>> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> tonight, "q&a, " with a television program. then, for the region parliament, a memorial service. .

now it really has become the alonea show and it embodies my passions, the thing that is i really feel deserve to be top news in the world, especially in the u.s., too, because we do focus on domestic politics, on u.s. politics. so the primary goal is to offer an alternative to the main stream media because there's just so much garbage out there that you want somebody who can weed through it who will not go through the basic d.c. back and forth talk that you have about who said what in terms of eric cantor and john boehner. there are larger stories

including the numerous wars our country is involved in, including the economic situation. and people want somebody who is willing to actually talk about that in a big picture to connect the dots. and i'm hoping that i'm providing that for people and especially for a younger audience. i think my show is the new generation of what news is, in the sense that it is not dry, it is not dodgey, it is witty, it is sar castic and so you are entertained but being informed and learning something. you are not being dumbed down the way i think a lot of the other news does. >> where can i see it? >> you can watch on cable in almost every major city in the u.s. i know that we're on cable in new york, d.c., chicago, los angeles, san francisco, and i believe maybe north or south carolina something like 22 million householeholds now within the u.s. can access us on cable. around the world we're on

satellite. you can always watch us on line. we have its own you tube channel. you can go to the are the.com website and we live stream everything. so there are a lot of options. >> how long have you been doing it? >> the show itself or working at rt? >> either one. >> i've been working there for about 2-1/2 years. the show went live i think january 21 of last year. so it's been about a year and a half and prior to that we had a few months where it was experimental. we were taping the show twice a week then three times a week then five days a week and then live every day. >> we have some tape of you on that first show. let's just it's short only 40 seconds. let's watch.

>> welcome to alona show. thess episode one of a brand spanking new experience coming out of washington, d.c. i'm not from here myself. i came out from california to take a fresh glance at the beltway politics to see how things work around here and try to stir it up a little bit because there's so much that goes on that nobody else bothers to share so i'm here to find that and to give you something different. so if you're sick of the same old stories, of dancing around all the real issues, the alona show is the place for you. >> in one of the blogs a couple of months ago you wrote this. so we'll get back into some of the background. >> there are those who can't look past the name and funding of where i work and assume that i'm a russian propagandist who gets my scripts straight from kremlin only after i finish our obligatory morning session of worshiping a bare-chested

picture of putin. >> how often do you get that? and rt used to stand for russia today. how does that network work? >> i can't say that when i was blogging there was guest blogging, the agitator and so that was my little introduction there where i decided to play with it, to make fun of the some of the critique that we get. because yes rt stands for russia today now we just go by rt it's cleaner, more simple, and for me part of that is just being able to laugh at that because i don't feel it's really a valid one. i do believe people are afraid when they see somebody else, and we have seen this from secretary of state hillary clinton who has mentioned rt, we have seen this from the broadcasting board of governors, they see this as a competition and saying we're losing to the russians and they can't believe that it's happening on their own turf here in the u.s. but for me, i'm an american.

so any time i hear that criticism, that i somehow am anti-american and i work for a propaganda machine that works against this government, i have to laugh at it because otherwise it gets my blood boiling because i am an american. i love this country. and i feel that it is my duty as i would go as far as to say my patriotic duty to report what's happening here on the real issues that i feel like our mainstream media is happy to close their ice to, is really happy to try to blind the eyes of the masses as well because i feel that they have become this body that works for the government. they're a lap dog of the government instead of a watch dog of the government these days. so somebody's got to do it and it's embarrassing i think for u.s. media if rt is doing a much better job of exposing some of the corruption and wrong doing that's going on here >> who owns rt? >> rt is publicly funded so it is funded by the russian government. >> why did they do it?

>> you would have to ask them. >> and how did you get involved in it? >> i was in moscow one summer. i have a lot of family that still lives in moscow so i had been working there and had been introduced to rt and at that point was still in college, still thinking of what i might do after i graduate and had always been interested in journalism and decided to intern at the channel and check it out. >> where were you in cleng? >> uc santa cruise. the school in northern california which has a very mellow hippie vibe i guess you could say and which really made me realize that i lived in another world growing up when i came here to washington, d.c. i never knew that i would be such a uber crazy leftie when i came here, i thought that was absolutely normal. at that point i interned at rt, i was really interested in what they were doing but all of

