Tucker Carlson is in Russia to meet Putin. He is already wishing the Kremlin (Analysis)

(CNN) — Tucker Carlson’s interview with Vladimir Putin hasn’t been posted online yet, but he’s already doing the Russian authoritarian leader’s bidding.

In a video posted on Inauthentic, defamed the press.

The far-right radical, who has praised autocrats in recent years, said the Anglo-Saxon media was “corrupt” and “lying” to its audience by spreading “the worst kind of propaganda”. (Too much projection?)

In an alleged example of manipulative media behavior, Carlson accused reporters of engaging in “sycophantic pep sessions” while interviewing Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom the former Fox News host said he would seriously like to sit down, but who he once told his compared with a rat

“At the same time our politicians and media are doing this, promoting a foreign leader as if he were a new consumer brand,” Carlson said, adding, “Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of another country. In this conflict Incorporated: Vladimir Putin”

While technically correct, Carlson is lying by omission, the same thing he accused the Western press of doing in a video he posted online. It is true that no Western journalist has interviewed Putin since the start of the war, but it is not for lack of trying. The reason is very simple: Putin has refused to be admitted, a fact that should make it even clearer why Carlson, of all people, has been welcomed into the Kremlin palace while others have been denied.

“Does Tucker really think that we journalists haven’t tried to interview President Putin every day since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine?” CNN’s Christian Amanpour eloquently commented on Carlson’s statement. “It’s absurd: we will continue to ask for interviews, as we have done for years.”

Putin’s own spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, also said that Carlson was completely wrong about this.

Asked on Wednesday whether any Western journalists had tried to interview Putin, Peskov said: “No, Mr. Carlson is wrong. Actually, he doesn’t know. We get a lot of requests for an interview with the president.” Peskov hinted at the reason for Karlsson’s selection, saying that his “position is different from the rest” of the Western media.

Meanwhile, as Carlson indicated that American news organizations are not interested in telling the Russian story, The Wall Street Journal’s Ivan Gershkovich is in jail for doing so.

Not only has Putin refused to participate in interviews with the free press, but over the past two years he has waged a war on the media, locking up journalists, fining and forcing major tech companies to host “false” information about invaded Ukraine. is Censorship laws that stifle news organizations.

“It’s very surprising to see Carlson justifying his interview with Putin and his trip to Russia as journalistic work, at a time when Western journalists are in jail for doing nothing wrong other than trying to do independent reporting in Putin’s Russia. Trying to continue their work in jail or Not to mention the many Russian journalists who face deportation,” Susan Glasser, a writer for The New Yorker who previously served as a co-author, told CNN. Moscow bureau chief for The Washington Post.

“Real journalism, unfortunately, is a crime in Putin’s Russia,” Glasser added. “Will your reporting from there recognize this?”

CNN asked Carlson on Tuesday why he defamed the press by falsely claiming that reporters were not interested in interviewing Putin or reporting on Russia. CNN also asked him if he had questioned Putin about Gershkovich’s imprisonment during the interview. The message went unanswered.

Carlson claims to be in favor of fearless journalism. And he claims to oppose the incumbent. But the right-wing personality has a long history of giving a free pass to those who share his politics, while revolving around Donald Trump (for whom he privately harbors a deep disdain).

In recent years, he has given flattering interviews to Hungarian dictator Viktor Orbán and far-right Argentine President Javier Milli, giving them a larger stage to push his agenda, and using his platform to push American.

In other words, don’t hold your breath if you think Karlsson will put Putin on the spot. What’s most likely to happen: Carlson will humanize the brutal Russian autocrat (who is personally responsible for countless deaths) while serving as an empty vessel in which Putin can deliver his dangerous propaganda to the American public.

Carlson’s pilgrimage to Moscow is already a major victory for Putin, whose state media has relentlessly promoted the trip in recent days, tracking Carlson’s every move as he sits in a Moscow theater watching ballet, eating lunch at a fancy restaurant and accessing “free, fast Wi-Fi internet.” “

Steven Pfeffer, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and a former Foreign Service official who focused on relations with the former Soviet Union during his State Department career, said Putin used Carlson’s visit and interview to claim that “Russia is not politically isolated.” will do for

“It’s unfortunate that an American commentator, who is unlikely to raise challenging questions, is giving Putin an outlet for his propaganda issues,” Pfeffer told CNN. “You have to keep in mind that Putin wants to increase division and division in the United States as much as possible.”

That may be a goal that both Putin and Carlson share.

— Anna Chernova contributed to this analysis.