Tucker Carlson’s Putin Interview Wasn’t Journalism. It Was Sycophancy
Margaret Sullivan: The Russian president was waiting for the right stooge. With Carlson, he got just that.
Tucker Carlson released his two-hour interview with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president whose military is deep into its second year of the Ukraine invasion, marking an unprecedented sitdown between an American journalist and adversarial head of state during wartime. The Putin interview in its entirety was offered for free and unedited, Carlson said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been interviewed by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday. It is Putin’s first interview to a Western media figure since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago.
Exclusives
Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said in a video posted to X on Tuesday that he is in Moscow to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin rarely gives interviews, particularly to Western journalists. Carlson, however, is cited frequently on Russian state TV because of his opposition to U.S. support for Ukraine’s war effort, embrace of other Russian-friendly narratives and criticism of President Biden. Carlson said the interview would air “unedited” on his website and on X. He also accused the mainstream media of a pro-Ukraine bias and unwillingness to cover Putin’s point of view.
Putin’s media darlings are promptly melting down as more Russians realize they “don’t understand what they’re doing” in Ukraine.
Some conservatives have echoed the Kremlin’s misleading claims about the war and vice versa, giving each other’s assertions a sheen of credibility.
Tucker Carlson Goes It Alone On Putin
As Vladimir Putin commenced his slow-walking invasion of Ukraine under the guise of recognizing the “independence“ of Donetsk and Luhansk, only one major media commentator provided intellectual cover for the Russian leader’s adventure: Fox News Channel’s preeminent star, Tucker Carlson.
The host on Trump’s favorite cable channel jousted ably with the Russian president — despite the use of interpreters — in an interview airing Monday night. The interview turned heated at points, with Wallace clearly frustrated by Putin’s trademark filibustering and Putin clearly frustrated by a journalist actually challenging him.
A bit of surprising news about the news was announced at the beginning of Thursday’s NBC Nightly News broadcast. In the open, Lester Holt said that fellow NBC Newser Megyn Kelly is on assignment in Moscow, and that she sat down for an exclusive interview with Russian PM Vladimir Putin earlier.