their offices were still in russia and i wasn't prepared to move back there. once i did graduate from the university they had already opened up offices here so i decided to contact them, see if they are interested, if they need people, and from there it just kind of all went the usual route, e-mails, phone calls, interviews and it happened. >> what did you major in? >> in political science, although at santa cruise because they like to be different they call it politics. and i minored in film and digital media. >> you were born in moscow? >> i was born in moscow and moved to the states in four. >> you have a famous mother. >> i do have kind of a famous mother. she is a three-time olympic gold medalist. she was a pairs skater and something that is, bring as lot of joy to my heart of course something that i'm very proud of. but both my parents are incredible people. my mother was a figure skater. she now is actually involved in

politics in russia. she is in the dumba. my father is an entrepreneur. she was a trained architect but has done everything from design to film production. so they are incredibly inspiring people that have helped me every step of the way become who i am. >> so she is a part of russian legislature. >> she is a part of durma. >> how did you goat the states? in what year and why? >> we came in 1990. and my mother at that point was done with figure skating which she was coaching. so we moved to lake arrow head california which is a tiny town in the mountains but where they happen to have an international training center where michelle quan, people like that, skated. carlo fosse coached there so it was a small little nook in southern california where you just had an immense amount of talent. but i think that my father always wanted to move to the

states so that was the decision i didn't have any part of at four but i couldn't be happier that they made it. >> and how would you define your politics? you are an american citizens? >> yes. >> how would you define your politics? >> well, i guess i would call myself liberal. i have absolutely no problem saying that. and i am a registered democrat. i voted democratic in the last election. but the longer identify been here in washington the more disenchanted i am with the political system and with both parties. that's something that we really try to do on the show, too, is step above that fray because i feel like there's such an effort in this country by politicians, by the media as well to convince people that we are so polarized that we are so different that we can never see eye to sigh but there's so much that americans have in common with each other but they are being distract bid wedge issues, things like abortion or gay marriage which both to me

are incredibly important issues but to me the gay marriage and gay rights are like the civil rights fight of my generation i think you could say. so they definitely are important issues. but i think that it's a way to divide people to try to distract them so they don't realize that this is becoming a corporate state. that both parties no longer work for the people but both republicans and democrats are slave to a military industrial complex, they are slave to wall street or corporations that really control everything and have such a strong and very expensive crafts on it. >> if you live in washington, and i do, in this area, you can watch russia today 24 hours a day, seven days a week. is it hard to do a one-hour television show every day? >> it's hard in the sense that there are some days where i

don't want to be on tv. there are some days where you don't feel like going on tv and put on a show for people and it's a lot of stress because no matter what happens you come in that morning and you know that i have to fill an hour of tv and it has to start at 6:00 and there are no ways around it and that's the way touf do a live prom you have to roll with the punches and see what happens. but i really love what i do. i love the team that i work with so we do come in excited every day thinking of what the material is that we are going to put together, what we are going to put out there. and of course always hoping that the people are going to notice because we are doing it better than the other stations out there. >> let's watch you and a little comment on sara palin. >> let's do it. >> now you know what i really love about this? pundits, all talk about how sara palin is such a huge distraction, how she's so unfair. that the real presidential candidates out there have their

stars dimmed by such a money grubbing media who. maybe not those exact words but i will. anyway, the point is that it's the weakest and lamest excuse that i have ever seen. here's an idea. you don't have to cover her if you don't want to and then you can focus on those other supposed real candidates. i know, it's really some ground-breaking logic that i'm bestowing upon you so give it time to think in. but when you wake up from your sara palin wet dream remember there's a recession, high unemployment, a demolished housing market. how about the fact that we're out of money? >> money grubbing media who. >> yeah. >> would you hear that on an american? >> i don't think you would hear it. i tell you where i think you could hear that which is a place where i draw some inspiration from i think john stewart and stephen cobert and i think those are the venues

where people are really flocking to because you want somebody who has an edge to them, to talk about the news. and especially if you're going to make fun of the news and how seriously they try to take themselves then it's fine to be a little crass sometimes. is a tire goes a long way, wit goes a long way. and i especially think that's what younger people want. and because it's no longer, it's not the katie couric, i'm sorry but people like her who get these multi-million dollar contracts to host the news but nobody gathers around the tv to watch the evening news. and it's not my generation. i think you can blame that we have dvr, everybody's lives are more hebtic and you have the internet you can watch whenever it's convenient for you. but i also think people are tired of it. let me go back to a point that i was making earlier there that i do feel that there is this

deliberate effort to dumb television down for the audiences. and i don't think that's what they want. and i think that they want to be spoken to like they are worthy audience, like they're on the same intellectual level as you. and that's why wit and is a tire is funny because they feel like they're being challenged as well as entertained as well as learning something as well as hearing this mind-boggling casey anthony yada yada go on and on. >> tool time. >> mm-hmm. >> what is tool time? and was that your name for it? >> tool time, well, i have to admit i don't know if i'm going to be sued, but i definitely watched what was the show with tim allen when i was a kid? but they had a fake show called tool time he and his partner and so that name just kind of rung a bell when we were trying to think of a segment that we could brand that we could do every single name buzz there

