In the wake of last week's on-air resignation of Russia Today (RT) anchor Liz Wahl over the Russian government's actions in the Ukraine, Thom Hartmann announced on his RT program today that he is editorially independent and "we value the relationships" with organizations like RT.

"I own my own show," Hartmann said in an apparently prerecorded segment at the beginning of today's episode of "The Big Picture". Referring to "the drama at RT," he said, "it seems important to clarify my status and position." He claimed that he has "total editorial independence" and "nobody at RT has ever in any way tried to influence our content."

Wahl charged RT with exerting strong if indirect control over the content on the cable news channel, which is widely regarded as pro-Putin. “In order to succeed there you don’t question," Wahl said. "In a way you kind of suppress any concerns that you have and play the game.” Wahl also made her feelings clear. “It actually makes me feel sick that I worked there,” she said. “It’s not a sound news organization, not when your agenda is making America look bad,” Wahl said, adding that RT fools "hipster generation" Americans into believing Kremlin propaganda.

Hartmann did not address the crisis in Ukraine on his television program, but during his radio program earlier in the day he discussed the situation with Stephen Cohen, who has written recent pieces in The Nation magazine entitled "Demonizing Putin" and "Distorting Russia." During the interview, Hartmann and Cohen accepted as fact the conspiracy theory thatsnipers on the side of the new anti-Russia government fired on their own side in the main square in Kiev so that the now-ousted president Viktor Yanukovych would be blamed.