Washington - Former Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson is facing sharp criticism from the media for an interview he conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They dispute his claim that no Western journalists showed interest in interviewing the Kremlin chief. Carlson has also sparked outrage among Russian exiles, He told today server Politico.
Carlson, who is seen as close to former U.S. President Donald Trump and who has questioned Western aid to Russia-attacked Ukraine, on the interview reported on Tuesday. He is the first American anchor to be interviewed by Putin since Russian troops invaded Ukraine two years ago. Carlson visited Moscow at a time when Russian authorities are holding two journalists with U.S. citizenship - Evan Gershkovich and Alsa Kurmasheva - in custody over Western protests. The date of the interview's broadcast is not yet clear.
Carlson admitted there were risks in doing such an interview, but defended his decision: 'It's our job, it's journalism. Our duty is to inform the public."
But his monologue, in which he also criticised the Western media and claimed that the Western press was not trying to listen to Putin's view of the situation, provoked a backlash from both American and Russian journalists.
"Many journalists interviewed Putin, who also makes frequent and frequent speeches," She wrote on the social network X, American journalist and historian Anne Applebaum. "Carlson's interview is different because he is not a journalist, but a propagandist who has helped autocrats cover up corruption in the past," she said.
While Western media have conducted "dozens of interviews" with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to Carlson, "not a single Western journalist has bothered to interview the president of the other country involved in the conflict, Vladimir Putin." "Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine and what his goals are now. They have never heard his voice. That's wrong," the host added.
However, a number of leading journalists disagree with this assertion. "Does Tucker really think we journalists haven't been trying to interview President Putin every day since his invasion of Ukraine?" She wrote Christiane Amanpour, CNN's international bureau chief. "It's absurd - we will continue to ask for interviews, just as we have been doing for years," she said.
So did BBC Russia correspondent Steve Rosenberg He toldthat the station has made several requests to the Kremlin in the last 18 months. "We have always gotten a 'no' answer," Rosenberg wrote.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Kremlin had received several requests from Western journalists for interviews with Putin. However, Moscow considers all the media concerned to be biased in favour of Ukraine. They chose Carlson because his positions are different, Peskov said. The presenter, he said, "is not pro-Russian, he is not pro-Ukrainian, he is pro-American." "He is in stark contrast to the position of the traditional Anglo-Saxon media," he added.
Outrage over Carlson's words is not only expressed by Western, but also by Russian journalists. "Unbelievable! I am among hundreds of Russian journalists who had to go into exile to continue reporting on the Kremlin's war against Ukraine," She wrote Russian journalist Yevgenia Albacova. "The alternative was to go to prison. And now this son of a bitch is teaching us about good journalism while filming from a thousand-dollar Moscow Ritz suite," she added.
Carlson previously published interviews with Argentine President Javier Miley and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which have had hundreds of millions of views. Trump, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the US presidential election this November, has openly said he would be willing to consider Carlson as his vice president.
CTK/gnews.cz-JaV
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