was always going to be someone new that we could make fun of baw of a stance that they took. so tool time has become a treasured favorite i think of the alona show because it's a moment where we get to have fun and there's a lot of people that stick their foot in their mouths and thanks to the fact that everything is recorded these days you can always find a good clip of it. >> how long do you make that snr are you how long is the tool time segment? it varies but maybe between 2-1/2 to four minutes every day. >> here's a minute of one of your tool times. >> ok. >> take a look at this we found today. for all of 2010, members of the house were only in session for 121 days. and the senate? 159 days. that's less than half the year. so far this year, and by the way this year will be the half over by tomorrow, the house has worked 75 days and the senate only 76. so where can i sign up for this job?

you make around $170,000 a year you only have to come to the office half the time. the senate was scheduled to be out of session next week and then go on rekess for an entire month starting august 5. house of representatives has been off eight weeks already this year including this week. did you get eight weeks of vacation so far this year? because i sure didn't. so how is washington supposed to solve any problems when nobody works? that's why we haven't pass add budget in so long. that's why we are giving the 112th congress our tool time award for being absolutely useless. >> some would say that we are better off as a country if they are not in session. >> and they would say that why? because then they're just engaged in too much of politics? >> or spending too much money. >> well, of course spending money is their job and i'm definitely in agreement that congress spends a little too much money. but as long as you're here do

something. the way they're spending money is when they sit around and don't pass any legislation because it's all about grand standing and refusing to compromise and pretending that you have some serious principles an but then you have back-door meetings and make some deals here and there. but then you go back out to the public andre pretend you're standing your ground but you are making a deal that goes against what those principles are. it's so much back and forth and nothing is getting done in this country. again, i feel like a lot of that is an act. and that's when it really becomes a waste of money, it becomes completely unfair to americans because we voted these people into office. we voted for you to represent our interests, and they're not doing that. a, they're not working all that long. and whenever they are home maybe they meet with a few constituents but it's what they do here in washington what really matters because this is where the deals are made, this is where the legislation is made voteded on.

this is the center of power and if they are just sitting around behind closed doors collecting money from lobbyists and making all these back-handed deals but then coming out and giving a lovely speech to the public pretending they are still on their side you've got to call them out for it. >> you said early in our discussion that the show is really for younger people. or at least you think about that. can i guess that you are in your 20? >> i will let you in on more of a secret i'm 25. >> are you the youngest person to do a national television show then? >> i don't even know. i actually never looked into it. have you? >> no. but i was just thinking here trying to think of others. rampe el is only in her early 30s i believe. but i don't know of nebraska that's your age. and you do give your opinions on purpose. that's all part of plan. >> yes it's all part of the plan. i don't pretend that our show is a straight hour of news by any means.

it's a personality cent rick show and it's while i do feel we are reporting on stories what i do offer is analysis so it is my opinion interjected in there and i don't mask that at all. >> go back to where you learned what you think. where did it start for you? when did you get active. >> i think it's something that the developed your whole life. >> but when did it start for you? >> in terms of being politically engaged? >> awar and who influenced you? >> i have to say that i traveled all my life thanks to my family i have seen a lot of the world. and since a very early age. >> give us an idea. >> i maybe visited 20 or so countries when itches younger we were going all over europe. i've been to a million island countries. japan, brazil, argentina. >> because your mom was a

skater? >> both traveling with my mother and traveling with my father who loved to travel and was always trying to open my eyes to the world. and so that i think first just started affecting me. also i studied abroad and lived in barcelona four months, lived in florence for four months. that really starts to hit you when you see a different world out there. when you start talking to people in other countries and you realize their perceptions matter. that you start to think of the way that they really see your country, that the way they see america, the way they see politics in general. and then the entire dynamics of the world. so i think that really wakes you up and makes you start to be curious about it. also, from my generation, i was 14 years old on 9/11. i was in boarding school. and that was a really odd moment for me because even though i wouldn't call myself as someone who had been

sheltered or naive, i didn't know what terrorism was, i had no idea. i didn't know what al qaeda or the taliban were. and suddenly we are fighting wars on behalf of these countries to fight this giant threat. so i had grown up in this society where we're always at war and there's always this supposed fear of terrorism. and i just don't think that it's right. i think that young people need to be shaken out of that because it's not normal to be at constant war. that is not a way to conduct your affairs. that's not a way to try to be a world leader. and i think that there are a lot of people my age that just haven't really known it to be any different. so you need to start realizing that these things can change. that you need to stand up and speak out against it and go out and protest and write your congress members and do whatever it takes. but this can stop. america doesn't have to be on this constant spiral where we are using our counter terrorism

