The Ukraine conflict has reshaped the military and economic balance of power around the world but most Americans have no idea because their media has fawned over Vladimir Zelensky and refused to talk to his Russian counterpart, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said on Tuesday.
Carlson, who launched his own network on X (formerly Twitter) in June 2023, posted a short video from Moscow, explaining the logic behind his upcoming interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Most Western media outlets are corrupt and “lie to their readers and viewers,” mainly by omission, Carlson argued. There has been no effort to speak to Putin since the conflict started in 2022, while US outlets have conducted many “fawning pep sessions” posing as interviews with Zelensky, he added.
“That is not journalism. It is government propaganda – propaganda of the ugliest kind, the kind that kills people,” said Carlson.
“Because no one has told them the truth,” most people in English-speaking countries are unaware of “history-altering developments,” according to Carlson.
“That’s wrong. Americans have the right to know all they can about a war they are implicated in,” he added, noting that freedom of speech is the American birthright that can’t be taken away no matter who sits in the White House. Carlson reminded his viewers that the US government spied on his text messages in 2021, when he attempted to interview Putin.
He urged Americans to watch the entire interview on X, which will not be censored or paywalled, and decide for themselves, “like a free citizen, and not a slave.”
Carlson was first spotted in Moscow on Saturday, but has played coy about his plans. Asked about the hysterical calls to have him banned from returning to the US or jailed – advanced by some prominent establishment commentators – he called them “crazy.”
The Kremlin has neither confirmed nor denied any plans to have Putin give an interview to Carlson, telling reporters that any such engagements will be announced in the fullness of time.
Carlson was the highest-rated evening cable show host in the US when he was fired by Fox last April, without explanation. He has since returned as one of the most popular interviewers on X, the formerly censorious platform Musk bought in 2022.