A truly appalling and misguided decision by Bill Shatner to star in a TV show on Russian state-TV channel RT. Hopefully, with some close associates whispering in his ear, he will rapidly reverse course and the space-time continuum will be restored.
Update: In a recent interview with NBC, Bill Shatner addressed a question about Russia Today being a propaganda network by stating: "Is it a propaganda network? I don’t know. Is it any more than the BBC or the CBC or the French network or the Japanese network? I don’t know."
And so the self-compromising begins. The old "I don't know...is it?" trick. No, the BBC and CBC are not propaganda networks; they are public service broadcasters with rigorous mechanisms in place to ensure impartiality and fairness, especially in their news divisions. They are among the most cherished institutions of their kind in the world. Russia Today is a propaganda network, whose sole function is to create a so-called "counter-narrative" to advance the interests of the Putin regime.
It is really very, very sad to hear such words from Bill Shatner. Being "apolitical" is one thing, but this is certainly not that. Regimes hurt people. That's what they have to do to stay in power. Even if Bill Shatner's show is in itself not political, it may serve to draw in viewers, who then absorb the desired "counter-narrative" (i.e. Western democracy is rotten and maybe authoritarianism has a point?) and that will end up hurting people. We're sure that Bill Shatner, all things being equal, would not want to do that.
Note: Information on Japan's public service broadcaster NHK can be found here and information on France's public service broadcaster France Télévisions can be found here.