policies and strategies worldwide. >> russia today rt is seen around the world. >> yes. >> is your program? >> yes, it is. >> so in other words when you do your prime live at 6:00, the network around the world runs it? >> my program runs live from 6:00 to 7:00 and we repeat at 10:00 p.m. and it's that 10:00 p.m. repeat that goes live. so, for example, i know that it's on at 7:00 in the morning in moscow because that's where i have some family members. >> what do they do in moscow? do they translate? >> no. it's still in english. the channel is because it's meant for an international audience it is meant for the entire world to see it's in english just the way the bbc or al-jazeera is because that's the dominant language for now. >> where does rt have studios in the world? >> we have a studio here in washington, new york, miami, los angeles, we have our studio in moscow. there are a few small bureaus in georgia, in london we have a

reporter as well. and in ukraine i know that we have a reporter, too. and in india. there might be a few that i'm missing because there are rt spanish and arabic. >> how much reaction do you personally get from doing this show? >> from who? >> just around the world. i mean, how do you know anybody is watching? >> that's a very good question because sometimes you start to wonder. you're wondering how many people are really watching. first, we get a lot of reaction from people on line. a lot of our audience comes from you tube because of the fact that it's broadcast worldwide. and because it's much more convenient. a lot of people do indeed watch on line. on facebook, i get a million messages from people all the time that are from all over the world. and that makes me feel good because in one day i'll get a message from somebody in india and somebody in australia and somebody in london, people

contact us on twitter all the time. so now we have a dialogue going constantly and so we know that there are other people that are clued in that are plugged in to, let's face it, these days you have to constantly be plugged in. you have to be following the news every second because it's developing every second on twitter and you have to be watching and our audience is too because they're always responding to it. >> what about reaction from people that watch it in the washington area? if you're on cable here or you can get it over the air but most people get it on cable. you're on there with nine other international networks, channel 280 all the way up to -- 271. >> we're 274. >> be you get reaction here in town? >> yes. a lot of reaction here in town. >> does anybody complain about your positions on things? >> can you complain? do they? >> yes. >> sure. some people, the whole point is i bring them on my show so they

can complain about my position on things so we can have a good honest debate about it and maybe yell at each other for a few minutes and then see if nebraska anybody wins here. but i think the fact that people want to come on our show is a testament to the fact that they're paying attention, that they're interested. that we have members of congress like dennis kucinich. representative ron paul. that to me is a testament that people in washington are starting to pay attention. hillary clinton has mentioned it the broadcasting board of governors. i think we're definitely on the radar here. >> and you have a fellow on there named tom hartman >> also in the program. >> yes. a american used to be in oregon. >> does she do the show here? >> yes. he does the radio show which amazes me how he fits that into one day but he does a radio show every day and one hour tv show.

>> peter lave el? >> he's in moscow. >> but he's an american? >> peter is an american. i've never met him so i don't know too much about him but he lives in moscow. >> what's the rest of the day on rt? what kind of things can people see? >> it depends. where our bureau is here now in washington, d.c. as we are rt america. so we focus on u.s. politics, on domestic politics and in moscow, that's rt international. and so they switch off because moscow is running 24 hours a day, and our newscast doesn't start here until 4:00 and it runs until 8:30 p.m. at which point after that my show and tom hartman's show repeat. so you can watch us specifically in the evening but at any other time you will see rt international on. >> you're 25 years old and you have now done that. >> don't keep repeating it. come on. >> the reason doy is how did they know? had you done television before this? >> no.

>> how did they know that you could do this? how did they test you? >> that's a good question. i'm very thankful that they decided to test me by giving me a show and putting so much responsibility in my hands and really taking a chance on me. but prior to hosting this show, i had been a correspondent for the channel for a couple of months. i was doing live hits, traveling and doing stories. but also we did a pilot because i think that people saw that maybe itch a little more to offer than just going out and reporting straight stories. because i love the human interaction. i love interviewing people. i also obviously love to speak my mind and get deeper into those issues. so i think that my boss and the superiors in my channel really saw some kind of something in my that they thought maybe people would like, maybe people would relate to and i could carry it.

