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Were Clips of Tucker Carlson Being Aired on Russian TV?


WERE CLIPS OF TUCKER CARLSON BEING AIRED ON RUSSIAN TV?


RUSSIAN STATE TELEVISION TRANSLATED NUMEROUS CLIPS FROM THE FOX NEWS ANCHOR IN
THE U.S.

 * Nur Ibrahim

 * Published 25 February 2022
 * Updated 16 March 2022

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share via
Email

Image via Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons



CLAIM

Russian state television has been airing and translating clips from Fox News
host Tucker Carlson’s show where he defends Putin.


RATING

True
About this rating




ORIGIN

> Curious about how Snopes’ writers verify information and craft their stories
> for public consumption? We’ve collected some posts that help explain how we do
> what we do. Happy reading and let us know what else you might be interested in
> knowing.

When Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended Russian President Vladimir Putin on
his program, his viewers may not have imagined it would be used by Russian state
television to help bolster that country’s case for attacking Ukraine. But that
is exactly what happened.

Carlson spent a number of segments criticizing U.S. President Joe Biden and the
Ukrainian government, and then often defending Putin, clips that have become
fodder for Russian television. On Feb. 17, 2022, for example, he said:

> And of course, they’re promoting war, not to maintain the democracy that is
> Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its
> history and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.
> It’s a place in which opposition media and opposition political candidates are
> completely shut down by the government. Is not a democracy at all. And it’s
> insulting they would suggest otherwise.

That same clip was aired on Russia 1, a state television channel, with a
translation.






ORT or Channel 1 Russia, broadcast a clip of Carlson in which he showed U.S.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal telling MSNBC about the need to supply missiles to
Ukraine. The clip cuts to Carlson laughing and saying, “So that guy, who lied
about his own war service, is pretty excited at the thought of Ukrainians
fighting and dying in the streets.”



 
Even RT, another Russian-backed television channel, has been using Carlson’s
perceived defense of Putin from his Feb. 23 show. RT published an article about
him on its website, titled, “Tucker Carlson wonders why U.S. elites hate Putin.”
The article begins with: “Tucker Carlson, a popular Fox News host who often
questions Washington’s rationale for confronting Russia, has doubled down on his
‘why should I care’ position regarding Ukraine.”

In the segment, Carlson said:

> Since the day that Donald Trump became president, Democrats in Washington have
> told you it’s your patriotic duty to hate Vladimir Putin. It’s not a
> suggestion. It’s a mandate. Anything less than hatred for Putin is treason.
> 
> Many Americans have obeyed this directive. They now dutifully hate Vladimir
> Putin. Maybe you’re one of them. Hating Putin has become the central purpose
> of America’s foreign policy. It’s the main thing that we talk about. Entire
> cable channels are now devoted to it. Very soon, that hatred of Vladimir Putin
> could bring the United States into a conflict in Eastern Europe.
> 
> Before that happens, it might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting
> pretty serious: What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has
> Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for
> disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to
> Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and
> kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial
> discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity?
> Does he eat dogs?
> 
> These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is no. Vladimir Putin
> didn’t do any of that. So why does permanent Washington hate him so much?

RT compared Carlson’s approach to that of more liberal MSNBC: “Earlier this
week, pro-Democratic Party channel MSNBC ran a segment that lamented Carlson’s
impact on US foreign policy through his ability to whip up isolationist
sentiments in the voter base – ‘the way he can change the tide for
otherwise-fascistic leaders,’ as host Alex Wagner put it, referring to Putin and
to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.” The article also pointed out that
MSNBC “is currently experiencing a drop in viewer numbers after its star host,
Rachel Maddow, went on an extended break [and] prefers to invite interviewees
such as Republican arch-hawk John Bolton to comment on Ukraine.”

