Star Trek: William Shatner got roped into a geo-political debate because of his new show

Star Trek legend William Shatner got into it with a Russian journalist.

You’d never guess that Star Trek legend William Shatner was 90 years old. Not with the fact that in 2021 alone, he has a new film out, a new television show premiering, and the ability to use modern technology to get into a flame war with Russian journalists. It’s truly incredible and adds credence to the old saying that age is just a number.

Shatner and Russian independent journalist Alexey Kovalev tweeted criticism at Shatner on July 1. The response revolved around Shatner’s new show, I Don’t Understand, being picked up by RT. To be clear, Shatner did not make the show for RT, it was sold to RT after it had been made. Shatner has little say in who bought the show, as Ora Media was the one who sold the distribution rights to RT.

The heart of the William Shatner “controversy”

Kovalev and fellow independent Russian personality Evgeny Feldman got into with Shatner over the show. Kovalev pointed out that RT is a Russain controlled television station, more commonly used to promote pro-Russian news and spin. A lot of their news content is aimed at disrupting or polarizing people in order to ruin their credibility.

They’re arguably the least trusted international news source out there.

Shatner is not an RT employee, however. Shatner had no say in who got the show. Yet, Kovalev expected Shatner to be held responsible for some reason. Then Feldman got involved after Shatner called Kovalev a hypocrite. See, Kovalev sees Shatner’s new show as a way to strengthen RT and there for the Russian government, something Kovalev opposes. Shatner pointed out that despite Kovalev’s issues with the Russian administration, he still lives and contributes to the machine by paying taxes.

Hence Shatner calling him a hypocrite.

This brought in Feldman who really only made things worse by getting into a “nuh-uh/yeah huh” argument with Shatner, that neither man looked good after having.

At the end of the day, Shatner bears little to no responsibility for where his show ends up, and to hold him accountable when a media company made the decision is akin to holding the teacher accountable for the district’s decision to cut funding.

They’re easy targets.

RT is not a good outlet, don’t get that twisted. The issue isn’t whether or not it is. The issue is people blaming Shatner, who had apparently nothing to do with it ending up on RT, instead of the people actually responsible.

For journalists, you need to know who to hold responsible. The biggest name in the room isn’t always the one you should go after.