>> who running the whole she bang out of moscow? >> we have a chief margarita seenen she runs the entire operation here. we also have my boss who runs our editorial side in washington, d.c. i can't say that i have a whole lot of contact. >> a lot of women? >> you see a lot of women. >> a lot of younger people. >> the entire channel has a lot of younger people on it and i think that they're really smart in doing that. i think that they've brought in a lot of people with fresh ideas that like i said i know that my audience isn't all young people. not only directing my show towards the younger audience. i know there's an older audience out there. and you told me yourself that you watch the show. >> i watch it. >> so that's a pleasure too. but i think the whole point is that we're willing to step outside the box. we're willing to try something different, to figure out how to make tv news exciting and entertaining and informative again rather than like i said

the garbage that really is dwindled down tv. >> here's some more of your show. >> welcome to fireside friday's with your host. >> president obama was meeting with world leaders in portugal the u.s. military deploying a company of tanks to marines station ds in northern he will mupped province. these aren't just any tanks. these things are monstrocities. they each weigh 68 tons they're propelled by a jet engine and equipped with 30-year-old precision fire power. so why in a mountainous country like afghanistan would you try to have big tanks? if you list ton military officials they'll tell you that it's simple. awe, shock, and fire power.

all part of the campaign to show how strongly they've been beefing up military operations and i'm talking about very conventional warfare. bomb and kill, shock and awe. forget about hearts and minds. >> you call that segment fireside fridays. what's that about? >> fireside fridays is my chance every friday i'll take something that we may have been reporting throughout the week and maybe i want to wrap up on it or just something where i want to take out a personal moment just between myself and the audience without a guest where i want to highlight an issue that i feel really passionately about and it's supposed to be a little bit more of this warm fuzzy setting, we realize that it's cheesy, we have a fake fireplace but we have fun with it and it's something that i really, i think a lot about every week it's i take my time writing it because it's something that i feel passionately about and the war

in afghanistan, if you watch the program you'll notice it's something that we cover constantly. >> let's do another clip on afghanistan. and you refer to the soviets not wanting there also. >> so just how long will this war last? obama says that he is going to start troop reduction next year. but will we really be able to fulfill that promise? we're about to launch our large defensive this summer. we'll have more than a 100,000 troops in this country which is the largest amount the soviets had and we know they didn't win and now mcchrystal is calling the offensive a process rather than an operation which rightly so recognizes that it's not a quick in and out. but don't you think we should have realized that a lng time ago in terms of this war as a whole? see my question here is very simple. do we have a plab for winning in afghanistan or for getting out safely? or maybe it's time for the white house and the pentagon to realize that this is a lost war and that we need to bring all

the troops home. >> how much of this is dictated to you from moscow? >> none of it. >> how much of this is something that you don't want to say that you're told to say from here from somebody that works at rt? >> none of it. >> so what is -- i mean, what is the purpose from what you know of rt being around the world? what do they want to get out of it? what does the country of russia want to get out of this? >> i can't necessarily answer that question on behalf of the entire country of russia but i do think that there is a vested interest for any country to be able to show that there isn't this -- there doesn't need to be a homjemni when it comes to looking at the world. there's not only a western viewpoint or eastern viewpoint. >> is it like voice of america? >> you could compare it to voice of america. bbc. you can compare it to

al-jazeera english. >> can the voice of america be seen in russia? >> i think so. i'm pretty sure it can but to be honest i don't know because i haven't watched it there. >> how many folks do you need in washington to do the job you're doing? and first on the show and your whole bureau. >> my show wetch about seven people that are full time staff in terms of we come in every morning, we have our editorial meeting, we decide on ourselves that nobody dictates to us. it's very organic process. then we come in, talk about what we saw in the news, what stories we saw on line, we all check our favorite blogs. and then we just decide what we think is going to be good and what's going to round out the show that day. and we also have some great technical crew that starts beefing up the numbers and overall i think there are about 65 to 70 people that work out of the bureau in d.c. and now

which is a big change because when i first started working in rt there were seven of us total. >> and in russia under what umbrella is it? i read somewhere is nove as that the overall umbrella? >> i'm not good with all of those details in terms of what umbrella we're under there and in moscow or in the same building but moscow has a really big operation there. they have, they are probably ten times bigger than here in d.c. >> you said earlier there is a network in russian and in arabic? >> they have rt arabic and rt spanish. >> what languages do you speak? >> i speak english and i speak russian. my spanish used to be good at one point but without practice it really has faded which is embarrassing for me to admit because spanish growing up in california is something i studied in school, it seems natural. i studied in barcelona and i

