Tucker Carlson Slammed for Ignoring Putin’s Jailing of US Journalists

Tucker Carlson has been criticized online for justifying his planned interview with Vladimir Putin as being in the interests of media freedom while the Russian president’s government has aggressively enforced a ban on protests, clamped down on the press and jailed journalists.

Carlson has been accused of defending Putin’s leadership and invasion of Ukraine, for which he has been praised by Kremlin propagandists. The watchdog Media Matters for America said in a statement to Newsweek on Tuesday that he has made his support for Putin and other authoritarian leaders a mainstay of his commentary.

“The host’s anti-Ukraine talking points have even been celebrated by and circulated in Russian state media,” Media Matters said.

After speculation following the former Fox News anchor’s appearances in the Russian capital, Carlson posted a video on X in which he confirmed he would speak with the Russian leader and gave as one of his reasons: “We’re in journalism, our duty is to inform people.”

Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 6, 2024, and Tucker Carlson on November 20, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Carlson has said he will interview the Russian president during his visit to the Russian capital…. Vladimir Putin in Moscow on February 6, 2024, and Tucker Carlson on November 20, 2023, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Carlson has said he will interview the Russian president during his visit to the Russian capital. More Getty Images

Carlson said that two years into the war in Ukraine started by Putin, “most Americans are not informed,” but that “they should know because they are paying for in ways they might not yet fully perceive.”

He said “corrupt” media “lie to their readers and viewers,” and compared how U.S. news outlets conducted numerous interviews with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that are “fawning pep sessions” designed to amplify Kyiv’s demands the U.S. enter the war more deeply.

“That is not journalism, that is government propaganda,” Carlson said. “Not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict, Vladimir Putin,” and that for Americans, “freedom of speech is our birthright, we were born to say what we believe.”

Since Putin invaded, independent media outlets in Russia have been forced to close and journalists have left the country. Even describing the conflict as a war instead of the Kremlin-approved term “special military operation” can result in a lengthy jail term—points not lost among social media users.

“Unbelievable! I am like hundreds of Russian journalists who have had to go into exile to keep reporting about the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine,” journalist and political scientist Yevgenia Albats said on X. “The alternative was to go to jail. And now this SoB is teaching us about good journalism, shooting from the $1,000 Ritz suite in Moscow.”

The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 and became the first American journalist since the Cold War to be charged with espionage in Russia, where he languishes in jail.

Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Alsu Kurmasheva was arrested in Kazan on October 18, 2023, and charged with failure to register as a foreign agent.

Financial Times correspondent Max Seddon referred to their cases in a post on X. “Quite something to complain about how not enough American journalists are reporting on the Russian side of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine when two of them— Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva—are *in jail right now* for doing just that.”

Investigative journalist David Cay Johnson posted, “Tucker— a useful idiot in Kremlin speak—meant to say: I’m happily letting a murderous dictator use me as his propaganda tool – while real American journalist Evan Gershkovich…languishes in prison – because I’m desperate for attention, a coward and a stooge.”

Human rights lecturer Sophie Fullerton posted: “As Carlson gets celebrity treatment in Moscow, Russia just extended the detention of American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva & Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

“Those defending Carlson should reflect on why Carlson is getting unfettered access while others get detained.”

Newsweek has contacted the Tucker Carlson Network for comment.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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