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2 Jun, 2016 15:46

ON CONTACT: PULITZER-WINNING JOURNALIST CHRIS HEDGES LAUNCHES INTERVIEW SHOW ON RT AMERICA

WASHINGTON, DC, JUNE 2, 2016Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges joins the RT America team to host “On Contact”, a weekly interview series that will debut Saturday, June 11. On his show, Hedges will engage “dissident voices” to examine U.S. foreign policy, changing economic realities and the state of civil liberties in American society.

“The absence of dissident voices from the airwaves, including on public broadcasting that was originally designed to allow those not beholden to the power elites to be heard, has turned the media landscape in the United States into an echo chamber for the powerful and the wealthy,” said Hedges. “The constriction of acceptable opinion and debate has eroded the integrity of the press and contributed to the decay of our democracy. This will be a program where dissident voices will not only be amplified, but celebrated.”

He added that the show “will examine the effects of the endless wars, mounting inequality and the steady erosion of our civil liberties, and will give voice to those who offer radical solutions, including those proposed by anti-capitalists, and who have been shut out of the national debate by a corporatized press.”

Hedges is the author of 11 books, including several New York Times best-sellers. He previously spent some 20 years – 15 of them with the New York Times – reporting from Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In 2002 he won the Pulitzer Prize with a team of reporters for his coverage of global terrorism. He has been an outspoken critic of the Iraq War and denounced the media coverage at the time of the military campaign launch as “shameful cheerleading.” Hedges writes a weekly column for the online news magazine Truthdig. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Colgate University and a Master of Divinity from Harvard University.

“Chris and his decades of work are a true embodiment of RT’s motto ‘Question More.’ He is unafraid to be a rare voice of dissent in the American news media, however unpopular his position,” said Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief. “Perhaps if voices like Chris’s weren’t ignored by the political and media establishments 13 years ago, we could have avoided a lot of the travesties plaguing the Middle East today.”

“On Contact” is recorded at RT’s New York bureau. Watch the “On Contact” promo:

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