P Diddy affair exposes America’s need for ‘real journalism’ – Zakharova to RT

The “enormous scandal” around US rapper Sean Combs, also known as P Diddy, has exposed America’s need for “real journalism” and for efforts to fix its domestic affairs rather than global ones, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has told RT in an exclusive interview. 

Combs, the 54-year-old three-time Grammy award winner and prominent hip-hop producer behind the landmark label Bad Boy Records, has been charged with racketeering and sex trafficking, and is facing over 100 additional sexual misconduct allegations, including against minors, dating back to the early 1990s. 

“We’re not just talking about indecent behavior or minor infractions like illegal weapons possession or drug use. We’re not even talking about hypocrisy – like generally being an affront to the ideals they pretended to promote. No, they’re implicated in a system that has been built over decades, coercing people into illegal activities through violence,” Zakharova said. 

She described the alleged sex trafficking ring built by the rapper as effectively “something like a mafia structure that brought together people from show business and from politics and government.”

Instead of “cleaning up their own backyard,” however, the US authorities have long been brushing these incidents under the carpet, Zakharova said. “Instead of fighting against journalism and journalists, they should be falling at journalists’ feet, begging them to do their part and bring these things into the spotlight – despite the fear that pervades American society,” she said. 

The US government right now should be imploring real, traditional journalism to play the role of society’s immune system, to expose and sanitize this mess, to bring to light the information that was suppressed out of fear, because people were afraid they would be killed.

The diplomat suggested that Russophobia and pointing the finger at Russia for all ills have become key tools for obscuring the real problems American society has faced for decades.

“There’s a very convenient system to cover up such crimes that has been established in America. Instead of paying attention to these issues, instead of listening to the barely coded but very obvious messages that many performers were trying to convey while fearing for their lives, US authorities are busy looking for the hand of the Kremlin,” Zakharova said. 

The diplomat urged Washington to leave “global issues” aside for a while, and “redirect all of its resources and all of its pompous exceptionalism towards themselves.” The P Diddy affair must be investigated and resolved through transparent legal means, and prevented from “becoming another [Jeffrey] Epstein case,” she said. 

“Actually go through with the investigation. Don’t just keep mumbling, like they’re doing right now, or beating around the bush, pretending that there’s an investigation underway, acting like nobody had a clue it was happening, but show that now they’re determined to make things right,” Zakharova said.