By vladimirfloyd @Adobe Stock
Journalism vs the Truth
Or is Tucker a useful idiot.? The world will have to wait and see if Tucker Carlson “will slobber all over Putin,” reminds Freddy Gray in The Spectator.
The Kremlin Declined to Say
Asked if he was in Moscow to interview Putin, Carlson responded: “We’ll see,” before he smiled.
Go back in history to 1934. William Randolph Hearst, the famous newspaper tycoon, was “rightly” criticized for his favorable view on Nazism. Hearst, who at the time admired Hitler, was taken aback during an interview when Hitler asked Hearst why he was so “misunderstood” in the English-language press. Americans love democracy and distrusted dictatorships, answered Hearst, “to which Hitler answered that he had been democratically elected by a vast majority of Germans.”
After Hearst voiced America’s concerns about a “certain unnamed minority,” Hitler called attention to America’s mistreatment of Native Indian tribes before assuring Hearst that Nazi discrimination was being curtailed.
A Press Stunt for the 3rd Reich
William Randolph Hearst was criticized for his favorable and gullible view of Nazism, continues Freddy Gray in The Spectator. After interviewing Hitler, Hearst was startled to be photographed with various Nazi leaders as part of what was obviously a press stunt for the Third Reich.
But almost nobody at the time would have suggested that interviewing or speaking to Hitler was somehow in itself “evil” — back then people understood that journalism was not about good guys vs bad guys; rather it was about giving readers information and context.
Unlike Hearst, Carlson does not think that his job is to talk to world leaders away from the cameras … to decide what’s best for democracy. He wants to interview Putin because that would be a scoop in and of itself — and since we have no shortage of pundits calling Putin Hitler, he’s interested in how the Russian leader thinks. He’s curious about the truth, in other words, which is what journalism is meant to be about, even if that makes him anathema to most important people.
Recently, Carlson claimed he previously tried to interview the Russian president but was “stopped” by the U.S. government.
Ah, say Carlson’s critics, but he’s a “Russia sympathizer” who will slobber all over Putin.
Well, writes Freddy Gray, “let’s wait and see on that.”
No doubt, unless Carlson calls Putin a murderer to his face and storms out of the interview in disgust, he will be widely branded as a “useful idiot.”
Journalism is about information and context and letting the reader form their own opinion. Here is a speech given by Michael Rectenwald at Hillsdale College in 2021. Rectenwald explained the plans of the UN and the WEF for the “Great Reset.”