really took a liking to it. but without practice everything starts to fade. i just think i need to practice again. >> where did you learn your russian? >> i learned my russian not in school. i never studied it because i moved here since i was four. so just conversationly just through speaking with my family. >> and how much time do you spend in russia or have you spend over the years? >> my mother lives there, my brother lives there, my grand mother lives there. so i used to go back probably once or twice a year when i was in school, we have breaks it's a little easier when you have vacations like that. now i haven't been in almost two years unfortunately because i definitely would love to see my brother and my niece and my mother and grand mothser but i find it harder and hard tore do working full time. >> did your brother grow up here? >> my brother was 11 years old when we nufede the states, seven years older than me. and he lived in the u.s. for about ten years and then he

moved back. >> what got your mother interested in bag a part of the legislature? >> you're going to have to ask her that question yourself. because i was surprised i knew my mother as an athlete and one day she told me i'm going into politics. >> what area does she represent? >> siberia. but she lives if you willtime in moscow but she's flying back and forth. >> we do have a clip of you interviewing her. >> in vancouver. >> before we go there, what are the circumstances of this interview? >> the circumstances were about the olympics were going on. my mother was there. and we thought it would be a great opportunity and a fun opportunity and we were granted to be able to fly me out there so interview my mom. >> let's watch. >> ok. >> i am an american citizen i have to tell you that the olympic games do hold a very

special place in my heart because of the person that i'm now joined with sitting next to me. three-time olympic figure skating champion. and also i'm very, very proud to say she is my mother. so thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> so first, i want to get your impression of these winter games here in vancouver so far. >> for me, of course everybody waiting these olympic games. now very good. for russian team is not so good. i think the worst for russian team. and especially in figure skating. >> did you ever know your moth tore be political when she was in sports? >> no. not really. my mother has always been a very opinionated woman. she doesn't hold back when she's got something to say. but i never thought of her as

anybody who was political. i think she's doing a great job from the stories that i hear, from the programs that she develops that will be new teams for children or new sports programs for orphans and i think she is doing a great job. >> i asked you earlier where you think you got your own views. how much did her views impact you when you were growing up? >> i can't say my mother and i spoke a lot about politics growing up. so they will tell you statistically, your views and ideology will resemble that of your parents and i can't say that's true for me with either my mother or my father. my father is more conservative than i am and sometimes we get into our own heated debate. so i think that it was my education, it was the people that i was surrounded with, living in california i think there is a certain mentality to living in that state.

and i think that that really did influence me. >> and uc santa cruise is not a conservative place. >> it is not by any means. >> what's the happy hour segment on the show? >> the happy hour segment is fairly new. i think we've been doing it for a couple of months now. and we decided that it would be fun to round out the show with, there's always certain stories that don't necessarily, they're not worthy of an entire interview or an entire discussion and they may be a little more playful and a little more fun. and there are some people you love talking about that kind of stuff because you think of the stories at the end of the day people go home or not go home from work but they might leave work go to the bar and go to happy hour. what do they want to share with their friends and discuss that does have some political implication in it? and that's where happy hour really was born from. and it's a little fun. it's a little bit of unwinding for me at the end of the show, too, because people always tell

me that maybe i'm a little more serious in the beginning because it will be a topic, something about the war in afghanistan or the new strategy and what the president said that day which i just get so wrapped up in and so it's nice to let loose at the epped of the hour and then have a little fun and laugh about it. >> here's a clip where you're talking about a little bit about glenn beck. >> ok. it's time for happy hour tonight. and joining me this evening is our producer jenie and jp frayer senior communications strategist at new media strategies. you have your own ol live. >> i wanted more. >> right. >> ok. so today, is the end of an era. i couldn't be more sexite but let me show you who i'm talking

about. >> hello america, i'm tv and radio's glenn beck. >> there is a strange alliance between the left and the islamists that we're seeing. i think it's all part of the coming insurrecks. >> progressives want to do in the first place, collapse the system and start all over again. do you know how much money rupert murdock? has all these things going on? do you think he is going to let a guy say a bunch of stuff? put this together. it's completely wrong and stay on the network? >> yeah. that's exactly what i think is he's going to let you go out there, say a bunch of things completely wrong and stay on the network. now we started planning this way back in the nixon days. but are you a's happy to see glenn beck go as i am or are you sad inside? >> glenn beck. >> glenn beck. holds a special place in my heart. >> why is that? because wetch some other clips. >> yes. glenn beck has provided our

