Last week, Lee Camp, an acerbic left-wing comic, dedicated six minutes of his topical TV show, “Redacted Tonight,” to the discredited conspiracy theory that it wasn’t Russian hackers who leaked emails during the presidential election but Seth Rich, the Democratic National Committee staff member killed in a botched robbery.

Mr. Camp’s tepid take — he doesn’t know the truth, but he’s skeptical — was less revealing than his introduction. “Every day I get an email from at least one person or another who says: Why don’t you talk about Seth Rich?” he said, shouting this demand. “And that spirals into: Lee Camp has been told not to talk about Seth Rich. And that will soon become: Lee Camp has accepted $1 million to not talk about Seth Rich. And then a week from now, The Washington Post will run with: Russia infiltrates comedian, forces him not to talk about secret Russian agent Seth Rich. Russia!”

If Mr. Camp, who is in his mid-30s, sounds a bit defensive, that may be because it’s a challenging time to be a righteous American host of a political comedy show sponsored by the Russian government.

“Redacted Tonight” airs weekly on RT America, the English-language channel financed by Russia that American intelligence agencies have described as the “Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.” The program belongs to the television genre pioneered by “The Daily Show”: A comedic take on the news of the day from an exasperated host and correspondents who mix commentary with jokes.