These are bad examples, especially the last one. Have anything better? Since we are comparing the US and Russia and the twitter post seems to suggest there's a difference, I am wondering why Julian Assange is still in prison...
Putin walks away with propaganda victory after Tucker Carlson’s softball interview https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/08/medi...carlson-interview-reliable-sources/index.html It’s evident now why Vladimir Putin granted an interview to Tucker Carlson. Over the course of the more than two-hour sit-down, the former Fox News host turned online commentator largely refrained from challenging the Russian authoritarian, whose brutal war on Ukraine has led to the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Those expecting a hard-hitting face-off will have surely walked away sorely disappointed by the long-winded and rambling interview, in which Tucker himself at times appeared lost. Instead of pressing Putin on the many topics at hand, including credible accusations Russia has committed war crimes and the imprisonment of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Carlson allowed the autocrat a free lane to manipulate the public and tell his version of history, no matter how deceptive it may have been. At times, between the airing of grievances, Putin appeared to school Carlson on historical events as the host looked on in bewilderment. Or to put it more plainly, Carlson provided Putin a platform to spread his propaganda to a global audience with little to no scrutiny of his claims. “What you see from watching the first 45 minutes of this, is that this is President Putin’s platform,” Clarissa Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, remarked, adding that it was “clear from the very beginning” of the interview that Carlson did “not have control.” In some cases, Carlson even fed into Putin’s narratives. For instance, Putin advanced an absurd deep state-style conspiracy theory that the U.S. government is not controlled by its elected leaders but by unelected powers at the Central Intelligence Agency who direct the president like a puppet from the shadows. “So, twice you’ve described US presidents making decisions and then being undercut by their agency heads,” Carlson said after Putin made the assertion, earnestly summing up the Russian leader’s mendacious narrative. “So it sounds like you’re describing a system that’s not run by the people who are elected, in your telling?” “That’s right, that’s right,” Putin replied. Carlson never followed up to challenge the absurdity. It was a massive propaganda victory for Putin, who can — and will – now twist the encounter for his own ends. If there was any doubt that Putin did not view the sit-down with Carlson as a big win, a glance at how his own state-run media covered the affair should erase it. Immediately after Carlson published the chat online, Putin’s mouthpieces rushed to amplify it. TASS featured the sit-down as the top story on its homepage, amplifying Putin’s claim that Ukraine is an “artificial state” and devoting an entire section of its website to special coverage of the interview. RT, the English-language broadcaster now exiled from much of the Western world, aired significant swaths of the interview on its air. “VLADIMIR PUTIN’S INTERVIEW GAINS OVER 20 MILLION VIEWERS IN FIRST TWO HOURS,” RT boasted in one on-screen graphic. None of this should come as any surprise. While Carlson was once a critic of the Russian government, in recent years he has been far more sympathetic to the Putin-led state, dragging the GOP with him. Carlson’s commentary on Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine has been anything but favorable toward Kiev, with the right-wing extremist even likening Volodymyr Zelensky to vermin last year. Which is precisely why Putin agreed to the interview with Carlson, while actual journalists who would have pressed the Russian leader on a range of critical issues, have been denied access for years. You don’t have to take our word for it, either. Putin’s own spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters this week that Carlson was selected because he “has a position that is different from the rest” of Western media. There was one moment, however, in which Carlson did gently press Putin. At the end of the interview, Carlson asked Putin if he would be “willing to release” Evan Gershkovich, the imprisoned reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Putin declined to release Gershkovich now, to which Carlson said, “He’s a kid, and maybe he was breaking your law in some way, but he’s not a super spy and everybody knows that.” While Carlson did advocate for the immediate release of Gershkovich, his remark did not go over well at The Journal. Ted Mann, a reporter at the newspaper, wrote on X that it was “disgraceful of Carlson to suggest Evan was ‘breaking [their] law.’” “He wasn’t,” Mann added. “Carlson knows that. Evan is a law-abiding, decent reporter being held hostage for geopolitical leverage. He should be released immediately.” The Journal also released a statement following the interview. “Evan is a journalist, and journalism is not a crime. Any portrayal to the contrary is total fiction,” the newspaper said. “Evan was unjustly arrested and has been wrongfully detained by Russia for nearly a year for doing his job, and we continue to demand his immediate release.”