show with a lot of material and now i don't even talk about glenn beck any more because not only has his program ended but i feel like his influence has really faded a lot, too. and for a while there glenn beck was booming the, his ratings were high. and any time i watched this man, this is what's wrong to me is this is one factor of what's wrong with u.s. media is there's the fox news model and then there's the everybody else model and what they've managed to do is to whip people up in a frenzy. they work on fear and they work on paranoia and you have a man like glenn beck out there and i do think that people are confused and probably think that he's telling you news when really he's acting like this weird teleevangelist but he's telling you there's a conspir conspiracyy to take this world down whether it be the liberals working with the communists working with the muslim cal fate and he goes on and on and

it's such nonsense and i think he really scares people. he really influenced people for a while and americans believed him and i was here when he had his restoring honor rally on the mall and i had this overwhelming feeling where i was, it almost brought tears to my ice because there were so many people coming here and i couldn't believe that so many people are inspired by this man that just wants to scare them and peddle food shortage kits to them. he's an actor. he's an actor and people believed in what it is that he is trying to sell. and it's ludicrous to me and that's why i think people like glenn beck need to be criticized. >> speaking of actors, let's watch a little bit of you. >> people, we are in trouble. we are in trouble because a big red beast known as china, it's creeping. it's inching towards us. i can feel it in my bones and i can tell you that it doesn't

feel right. no, it doesn't feel right that america's power, our sovereignty is being threatened by the east. by that dragon. that just waiteding to breathe fire on the world as we know it. they say there the people's republic. a people's republic. i think you and i both know that that means they're communist. >> what are you doing there? >> that was last halloween and we decided it's halloween. why not dress up and do the entire show as somebody else. and for a second i think sara palin may have come to mind and then we decided no, it's got to be glenn beck and so that was probably the most exhausting hour of my life i was just telling your staff before i began because it's one thing to go on tv and be myself for every day for an hour. it's another thing to go on tv and act like somebody else. that took a lot of energy i've got to admit. but it was fup to do.

but i didn't even bother revisiting that for the end of glenn beck's reini guess you could say baw i felt like his influence had died down and good. >> here as little bit more of you doing this. >> john is holding a rally this weekend in washington, d.c. i know many people fail to see it for what it really is. i'm here to stand up and tell you my viewers the truth about it. this rally is nothing but a serious ploy to get voters who are too stupid to think for themselves. he wants voters who will hack their way to the booth thinking about all the poor fools you and me that they will be taking advantage of as they keep the democrats in power. they are following the man who is nothing more than a political cartoon. so ben min frankly who actually brought us the very first political cartoon would be leaping if he saw the atrocity on the mall this weekend.

>> why do you think he was so successful? >> glenn beck? >> mm-hmm. >> i think that there is a void right now that needs to be filled when it comes to television news and when it comes to media and information. i think people are still hungry for it. but there obviously are a lot of fears that are easy to play upon the xenophobia when we deal with immigration or of course xenophobia when it comes to islama phobia as well because of 9/11 and the uncertainty with the economy and people want something that they can relate to that they can listen to and i think he pulled the right strings and he learned how to play upon those fears. and that's one model that is successful where as the rest of the media you see that they're struggling. cnn is changing their lineup

and none of that is work forg them. and you have the other networks that are hiring people like katie couric and paying them millions, inspiring other people because of it. . and that is failing for them and that's because there's either a void in the sense that regular mainstream news isn't news any more. you don't learn anything from it. you want to learn something you go on line and you can read the facts, you can read the details. be it on an actual newspaper website or be it on some type of a blog. but other than that it's just boring because it's mindless. so then you have fox news which knows how to whip people up and play upon their emotions and i think that's where my show is trying to really find a new nish for people and that same nish that i said that john stewart andstein cobeert manage to fill for people that they want a logical argument, they don't need to be scared all the time. they know what's going on but they want it to be funny, they want it to be sar castic.

they want you to talk to them about issues that matter to people these days. the cold war is long over. for my generation that doesn't matter. we're not afraid of communism any more. quite the opposite, we're afraid of the fact that we have this massive security state, intelligence state that's growing that we're constantly under surveillance. privacy is something that's incredibly important my generation, for any generation but just as long as we carry on into the future because technology plays such a large role in our lives and i think that's why it's so interesting to watch all the developments and to monitor things like the protect ip act and that's why i go to blogs and speak to people from the cato institute because these are the people that are specializing in that type of privacy security information that is affecting all of us and we just have no idea and i think that some of our alreadies don't know what they're actually write laws about.

