Ex-Fox hack humiliated by world-class propagandist
Guess Tucker Carlson forgot to tan his balls before interviewing Vladimir Putin. The Russian dictator chewed him up and spit him out. It was “a consummation Devoutly to be wished” for the perpetually puzzled former Fox News host. Tucker, was it good for you?
Putin couldn’t care less.
Digby has long said of the American far right, “shamelessness is their superpower.” But how much of their behavior is shamelessness and how much is lack of self-respect? MAGAs less well-heeled than Carlson compensate for their deficits with large-capacity magazines and family-impoverishing personal arsenals. Carlson had his self-respect (in a phrase the right loves to use) “shoved down his throat” by the Russian strong man.
CNN‘s headline seems to summarize the event:
Putin walks away with propaganda victory after Tucker Carlson’s softball interview
Few expected anything ground-breaking to emerge from Tucker Carlson’s sit-down with Vladimir Putin, conducted in Moscow on Tuesday and published on the conservative pundit’s website Thursday. Carlson met those expectations with his softball interview, failing to extract any stirring insights into the Russian president’s actual war aims, or hold him to account for his brutal invasion of Ukraine.
Putin, however, took full advantage of the opportunity to plant seeds of doubt about America’s aid for Ukraine and the U.S. political system.
By the end of the conversation, it was clear that Putin had no intention of ending his brutal war against Ukraine. But Carlson, who was sacked from Fox last year, seemed ready to surrender. Putin offered to keep talking. Carlson, evidently exhausted by the Russian leader’s long-winded conspiracy theories and grievances against the West, thanked him and called it quits — far short of the media coup that he had been touting.
[…]
Carlson spent most of the interview in silence, or looking confounded.
Confounded is a Tucker Carslon trademark like Derek Zoolander’s “Blue Steel.”
He did not ask a single question about Russia’s attacks on civilian areas or critical infrastructure in Ukraine, which have killed thousands. There was no mention of the war crime allegations facing the Russian leader or the forced deportation of Ukrainian children. Absent too were questions on Russia’s sweeping political crackdowns on Putin’s critics or the long jail sentences meted out to ordinary Russians staging antiwar protests.
Watch Tucker Carlson’s Two-Hour Vladimir Putin Interview is how Variety teased the interview in my search results. But why would you? You have too much self-respect for that. Plus, Ron Filipkowski watched so you didn’t have to.
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