Tucker Carlson Need Not Parrot Putin’s Lies: Washington Post

Speaking from atop a Moscow high-rise, Tucker Carlson hyped his decision to travel to Russia to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin as an act of journalistic duty and personal bravery.

Carlson complained that Western media outlets were lying to their readers by omission about the war in Ukraine. I Photo: Gage Skidmore Flickr

In a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday, the former Fox News host complained that Western media outlets were lying to their readers by omission about the war in Ukraine.

“Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin,” Tucker Carlson said after conducting an interview with Vladimir Putin.

“Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. They’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong.”

He claimed that Western media outlets were lying to their readers by omitting information about the war in Ukraine, as Adam Taylor and Sammy Westfall wrote for The Washington Post.

“It was Carlson who was misleading his viewers. The Russian president has had no shortage of opportunities to speak his mind about why he decided to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Indeed, he has repeatedly offered detailed explanations for this mystifying decision. If Carlson hasn’t heard them before, it’s because he has not been listening,” they added.

The Kremlin itself later rebutted Carlson’s claim. “Mr. Carlson is wrong,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. “We receive many requests for interviews with the president.”

Why would Putin talk to a foreign journalist? The Russian president is backed by a state-funded media empire, which includes the English-language Russia Today, and other friendly outlets.

He is well-known for his lengthy question-and-answer sessions: The most recent lasted more than four hours and included queries from foreign journalists. Putin said there had been no changes in Russia’s war aims: “denazification, demilitarization and a neutral status for Ukraine.”

He said problems with Kyiv began with a “state coup” in 2014 against the pro-Moscow politician Viktor Yanukovych and justified the seizure of Crimea by saying it was “historical nonsense” that it was ever a part of Ukraine.

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