Even if Tucker Carlson was justified when he announced that he would be in Russia to interview Vladimir Putin, and even falsely claimed to be the only journalist who attempted to interview the Russian president. A predictable wave of anger ensued.
There are many reasons for anger and resentment. Some feared that Mr. Carlson would use the interview to push Mr. Trump’s own claims and agenda. Some were angered by his lie that more professional journalists had not sought to interview Putin. What is more noteworthy is that wall street journal Reporter Evan Gershkovich remains in a Russian prison under the flimsiest of pretexts.
Such resentment was there even before the interview was “broadcast” — since leaving Fox News, Carlson has no TV channel and has instead promoted himself on X (the site formerly known as Twitter). It was even suggested by Guy Verhofstadt: The EU may consider imposing sanctions on Karlsson over this.
The interview was then broadcast, and it quickly became clear that there was something that those covering the dictator knew that Tucker Carlson’s team clearly didn’t.
Dictators don’t have to be funny. When you can force national television to broadcast as many of your speeches as you like and guarantee that you won’t be surprised by tough questions, you start to get bored.
Even a monotonous 2, 3, or 4 hour “speech” doesn’t need to be good if the audience applauds enthusiastically, regardless of the content or the way it is delivered. A dictator is so fond of his own voice and forces his subordinates to show the same level of favoritism that it tends to become completely boring.
At the beginning of a rambling two-hour interview, Mr. Carlson struggled to get more than a dozen words at a time and asked what appeared to be straightforward questions. “Why did you invade Ukraine?”
Without exaggerating, the answer took just over half an hour and was nothing more than a rehash of a bizarre essay Putin published two years ago, but which, like his answer, began in the 9th century. , the following long historical ramblings continue. Why Ukraine was never a country and was always part of Russia.
A feeble attempt to walk back the answer (and the interview) after about 15 minutes led Putin to reprimand Karlsson, saying that while his answer might come across as “boring,” it was very important. He said it was. Clearly upset, Carlson meekly replied, “It’s not boring. I just don’t see how it’s related,” before being subjected to another endless history lesson.
Carlson is usually the king of the room he’s in. He is a very experienced broadcaster and interviewer, able to control and direct the conversation when needed. You wouldn’t have guessed it from this interview, where he was clearly subservient to and intimidated by Putin.
Despite his efforts to appear careful and in control, Carlson’s boredom and frustration were evident on his face. Putin noticed and seemed to enjoy it, but he gave nothing in return. Mr. Carlson tried to press a point that would be beneficial to Mr. Trump and the people of Trumpland, with the hope that if NATO had provoked him into invading Ukraine, his urging would have been ignored. asked.
Although no facts were disputed and no evidence of genocide was presented, Gershkovic’s case was briefly mentioned when Carlson asked if he could be released as a gesture of goodwill. They were simply told that Russia (and by extension Putin)’s goodwill had run out. Mr. Carlson does not speak Russian and has no reporting expertise about the country, making him an ideal foil for the Russian president looking to nail a Western interview.
One of the benevolences President Putin showed Karlsson was that the interview lasted just over two hours. However, it is generally the host who ends the broadcast, not the guest.
There’s no doubt that dictators are boring, but one thing that works in Carlson’s favor is that being boring is acceptable these days. Twitter metrics show you the number of “views” each time a post containing a video appears on someone’s screen, whether it was viewed multiple times by the same person, even for a short time.
That’s why Carlson has already managed to rack up an impressive 123 million views for his interviews, the vast majority of whom watch the Super Bowl more than they watch the Super Bowl, despite the fact that they haven’t seen the interview at all. Many people are watching.
It seems highly unlikely that either Carlson or X owner Elon Musk will release numbers on how many people watched the video in its entirety (or even the total number of minutes watched), but the most enthusiastic Even fans will have a hard time seeing more of it. Few minutes.
No one will recover well from this whole fiasco. Verhofstadt managed to make the EU look foolish by threatening freedom of expression, even though there was no legitimate reason to seek sanctions before broadcasting. Taking action against those interviewed by the US media will provide fodder for Carlson and his mob for years to come.
Carlson looked weak and helpless when he finished the interview, which would obviously sting a man with a strong ego and desire to be on top. Given that Carlson is rumored to be eyeing a position in Trump’s second cabinet (if he gets one), he’s not doing much to advance it — President Putin You are serving your own agenda, not someone else’s.
As for Putin, it’s not very clear what to get out of this interview, other than a little personal validation. This interview will not reach many people outside Russia, nor will it change the minds of those who see it.
Most people who actually watch it find him boring and turn it off right away, but those who tune in halfway through see something more. When Putin rejects or rants against the West, he does so with the same venom that only comes from being ridiculed, in the same way that a man criticizes his ex-lover. do. Like many Russian leaders, Putin clearly wanted the West to see more of him than he actually was. And that vitriol makes it easy to see Putin for what he really is: small, old, and frail.