RT reportedly aired the same clip of Carlson stating the above, with Russian
subtitles:






On Feb. 23, the Russian Television and Radio channel aired the same clip of
Carlson, where he questions American’s hatred of Putin:



 
But Carlson has been popular on Russian state television even before the
invasion. A Jan. 30, 2022, CNN segment looked into Carlson’s presence on Russian
channels:



 
Since his recent clips aired on Russian television, Carlson has toned down his
rhetoric, saying on Feb. 24:

> Vladimir Putin started this war so whatever the context of the decision that
> he made, he did it. He fired the first shots. He is to blame for what we’re
> seeing tonight in Ukraine. The question is, once we’ve established that and
> it’s obvious, how should the United States respond to what he has done?
> 
> So, within minutes of the outbreak of the war last night, the usual liars on
> television began leveraging this tragedy for partisan political gain. If you
> ever watch the aftermath of the school shooting, you’re familiar with how they
> behave. It’s contemptible, but we’re going to ignore it tonight because there
> is too much else going on that actually matters and the main thing that
> matters in any crisis is deciding what’s most important, creating a hierarchy
> of concern.
> […]
> Again, what Russia has done is awful, but we can still make it worse.

Russian state media is also reportedly airing clips of former U.S. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo calling Putin “very shrewd,” “very capable,” and adding, “I
have enormous respect for him.”



On Mar. 16, 2022, videos from Russian media that we posted here on Feb. 25, are
no longer available. However, MSNBC also reported on Carlson’s coverage in
Russian media on March 14, 2022, saying he was being promoted “as much as
possible”:



Given the number of available clips of Russian channels sharing Carlson’s show,
we therefore rate this claim as “True.”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sources:

Carlson, Tucker. “Americans Have Been Trained to Hate Putin, and Will Suffer
Because of It.” Fox News, 23 Feb. 2022,
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-hate-putin-americans-suffer.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

Carlson, Tucker. “These Should Be America’s Top Three Goals amid Russia-Ukraine
War.” Fox News, 24 Feb. 2022,
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-america-top-three-goals-russia-ukraine-war.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

Carlson, Tucker. “What Does Joe Biden’s ‘Russia Is Bad’ Class Teach?” Fox News,
17 Feb. 2022,
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-joe-biden-russia-bad. Accessed 25
Feb. 2022.

Mackey, Robert. “Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell
Putin’s War.” The Intercept, 25 Feb. 2022,
https://theintercept.com/2022/02/24/russian-tv-uses-tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-sell-putins-war/.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

“On the Eve of War, Tucker Carlson Defended Putin. Now He’s Backpedaling.” Los
Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2022,
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-02-24/ukraine-russia-vladimir-putin-tucker-carlson-laura-ingraham-fox-news.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

“Perspective | Now Is the Time to Remember What Fox’s Own Lawyers Said about
Tucker Carlson.” Washington Post, 24 Feb. 2022. www.washingtonpost.com,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2022/02/24/tucker-carlson-ukraine-fox-news-lawyers/.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

Poniewozik, James. “Ukraine on TV: We’ve Seen This Before. And We’ve Never Seen
Anything Like It.” The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2022.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/arts/television/ukraine-invasion-tv-cnn-fox-news.html.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

“Russian State Media Is Using Tucker Carlson, Mike Pompeo to Bolster Putin’s
Moves in Ukraine.” The Week, 23 Feb. 2022.
https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1010534/russian-state-media-is-using-tucker-carlson-mike-pompeo-to-bolster.
Accessed 25 Feb. 2022.

“Tucker Carlson Wonders Why US Elites Hate Putin.” RT International, 23 Feb.
2022. https://www.rt.com/russia/550320-tucker-carlson-putin-hate/. Accessed 25
Feb. 2022.

Recent Updates
 1. Added update showing Russian media clips were no longer available on
    YouTube, and MSNBC report.

 * Nur Ibrahim

 * Published 25 February 2022
 * Updated 16 March 2022

Russia Ukraine
Ukraine

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