The US presenter Tucker Carlson, who is loyal to Trump, has been in Moscow for days. Apparently he should be allowed to interview Vladimir Putin. This would be a welcome spectacle for Russia.
“We’ll see,” Tucker Carlson is heard saying in a Moscow hotel. Then he smiles. A Russian journalist apparently approached the American moderator and asked him whether he was really going to interview Putin. This is shown by video recordings of the man who for many years was primarily responsible for bringing Donald Trump’s propaganda to the American people in an unfiltered and unquestioned manner for the conservative US broadcaster Fox News. Including the lie about a stolen presidential election.
Tucker Carlson has been in Moscow for days now. And speculation is growing that the right-wing American moderator will be allowed to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, or perhaps has already done so. By journalistic standards it would be an extremely questionable situation.
Propaganda for Putin
Because when Tucker Carlson was still allowed to comment on world events on the conservative US channel “Fox News”, not only Donald Trump, but also Russia and Ukraine were among his favorite topics. Carlson had his own view of Russia’s attack on the neighboring country, which violated international law. In other words, his view was often strikingly similar to Vladimir Putin’s narrative style.
For example, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is just a puppet of the Americans, NATO and the West. Its purpose: to threaten Russia. In his broadcast, Tucker Carlson repeatedly made use of excerpts from Russian state television controlled by the Kremlin.
Sender had enough
The impression he conveyed was that Russia was simply defending itself against an aggressive West. Carlson generously overlooked the inhumane massacres of the Ukrainian civilian population that Putin was responsible for. At some point, or so it is said behind closed doors in Washington, the powerful former Fox News boss Rupert Murdoch apparently got fed up with it and threw the moderator out.
The electoral lies should not have been the reason for the dismissal. They cost Fox News millions of dollars in a court settlement. The decisive factor is said to have been Carlson’s nefarious Kremlin propaganda. This is probably one reason why the fired moderator still makes similar statements on his own channel on the news service X.
A welcome guest in Russia
This may be the reason why Carlson, unlike other American journalists, seems to be welcome in Russia. Putin has been holding Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, captive for a good year now. The Russian authorities accuse him of espionage, which both the journalist and the US government deny.
The Carlson opinion machine, on the other hand, has enjoyed growing popularity in Russia for many years. He is increasingly quoted and portrayed as an intrepid and courageous journalist from America. No wonder, because he had described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, among other things, as “sweaty and rat-like”, thereby using anti-Semitic stereotypes that the Nazis once used. The Russian war of aggression is actually a “regime change war” waged by the US against Russia, said Carlson.
From the USA to Russian television
Whenever the 54-year-old went on air in America in support of Putin, sequences of his welcome statements ended up on Russian state television shortly afterwards. After he was fired from Fox News, the Russian state media even hit out without hesitation on Tucker Carlson’s side. There were headlines at the time like “Carlson thrown out for his fearless reporting on Ukraine.”
Russian state television, such as the propaganda channel Sputnik, faithfully covers Carlson’s current visit and fuels rumors that the American might actually be able to interview Vladimir Putin. Even a street poll was quickly produced in which Russians appear to be asked about the American and say Carlson is a “courageous journalist.” The survey was apparently translated into English in a flash, which should make it clear to the target group: The West should see that Putin is able to harness the well-known US presenter for his own purposes.
