Much-touted interview

Stephen and I started watching the much-touted Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin soon after it was released on Friday night. But it soon became apparent that this was a propaganda exercise. And so we switched it off and instead watched the media analysis of this by various commentators, the next day.

Many a journalist, myself included, has been admonished for allowing an interviewee to take over. When interviewing someone, the journalist is in charge, not the person being questioned. It was clear from the first moments of this interview that Putin was a dominating force and could easily intimidate Carlson. I guess the positive was that the journalist was able to keep the Russian leader talking for the two hours rather than having him storm off the set as some people have done.

Carlson has been criticized for not pulling Putin up on some of his statements, many of which, historians and commentators say, were false. Instead, the leader’s domineering nature, allowed him to spiel on, largely without interruption.

One has to wonder about the reason Putin had for accepting this interview. I did read somewhere where Carlson had stopped criticism of Russia in some of his other interviews, perhaps casting him favourably in Putin’s eyes. Or was it a ploy to get Trump back into power? Criticise the current government, all the while hinting that another leader could negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine. I don’t believe Putin did the interview purely out of the goodness of his heart. There will have to be some motive. Just because someone is given a platform to air their views, it doesn’t make them correct. Maybe that person believes what they are saying, maybe not. But people need to be discerning themselves. There is so much falsehood out there that it is hard to know anymore what is real and what is not. Either way, there is a war going on in Ukraine, innocent people are getting killed. Russia invaded Ukraine, whether Putin’s justification is correct or not. He started this war, he has the power to end it. The slaughtering of innocent people needs to stop. Now.