Let's see how Tucker Carson's Interview with Putin went. So basically Putin mocked Tucker throughout the entire interview -- from Tucker's rejection to work for the CIA to everything else. Putin showed up two hours late in the typical political power play to show his dominance before starting off the interview with an endless Russian history lesson (Putin's re-written history) for over half an hour. Everything left Tucker a shrieking mess who could not get a word in edgewise or even ask a question most of the time. That's some fine "journalism", Tucker. Vladimir Putin pulled a classic power move that steamrolled Tucker Carlson https://news.yahoo.com/vladimir-putin-pulled-classic-power-105907060.html Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin opens with bizarre 30-minute lecture A controversial interview between US news anchor Tucker Carlson and Russian President Vladimir Putin, which was broadcast on X, got off to a bizarre start as the dictator rambled on about Russian history https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/tucker-carlsons-interview-vladimir-putin-32083910 Nervous Tucker Carlson 'shrieks' as Vladimir Putin uses key signals to 'freeze' him Body language expert Judi James tells The Mirror.com that Vladimir Putin's face and mannerisms showed he was 'enjoying himself and enjoying the platform' before taking a 'power' stance https://www.themirror.com/news/us-news/nervous-tucker-carlson-shrieks-vladimir-329727 You Must See Tucker Carlson’s Constipated Look When Vladimir Putin Mocks Him https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/must-see-tucker-carlson-constipated-124601568.html
Tucker Carlson: Putin takes charge as TV host gives free rein to Kremlin https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68248740 Vladimir Putin lectured, joked and occasionally snarled - but not at his host. Tucker Carlson laughed, listened - and then listened some more. During the American's much-hyped encounter with the Russian president, his fixed, fascinated expression slipped a few times. Especially when Putin's promise of a 30-second history lesson became a 30-something minute rant. But for the most part, Carlson seemed to lap up what Russia's president was telling him. Putin was fully in charge of this encounter and for large parts of it his interviewer barely got a word in. Instead of pushing the Russian leader - indicted as a suspected war criminal - on his full-scale invasion of Ukraine and challenging his false assertions, Carlson swerved off-piste to talk God and the Russian soul. Journalist Evan Gershkovich The American had touted his sit-down with Putin as a triumph for free speech, asserting that he was heading where no Western news outlets dared to tread. That's untrue. The Kremlin is simply highly selective about who Putin speaks to. It will almost always choose someone who knows neither the country nor the language and so struggles ever to challenge him. Carlson's claim also ignored the fact that Russia's president has spent the past two decades in power systematically stamping out free speech at home. Most recently, he made it a crime to tell the truth about Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Multiple critics - Vladimir Kara-Murza, Ilya Yashin and many more - are in prison right now for doing just that. It was a full two hours into his interview before the former Fox News anchor asked about the US journalist Evan Gershkovich. He was arrested last year in Russia while doing his job and accused of espionage. Carlson suggested Vladimir Putin might release the reporter into his custody, providing a trophy to return with from his trip. What Putin gave was the strongest hint yet of what he wants in return. He talked about a Russian "patriot" who had "eliminated a bandit" in a European capital, seeming to confirm previous reports that Russia is demanding a prisoner swap with Vadim Krasikov. The assassin, a suspected Russian intelligence agent, killed a Chechen separatist in a Berlin park in 2019. Putin claimed negotiations were under way and "an agreement could be reached". We already know those complicated talks are not new, involve three countries and likely at least two American prisoners. Russian history lectures The whole encounter in the Kremlin opened with a history lecture. Putin wrote a long essay before the war that denied Ukraine's existence as a sovereign state. He now appears to have learned it by heart. He delivered his thesis, eyes burning with conviction, as Carlson's own burned with boredom and disbelief. For fans who managed to stay tuned any longer, the reward was a re-run of Putin's top, twisted arguments. He aired his regular grievance about Nato expanding east into what Russia sees as its area of influence. "We never agreed Ukraine could join Nato," as Putin put it. But it's having an aggressive, unpredictable neighbour like Russia that's led Ukraine to seek extra security. Putin has always characterised the mass public protests in Kyiv a decade ago as part of a Western-backed "coup", which they were not. He also called the fighting in the eastern Donbas that Moscow provoked a civil war. It's all part of how Putin justified his full-scale invasion, almost two years ago - along with "de-Nazifying" Ukraine, which he claimed is still a work in progress. Kyiv fiercely disputes every word of it. At one point Putin insisted "relations between the two peoples will be rebuilt. They will heal". But I've met many Ukrainians who spoke Russian before the invasion and often travelled there. After two years of unprovoked fighting and missile attacks, they've switched language in droves and tell me they feel nothing but hatred. It's just one example of how far Vladimir Putin is from actual facts and reality. Just like in February 2022, when he sent Russian troops rolling on Kyiv thinking they'd be greeted as liberators. Ukraine peace chances It seems Putin agreed to this chat from a position of relative strength. The fighting in Ukraine has stalled. Kyiv's allies in the West have been dithering over continued military aid, especially the US. President Zelensky just sacked his commander-in-chief, talking of the need for a reset and renewal in the war effort. The situation is precarious. So there was plenty of swagger from Putin about how Russia is "ready for dialogue" and "willing to negotiate". He wants to capitalise on any hesitancy among Ukraine's supporters and any doubts among Ukrainians themselves about going on fighting. "Sooner or later this will end in agreement," was Putin's message, arguing that Nato was coming to realise that defeating Russia on the battlefield would be impossible. It's all classic Putin and Tucker Carlson let him roll with it. Not all interviews need to be combative. There is merit in letting people speak and reveal themselves. But this one took that concept to the extreme. None of Putin's statements were challenged in essence. None of the actual facts of his all-out invasion were presented to him, including allegations of war crimes in Bucha, Irpin and far beyond. Nor did he have to answer for the "high precision missiles" that slam into homes in Ukraine, killing civilians. The American did not push Putin at all on political repression at home, which includes locking up vocal opponents of the war in jail. Excitement The way Carlson was feted in Moscow was extraordinary. There was breathless coverage of his every move from the same TV hosts who usually rail against the West as a mortal enemy. Like a spurned lover, suddenly given attention, Russia was excited. And it seems Carlson was moved by his experience, too. His interview, which included a question about the supernatural, ended with Putin talking about souls. Both men fell silent for several seconds, before Russia's leader broke the spell. "Shall we end here?" Carlson blinked. "Thank you, Mr President."
Even his own mother did not like Tucker... Did Tucker Carlson's Mom Leave Him $1 in Her Will? https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tucker-carlsons-mom-leave-him-1-in-her-will/ A South Carolina probate court affirmed the validity of a hand-written will from Lisa Lombardi, Tucker Carlson's estranged biological mother, that leaves Carlson and his brother "one dollar each." True