i think it's too complex for them to understand which is even scarier. >> you've been very strong about saying you are an american. >> yes. >> and but you work for a russian television network but your mom's in the duma. did she ever americanize when she came here? did she becomes a citizen? >> no. >> how do you as you look back, you know what a lot of the publicity that mr. putin gets in this country that the country is less open than it used to be and all that. how do you track all this? are you first and foremost an american through and through, a believer in american democracy? or do you wish that we did some of the things they did in president busha? >> i'm an american through and through. of course i believe in american democracy. this is the country where i was educated, this is where i grew up, this is what i know. which is why i take such a vested interest in talking about the problems in bringing them up so we can address them and make the country better. and what i do on my show is i

don't criticize the politics of other countries and what might be going on there because i focus on america and russia to me is a place that i have an emotional connection with because that's where i was born, that's where i still have family. but politically, minded, i look at the u.s. and how we interact with the rest of the world. >> i heard you the other night say that the "washington post," oh, how that mighty newspaper has fallen. why did you say that? >> because it has fallen. for starters, the "washington post" and the "new york times" you could say have been considered by many people to be the premier journalistic organizations in this country. but we've seen not only massive laufs and a massive shrinking space especially if you go with the times, but we've also seen the "washington post" be embroiled in the scandal where you figure it's all a

money-making scheme and i can't remember exactly what it was on the cover of the "new york times" but i think it was michelle obama's burger that she ate and how many calories that it had and you've got to be kidding me. that is the top news of the day. and i feel like if you're going to pretend to be the mighty newspaper in this nation, then you had better cover -- i'm happy that these papers worked with the wikileaks now turned against him and keep writing stories based on the information that's been leaked by wikileaks and they play this very cozy game with the government as well where they will withhold information if the president asks them to. i think all of that has to make you start questioning who they're really working for. government watchdog or government lap dog? you can watch everything you do on rt. >> yes. >> meaning that the internet in case people can't see it. but you can also, you have, rt

has an aggressive pitch that they make that they want people in the media to use their stuff. their clips and all. do you find people using it in our media around the country? >> yes. i don't know how aggressive their pitch is when it comes to other people. you hear it on the air. they encourage you to go to their website and use the material. >> because why not? right? why not have as many people put their eyes on it and actually see it and hear it and feel it as possible? >> let me show an rt network promo. it's only 46 seconds to see the kind of thing that they tell you tell their audience every day. >> let's not forget that we had an apartheid regime right here in america. >> i think barack obama is beatable in 2012.

whenever government says they're going to keep you safe, get ready because you're going to lose your freedoms. >> we never sensor your opinions. that's what it said on the screen. >> that's right. i can't tell you i've ever censored an opinion on the show. maybe i've brought a guest on that i'm going to debate and told them to cut the crap but i don't sensor opinions. >> alyona, that spelling, if you were in russia how would that be pronounced? >> alonea. >> and people who speak english can't exactly say it so it's

sort of a pain to my ears when people pronounce it so i have made it silent and that happened when itches a kid. >> i've got a 30 second promo. how does it feel to you? >> now that i feel like i've learned to grow in of how to grow into a personality and how to embrace it, i really love it and i feel confident because i do think that i have something to offer. i think there's a reason that people want to watch the show. but at first, believe me, i was scared. it's a hard thing especially when you're 23 years old to figure out what exactly your personality is that you're going to be puten on tv. >> here's your promo. >> how long did it take you to

do that? >> that was, we had a crew come in from moscow with their special fancy red cam that they had and we really only had a couple of hours i believe because i was also work onth show that day so it didn't take a whole lot of time. but that promo is funny. asking f ask anybody that i work with because i complained all the time. my beef is always that it looks like i just walk in and say let's do the show as if i don't work all day for it. but that's a personal thing. >> where do you think you will be in ten years? >> that's a good question. i don't know. i'm going to see where life takes me, see where i think this career may take me. i wasn't sure for a while whether this was something i

wanted to do or not. i never wanted to be on tv. journalism had interested me when i was younger, i wanted to write, i wanted to travel, i wanted to write about what i saw and because i never watch tv myself either. i never watch tv news. and suddenly when i was thrown into it, i used to think it was so cheesy but now i feel there is this void that we're trying to feel and people can start enjoying tv again if you have something better to offer than what's out there. >> we are out of time. thank you very much. >> thank you for having me on.

>> next, norweigian parliament memorial service for the victims in the shooting spree. then national review editor rich lowrey speaks at the conservative student conference. and at 11:00 another chance to see q&a. tomorrow on "washington journal," financial times u.s. economics editor robin harding looks at the impact of the u.s. credit rating downgrade onation and european markets and how wall street will react. human events editor discusses

the 2012 presidential race and offers a conservative perspective on the debt ceiling and economy. author robin wright talks about her latest book. and we begin a week long look at jobs in america with jane oats labor department assistant secretary of employment and training. she talks about workforce training and government initiative programs. "washington journal" live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. . .