US moderator Tucker Carlson: Putin plagiarism with top ratings

What Russian propaganda spreads around the world has a prominent echo chamber on US TV: “Fox News” host Carlson spreads conspiracy theories every evening – including against US allies.

The Ukraine war was less than 24 hours old when “Fox News” star presenter Tucker Carlson grumbled about the government of Volodymyr Zelenskyj: “What principles are we defending here? We are defending a regime that arrests its political opponents and opposition ones Media shut down. What’s at stake aside from a reward for the Biden family?”

A day before the Russian attack, Carlson had claimed that Ukraine was not a democracy. The country is controlled by the US Department of State.

Evening odds king

With his nightly show on the Fox News TV station, the 52-year-old Californian is the ratings king. On average, three million Americans tune in every evening. The hour-long show – 8 p.m. Eastern Time – is the most successful television program among American news networks.

The anti-mainstream course, the radical statements, always brushed on verbal riots, bring in advertisers and kindle a campfire for right-wing America. For years, Carlson has regularly defended Russian ruler Vladimir Putin – and is always in line with ex-US President Donald Trump.

He had repeatedly spoken of how “great” it was if one understood each other with Russia. Carlson’s show has now become one of the central organs of right-wing conspiracy myths in the United States.

Cross-fertilization

Russian propaganda and “Fox News” have been fertilizing each other here for weeks. For example, on March 6, Carlson aired a statement from the Russian Ministry of Defense. Tenor: Ukraine is running military bioweapons laboratories with US support. “Our government has been funding laboratories in Ukraine that work on biological weapons, among other things, for years,” he claims. “It’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s true.”

While US Internet companies such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have cut their reach or shut down Russian state media, right-wing extremist Telegram channels, podcasts and blogs are now spreading Moscow’s propaganda in the US.

And in Russia, the state broadcasters are particularly fond of playing excerpts from Carlson’s program.

close interdependence

Non-profit research groups such as the “Alliance for Securing Democracy” in Washington have long been drawing attention to the close ties between right-wing groups in the USA and Russian, presumably state-controlled Internet trolls. Both sides recently fought the vaccination campaign in the USA and tried to cast doubts.

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen says almost every conspiracy myth gets entrenched at some point: “When people are repeatedly confronted with ideas that aren’t true, it undermines their ability to engage with the rest of society. They no longer feel bound by real facts about which there is consensus.”

Almost an image

The capital’s journalists in Washington are also keeping their distance from Carlson. The chief correspondent of “ABC”, Jonathan Karl, said a few days ago: “What is being said here is quasi plagiarism by Putin. Almost word for word. This is not just the case, it has been going on for several years years like this.”

“Fox News” and Tucker Carlson can live with the sleazy image. Both audience ratings and advertising revenue are right.