A C-SPAN broadcast began airing Russian state-run network RT Thursday without explination.
As first noted by Deadspin editor Timothy Burke, comments being made by Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Maxine Waters suddenly gave way to RT’s reporting at 2:30PM EST.
Here's the moment Russia Today took over the C-SPAN1 feed. Unclear what happened. RT aired for about ten minutes before C-SPAN1 came back. pic.twitter.com/mhWVgCoFxF
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) January 12, 2017
“Here’s the moment Russia Today took over the C-SPAN1 feed,” Burke wrote. “Unclear what happened. RT aired for about ten minutes before C-SPAN1 came back.”
Brandon Richards, a Washington D.C. resident who appears to work for Congressman Brendan Boyle, also claimed to have witnessed the incident.
This truly happened…watched it happen live…whole office was confused. https://t.co/I9Yb5BK4Yj
— Brandon Richards (@Brand0nRichards) January 12, 2017
“This truly happened… watched it happen live… whole office was confused,” Richards said.
Infowars reached out to C-SPAN for comment and was able to confirm the incident took place. In an email to Infowars, C-SPAN stated that “an internal routing issue” could have caused the disruption.
C-SPAN releases statement after Russia Today (RT) began airing on their channel unannounced pic.twitter.com/YesPHUWKZV
— Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) January 12, 2017
“This afternoon the online feed for C-SPAN was briefly interrupted by RT programming. We are currently investigating and troubleshooting the occurrence,” the statement said. “As RT is one of the networks we regularly monitor, we are operating under the assumption that it was an internal routing issue. If that changes we will certainly let you know.”
An RT spokesman speaking with Max Tani, a reporter for Business Insider, denied any involvement and pointed to C-SPAN’s public statement.
“RT in no way has cut into that broadcast; C-SPAN says (statement on Twitter) that it is an internal routing issue. Hope this clears things up,” Anna Belkina told Business Insider.
Russia Today spox to me:"RT in no way has cut into that broadcast; CSpan says (statement on twitter) that it is an internal routing issue"
— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) January 12, 2017
While C-SPAN has thus far blamed the problem on an internal issue, the incident stirred rumors online given current tensions between the U.S. and Russia and RT’s mention in the recent ODNI report on alleged Russian hacking.
Infowars will update this story when new information becomes available.
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