion of truth to the public regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

"It [These media] repeats the same thing over and over again until people start to believe it," Camp said. "And this is despite the fact or even in light of the fact that the mainstream media has been shown to have told great egregious lies over the course of our history, including WMD in Iraq - the list goes on and on."

He believes that the sanctions against Russia and the proxy war in Ukraine have indeed hurt Americans economically, creating economic hardship in the country. What's more, they hinder cooperation around the world, particularly with Russians. 

"When you create a proxy war, when you create propaganda that says everyone in that country is evil, it means that people can't work together and they can't actually view the reality of the situation. They have to simply just have blinders on and go," said Camp.

Camp noted that the idea that people have been manipulated to believe that the only way to peace is more war is horrifying.

"That is a sad state of reality. Because if we're going to achieve peace, if we're going to have peace in this world ever again, it can't be done with missiles… It has to be done with human beings sitting down and working out our differences. And the United States views that as the last resort," he said.

Camp, who had hosted a satire comedy show Redacted Tonight for eight years, was laid off after RT America was shut down in March 2022 after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

He told the Global Times that the same week as his TV show was cancelled, over 2,000 videos published on his YouTube channel, together with his account, were banned around the world, calling such an action "basically the digital equivalent of book burning."

Camp admitted that even if he has now started a new YouTube page and accounts on other US websites, he is still worried about the shadow banning and suppression.

"I have a large Facebook page, but very few people see my post. So it becomes very similar to deleting," he said.

"We don't have the freedom of speech that we claim to have," Camp commented.