On Aug 30, 2023, at 9:15 AM, Tom Pauken via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:
Gilbert, I agree with your assessment of both interviews by Tucker Carlson. The Trump interview was among his worst. Tucker never pressed Trump on any of his responses, but just let him ramble on and on. On the other hand, the Orbán interview was very revealing. I am amazed that it has gotten 50 million views. Orbán was very impressive. Tom PaukenSent from my iPadOn Aug 30, 2023, at 7:01 AM, Gilbert Doctorow via Salon <salon@listserve.com> wrote:----Tucker Carlson goes global: dramatic interview in Hungary.
Is Moscow next on his agenda?
Fox News may be regretting its firing of Tucker Carlson several months ago, because the journalist is no longer tethered to the censorship guidelines of corporate paymasters if ever he was. He is very skillfully leveraging his extraordinary audience in the United States, which he largely carried over onto his own Twitter (X) account, into a global presence which serves a focused political agenda: to end U.S. military and financial support for the war in Ukraine and, in the process, to bring down Joe Biden and his corrupt, lying and incompetent administration.
Those who watched Tucker Carlson’s interview with former president Donald Trump last Tuesday, which was intended and largely succeeded in draining audience away from the televised presidential debate of Trump’s fellow Republicans, may, with reason, question my description of Tucker’s on-air achievements of late. The interview was insipid, a bore, filled only with the boastful claims of The Donald to work wonders in bringing America back from the brink of disaster if he wins the 2024 election. But Carlson could extract from Trump no more than the man is willing to give, and that is very little in light of the several legal proceedings that Trump faces.
On the other hand, in Carlson’s European travels his hosts are keen to use their interviews with Carlson to bring their messages directly to a vast American audience that otherwise is inaccessible to them. These messages are deeply critical of leadership in Washington and within the European Union, whom they accuse of wrecking the economy of the Old Continent by their inane sanctions on Russia. At the same time, these hosts allow Carlson to speak to their home audiences and thereby demonstrate to their electorate that not every American has lost his mind or is afraid to speak out against the Biden team.
I direct attention in particular to Carlson’s recently aired interview with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban which has already received 50 million views and is growing by the minute.
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1696643892253466712
In this connection, it is safe to say that Tucker Carlson’s talks and interviews exposing who is to blame for the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war and over the horrific human and material losses of the Ukrainian side thanks to its prolongation under orders from Washington – all of his media activities by far exceed the achievements of the most watched academics and intellectuals including Professors John Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs, not to mention anti-war activists like Scott Ritter and Colonel Macgregor in the military expert category.
The Carlson interview with Viktor Orban covered the waterfront of issues in relations between Hungary and the United States, between Hungary and the European Union. The role of ideological warfare against Orban being pursued by Liberals abroad for his defense of national sovereignty and traditional Christian values centered on the family is explored at length.
I take my hat off to the Hungarian leader for his intellectual strength and courage in going against the prevailing current in the West, all of which is masterfully highlighted by Carlson. Of course, as Orban himself says in the interview “no one is perfect” and his estimation that NATO is far more powerful than Russia in conventional arms appears to be contradicted on the battlefield in Ukraine at the moment. Nonetheless, Orban draws from his observations the compelling argument that the Ukrainians cannot possibly be victorious in this conflict, that it should be ended at once and that a new security architecture for Europe must now be drawn up, one that includes Russia.
Out of the many different points in this interview, today Russian news portals have chosen the following for feature articles: Orban’s assertion that both Serbia and Hungary would consider as a casus belli any attack on the South Stream gas pipeline which supplies Russian gas via the Black Sea and through Turkey to their countries. Orban did not say against whom this warning was made, but in the context of the interview it could be construed to be directed at the United States and/or Ukraine.
See https://life.ru/p/1603956?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium
In general, Tucker Carlson gets a lot of air time on Russian state television. When he was still working at Fox News, excerpts from his daily broadcasts were often put up on the screen in Sixty Minutes, Evening with Vladimir Solovyov, News of the Week and Vesti programs. This past Sunday, on the Solovyov show, editor-in-chief of RT Margarita Simonyan said that Carlson had approached her asking for assistance in arranging an interview with Vladimir Putin. I believe it is highly likely that permission will be granted in the near future. That will be a show well worth watching.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023
Tucker Carlson interview with Orban of August 2021: Hungarian prime minister hits back at Biden calling him a 'thug' on 'Tucker'
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