How desperate must he be to join RT? This is the English-language network that delights in riling Washington by giving a platform to the disparate fringe voices who question the American dream: the angry bloggers, the conspiracy theorists, the dispossessed. It's not what Larry King, or his audience, has been used to.
But for some Americans who are tired of the shallowness and lack of critical voices on many US news networks, RT is offering something different. The Russian outlet will be hoping that Larry King gives it the kind of credibility that Sir David Frost provided to Al Jazeera English, which was once a pariah broadcaster in America. Donald Rumsfeld – who in 2004 described Al Jazeera as "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable" in its coverage of Iraq – laughed with Sir David in a 2011 interview and said of the network: "I am delighted you are doing what you are doing."
