This Associated Press obituary of Larry King makes no mention of his spending his waning years working for the Russian propaganda outlet RT. But RT itself doesn’t hold back, even touting a 2019 interview King did with George Papadopoulos, a figure in the Russia scandal who was pardoned by Donald Trump just before he left the White House.
We all got a kick out of King during his CNN days, but let’s not revise history.
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That’s a bit tough Dan! I agree that the AP omission of a mention of RT is poor form.
On your criticism: Larry King did what most people do – follow the money. He was unemployable in the US after his last stint here, yet he was always keen on well paid remuneration. The US obsession on youthful media (especially TV) meant he had no future here at a level to which he accustomed.
You make it sound like he was a propagandist for the Kremlin. In a generic “soft power” sense maybe. But in the work he did – he was like many journalists, using the tools available to him to pursue the work he loved.
I only did that because he was a propagandist for the Kremlin. Check out his interview with Papadopoulos.
I searched the websites of several major news organizations and found the following:
Bloomberg, CBS News, The Hollywood Reporter, The Los Angeles Times, Reuters, USA Today, and Variety all omitted any mention of RT in their Larry King obituaries:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-23/larry-king-program-host-who-interviewed-presidents-dies-at-87
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/larry-king-dies-age-87
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/larry-king-dead-longtime-cnn-host-interviewer-was-87-1014368
https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2021-01-23/larry-king-dead-at-87
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-people-larry-king/larry-king-decades-long-fixture-of-us-tv-interviews-dead-at-87-idUSKBN29S0DI
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2021/01/23/larry-king-cnn-talk-show-legend-dies/331963002
https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/larry-king-dead-1234890748
To their credit, ABC News, NBC News, NPR, and The New York Times, mentioned RT in their Larry King obituaries:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/larry-king-dead-87/story?id=75016310
https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/tv/larry-king-television-radio-journalism-royalty-dies-87-n1050771
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/23/716062722/veteran-broadcaster-larry-king-dies-at-87
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/23/arts/television/larry-king-dead.html