RT’s female newscasters all look like Ann Coulter’s younger, less attractive sister—or possibly Ann Coulter’s brother in a dress. RT’s male newscasters are… Well, it’s a good thing smell-o-vision hasn’t been invented. These guys emit a strong order of previous unemployment. And I don’t mean Boston Globe buy-out or local TV morning show staff-cut unemployment. I mean fired from the grocery store giveaway.

But I must be missing something. According to Wikipedia RT is “the second most-watched foreign news channel in the United States (after BBC World News)” and “the number one foreign network in five major U.S. urban areas” and “the first television news channel in history to reach 1 billion views on YouTube.”

Perhaps it’s one of those urban hipster things. I live in rural New Hampshire, where we’d watch Russian television like we’d watch Berkeley, California, television. And my hipster credentials expired with The Kingston Trio.