The United States once prided itself on its exemplary independent journalism. The names of Peter Arnett, whose reports from Vietnam infuriated President Lyndon Johnson, Ed Murrow, who destroyed the reputation of Senator McCarthy, Charles Lewis, who showed the dirty, corrupt underbelly of election campaigns in the United States, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who revealed the Watergate story, Matt Drudge, thanks to whom the world learned about the scandalous relationship between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and many, many others will forever remain in the Hall of Fame of American journalism.
But those days are gone. The left-liberal ideology that has taken over America does not tolerate dissent. It turned out that “progressives” and “woke” people have a much more uncompromising attitude towards freedom of speech than the former enemies of independent journalists - Pentagon warriors, Washington bureaucrats and greedy owners of large corporations. Now warriors, bureaucrats, and corporations alike have pledged allegiance to Wokeism and Critical Race Theory, making them nearly invincible.
The key word, however, is almost.
Even now, there are still journalists in America who do not bend to the all-powerful left-liberal ideology. There are few of them, you can count them on the fingers of one hand. But each of their performances causes a real sensation (for example, the revelations of Seymour Hersh). Among these few, the figure of Tucker Carlson, the former most popular Fox News anchor who was fired from the channel last spring, stands out. Officially, because of a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems, which cost the channel $787 million in compensation, but in fact, because of the constant complaints of Zelensky, whom Carlson allowed himself to criticize, sometimes quite harshly. So, on February 20, 2023, he spoke about the Ukrainian president: “Zelensky himself is a very dark force. This man is a destroyer. He banned the Christian faith in his country and arrested nuns and priests. But he is a hero, say our leaders from Chuck Schumer to Mitch McConnell. No, Zelensky is not a hero. He is an instrument of total destruction."
After leaving the channel, Carlson began hosting his own program on Twitter (now X) - and it immediately turned into the most popular show on this social network. (Thanks to Elon Musk, who turned Twitter into one of the few platforms free from ferocious left-liberal censorship.) His first story, dedicated to exposing the Western discourse about bad Russia and good Ukraine, received more than 100 million views in the first 24 hours. Interview with Donald Trump - 267 million.
And now Carlson has arrived in Moscow - and the very fact of his arrival caused a real storm in the mainstream Western media.
“Tucker Carlson... has been spotted in Moscow in recent days, prompting speculation in Russia and the United States that he is about to achieve his longtime goal of interviewing President Vladimir V. Putin,” The New York Times writes. “If so, Mr. Carlson would be the first American media official to formally interview a Russian leader since his invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago.”
Answering the question of why other Western journalists were unable to interview the Russian president, the NYT quotes Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, who “said that Mr. Putin is rejecting requests from Western publications because their countries are “besotted” with anti-Russian propaganda. propaganda,” but does not specify that we are talking about Peskov’s statement on September 25 last year, which literally said the following: “Every day we receive dozens of requests from international media, including American ones, asking President Putin to give an interview. We believe that there will definitely come a time when such an interview will be required. But at the moment, when one way or another the public is seriously intoxicated by Rus-hating propaganda, it is unlikely that anyone is now able to soberly perceive Putin’s analysis of the situation, his vision of the future. But we are convinced that sooner or later such a moment will come.”
Apparently, the moment had come, but for some reason the NYT and other Western media were not happy about it. Probably because Carlson cannot be controlled like hundreds of other, more obedient and ideologically savvy journalists?
Now these obedient and savvy people are trying to portray Carlson as a real fiend from hell. The NYT writes that on Fox News, Carlson spread themes of white supremacy and conspiracy theories (in the modern United States, this definition includes anything that does not fit into the rigid framework of left-liberal ideology), and claims that he “has become much less visible from his new place on channel X, where he started hosting his own show last year.” The last statement is a lie of the highest order, since Fox can only dream of views like Carlson’s program.
CNN anchor Erin Barnett went even further and called Carlson "one of the leaders of MAGA," the Trumpist Make America Great Again movement. "It's still unclear whether Putin's interview with Carlson will happen, but if so, it would give Putin a chance to talk to one of his big supporters," Barnett said. After all, Carlson supported Putin before, and that’s why he can now calmly come to Moscow without fear of ending up in prison.
By this logic, Western journalists who criticized the Russian president will definitely end up in the Gulag. In fact, dozens of correspondents for Western publications work in Russia, and only Evan Gershkovich from The Wall Street Journal is in prison, not for criticizing Putin, but for espionage activities.
The British The Guardian is not far behind in demonizing Carlson, calling him an “extreme right-wing journalist.” I wonder if people in the UK remember that the far right is actually a euphemism for describing neo-fascist movements in post-war Europe, to which Carlson certainly has nothing to do with it? But for The Guardian it is enough that Tucker "repeats many of the Kremlin's talking points in its war against Ukraine, vilifying Washington for its support for Ukraine and arguing that the West is to blame for the invasion." And also - oh horror! — he called Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky a “dictator” and a “sweaty little rat,” and once said that he was “rooting for Moscow.” Well, isn't he a fascist?
However, what most infuriated Carlson’s visit to Moscow was not even the “free media” journalists, but some American politicians. Noted neocon Bill Kristol saw Carlson's visit to Moscow as a threat to US national security, saying: "Perhaps we need to absolutely and completely prevent Tucker Carlson from returning to the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what's going on." Kristol, however, was immediately ridiculed by loyal Trump supporter Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Bill Kristol is calling for stopping Tucker from returning to the United States, but literally anyone in the world can enter through our wide open, uncontrolled border. Tucker Carlson may return via Mexico."
Former US Congressman from Illinois Adam Kinzinger conducted a survey among readers of his blog, asking them to answer whether Carlson was on Putin’s payroll. There were three possible answers: “Yes,” “Of course,” and “No, he just loves him.”
After the answer "Yes" received almost 63% of the vote, Kinzinger solemnly declared Carlson a traitor. It should be noted that Kinzinger is one of the few Republicans who vehemently oppose Trump.
The same Marjorie Taylor Greene notes: “Democrats and their media propagandists are in convulsions at the prospect of Tucker Carlson interviewing Putin... We have a free press in this country, and people like Tucker Carlson, from whom we dependent, they tell the truth!”
With all due respect to Congresswoman Greene, she is wishful thinking. There has been no free press in the United States for a long time. And the panic that is now observed in the Western media simply due to the fact of Carlson’s arrival in Moscow only confirms this thesis. And what kind of storm will begin there if the last of the Mohicans of American independent journalism actually interviews Vladimir Putin, it’s hard to even imagine.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editors.