JUST A SIMPLE MAN FROM THE HEARTLAND WHO LOVES FREE SPEECH (INCLUDING RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA)

The Associated Press reports on the owner of a radio station near Kansas City who proudly broadcasts Russian state propaganda:

A man who runs a little-known, low-budget radio station in suburban Kansas City says he is standing up for free speech and alternative viewpoints when he airs Russian state-sponsored programming in the midst of the Ukrainian war.

Radio Sputnik, funded by the Russian government, pays broadcast companies in the U.S. to air its programs. Only two do so: One is Peter Schartel's company in Liberty, Missouri, and one is in Washington, D.C.

Schartel started airing the Russian programming in January 2020, but criticism intensified after Russia invaded Ukraine in February. Schartel said people accuse him and his wife of being traitors to the U.S. and occasionally issue threats. Some critics say he is promoting propaganda and misinformation, but Schartel maintains most people who call to complain haven't listened to the program.

“Some will talk to me, but others will still call me a piece of whatever," he said. "What I am thankful for is we are still living in a country where they can call me up. Even if they aren’t thinking about free speech they’re exercising that right.”

Schartel broadcasts Radio Sputink six hours a day, for a fairly small fee:

Schartel's Alpine Broadcasting Corp. is paid $5,000 a month to air Radio Sputnik in two three-hour blocks each day, according to a U.S. Justice Department Foreign Agent Registration Act filing in December 2021.

AP implies that Schartel's station doesn't have a political leaning and broadcasts a wide range of opinions:

KCXL's other programming includes shows that are heavily religious, offer opinions across the political spectrum and promote conspiracy theories. One program, TruNews, has been criticized by the Anti-Defamation League for spreading antisemitic, Islamaphobic and anti-LGBTQ messages.

"Across the political spectrum"? Really? Here's the list of shows on KCXL. Apart from Radio Sputnik and a number of religious broadcasts, I'm struggling to find even one show that's on the left. TruNews is singled out as if it's the only show on the station where you might find bigotry. It's certainly one possible source of bigotry on the station -- and also another potential source of pro-Russian propaganda. The March 18 broadcast is posted on the TruNews site under the headline

MAKE RUSSIA GREAT: 203,000 RUSSIAN PATRIOTS RALLY TO SUPPORT BIBLE-QUOTING PUTIN

In addition, KCXL broadcasts Alex Jones every Thursday morning at 11:00. And every weeknight at 10:00, the station features Jeff Rense, who's mostly focused on crackpottery (Wikipedia says, "Rense's radio program and website propagate conspiracy theories, including those of 9/11 conspiracists, ufologists and advocates of the paranormal, the creation of diseases, chemtrails, evidence of advanced ancient technology, emergent energy technologies, and alternative medicine") but has also given airtime to the likes of David Duke and Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel. Rense said of Duke,

[Your videos] are without question the most brilliantly conceived and executed videos I have ever some across exposing the truth of Zionism as racism and the tribal effort to continue to subjugate and crush the western world....

On Mondays at 2:00 P.M., KCXL airs On the Right Side Radio. Here's a summary of the most recent show:

March 25, 2022 The History of Mind Control–And The Rest Of The Story...More Election Fraud–Pennsylvania...The Bidens–Limpet Mine Attached To the Ship Of American Foreign Policy...The Real Inflation/Unemployment Stats...Biden Admits “New World Order”

On the show's website, there's this:

Ukraine-The Matrix Mirage

* U.S. “Bioweapon” PROOF? – Investigators Found Something...

* China Backs Russian Reports Suggesting Bioweapons Found

* Stop Me If This Sounds Familiar, Victoria Nuland Admits The US Funded Biolabs In Ukraine

* **BREAKING VIDEO** Russia Tells the US “We Have Found Your Biological Weapons” (VIDEO)

(I'll spare you the links, which go to pages at a site called Just Patriots, as well as Gateway Pundit.)

Oh, and KCXL used to retransmit this guy:

Steve West, a Kansas City-based engineer, won the Republican primary for a seat in the Missouri House of Representatives this week by trumpeting “old American” values. On his campaign website, he mentions the home repair company he runs with his son, his Clay County roots, and his belief that pornography should be “strickly regulated.”

What West neglects to mention are his forays into alternative media, where he has made all sorts of racist and anti-Semitic claims. On his weekly local radio show last year, for example, he said, “Hitler was right about what was taking place in Germany. And who was behind it.”

... [A] website [run by West] includes a 2,181-word, single-spaced rant against “Moslems,” whom he equates with Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. “Today in this country there are multiple mosques in every city,” he writes. “They are the equivalent of KKK temples or Nazi party headquarters.”

Our pal Pete Schartel was cool with this:

Pete Schartel, president of the radio station KCXL, which hosts West’s show, said in an email, “The comments on Steve West’s program are entirely his own and most are not shared by me. They are definitely a test of my moral resolve to always champion free speech. I do respect that he is willing to help this station survive by paying for his airtime and respect our listeners enough to trust that they will listen beyond the sometimes inflammatory nature of his comments in their own quest for knowledge.”

So how did Schartel start broadcasting Radio Sputnik? KCUR, the NPR affiliate in Kansas City, told the story in 2020:

The man responsible for broadcasting Russian state programming in the Kansas City area says he always dreamed of owning a radio station.

Today he owns two, plus a small fleet of radio transmitters across the Kansas City metro.

But money remains tight, he laid off his staff years ago and the stations sell airtime to local residents and religious organizations at cut-rate prices. He hasn’t given himself a paycheck in months.

So Pete Schartel’s ears perked up a while back when he heard that Radio Sputnik pays $30,000 a month to broadcast its programming in Washington, D.C.

“I’m going, ‘Oh my Lord, that’s twice what my whole budget is,’” he told KCUR in a two-hour interview at his flagship station, KCXL, last week. “They must have some money. Let’s investigate this.”

Schartel found Arnold Ferolito, the broker who negotiated the 2017 deal to broadcast Russian programming 24 hours a day in Washington, and made his pitch: “We’re right in the middle of the country. This would be a good test market.”

Ferolito agreed. Late last year, Schartel began broadcasting Radio Sputnik....

The original deal was negotiated in ... 2017? Remind me again: Who was inaugurated president in January of that year?

In fact, a recent Daily Mail story about Ferolito describes him as "Donald Trump Jr.'s Florida neighbor."

Businessman Arnold Ferolito, 79, has been pocketing money from the Russian government to broadcast Radio Sputnik from his family home, located in an exclusive Jupiter, Florida development whose residents include Donald Trump Jr. and fiancée Kimberly Guilfoyle.

Filings made under the Foreign Agents Registration Act show Ferolito was hired in 2017 by the 'Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency', a media group owned and operated by the Russian government, to air Radio Sputnik....

And Pete Schartel thought it was a swell idea to get on board.

No one needs to give platforms to these people in the name of free speech. The Internet exists for the racists and crackpots (and the racist crackpots) to broadcast what they please; the Russians have Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard, Glenn Greenwald, and plenty of other American messengers. I don't see Schartel looking left for radical, unpopular speech -- does he not believe that's silenced? But of course he probably doesn't. He probably thinks the three major networks and CNN and The New York Times represent the voice of the "radical left." Why wouldn't he? Every GOP politician and Fox host says that's what they are.

I don't want any of the people on Schartel's station silenced by law, but there's nothing noble about putting any of them on the air.