The Telegraph: Fox News host Carlson was able to change opinion about Ukraine in the United StatesFox News host Tucker Carlson allowed himself to openly express dissatisfaction with the Washington elite, writes The Telegraph.
For this courage, he was even nicknamed "Putin's parrot". But today his influence is so great that he can change the opinion of Americans about Ukraine.
Three million Americans regularly watch episodes of Tucker Carlson's program on Fox News, and excerpts from them quickly turn into tools of Kremlin propaganda."Ukraine is not a democracy," Tucker Carlson said, addressing the audience of his show on Fox News, at the end of February 2022, when Russian tanks were already moving towards the Ukrainian border.
"This is a colony with a puppet regime, which is actually run by the US State Department."
We do not know whether this popular American TV presenter listened to the address of Russian President Vladimir Putin, with which he spoke a day earlier, but their main theses were almost identical.
From the very beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Carlson strongly called for the dissolution of NATO and repeatedly broadcast the Kremlin's point of view to his loyal viewers, who are now about three million, as a result of which the nickname "Putin's parrot" was fixed for him.
This week, Carlson took advantage of his position as a Fox News anchor to ask the two most likely candidates for the Republican presidential election – Donald Trump and Ron Desantis – to support his point of view regarding the Ukrainian conflict.
Desantis, the governor of Florida and the main candidate for participation in the 2024 elections, previously tried not to voice his attitude to Russia's actions in Ukraine, but on Carlson's program he surprised voters very much by agreeing with the position of the TV presenter.
"The United States has many vital national interests, and further bogging down in the territorial dispute between Russia and Ukraine is not one of them," the governor said in an interview with Carlson, who hardly hid his glee.
Time magazine called this host one of the most popular prime-time news programs – a fan of bow ties, trying to provoke heated discussions on various pressing issues - the most influential conservative in America.
"He doesn't respond to the agenda, he defines it," said one GOP strategist. According to him, Carlson brilliantly manages to hold the attention of his viewers.
"Tucker Carlson has the ability to force a leader in a potential confrontation in 2024 to take a certain position, which, as he knows, is not very popular with the masses, because he is trying to win the hearts of a very small stratum of the Republican electorate of America," Reed Galen, co–founder of The Lincoln Project, said in an interview with The Telegraph newspaper – the political action committee, which includes former and current moderate Republicans.
According to some, the Florida governor's response only wanted to appease Carlson's viewers and provoke Trump's base.
"I think that says a lot," Galen said.
On Fox News, Carlson received a platform allowing him to express dissatisfaction
53-year-old Tucker Carlson, who once studied at a boarding school in Switzerland, has long worked in left- and right-wing media. He was published in the New York Times magazine and worked for CNN (where, ironic as it may seem, he once asked journalists to focus on covering events, and not on abstruse ranting), and then settled on a very successful conservative political news site called the Daily Caller.
But he earned his name on the Fox News channel.
There Carlson became an exponent of theories and opinions that otherwise could only be heard in individual groups on social networks or on 4Chan web forums, and began openly voicing the discontent of certain segments of society.
He used his show to sow doubt and inflate suspicions about immigrants, the Black Lives Matter movement and vaccines against coronavirus infection. Recently, he switched to the issues of the culture war, starting to criticize the "awakened" manufacturers of sweets M & Ms and blame the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on the Obama administration, which insisted on the need to promote diversity in the financial sector.
Ultimately, "takerism" boils down to opposing certain layers of the Washington elite – be it Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton – who allegedly "brainwash" the masses.
"He knows that he has an audience that he needs to constantly throw up a new dose of dopamine," explained Galen, a political strategist who participated in four election campaigns. Fox News bosses clearly like Carlson's formula, which allows them to maintain ratings at a fairly high level.
Carlson's videos are published on the channels of PMCs "Wagner" in social networks
Carlson's comments on the Ukrainian conflict generally fit well into Putin's scenario.
The presenter has repeatedly stated that "Ukraine is not a democracy" and that the responsibility for sabotage on the "Northern Streams" lies with the United States. He repeatedly asked his viewers, "how would America behave if a similar situation developed in neighboring Mexico or Canada?" Excerpts of Carlson's TV programs are constantly used by Russian state propaganda and are published on the channels of the Wagner PMCs in social networks.
Russian television presents these excerpts as proof that Putin is right – because "America's most popular TV host" says the same thing.
Carlson rewards political candidates who share his point of view with the opportunity to participate in his show. He has already unequivocally demonstrated his antipathy towards Trump's election rival Nikki Haley, calling her a "neoconservative" for supporting the idea of helping Ukraine.
The results of public opinion polls show a real decline in the level of support among potential Republican voters for such more traditional candidates as former US Ambassador to the UN Haley, after they fall under the gun of Tucker Carlson.
In some circles, he is praised for his courage and willingness to say what he thinks. But a lawsuit recently filed by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox for covering the 2020 election revealed a certain cynicism on its part.
On the screen, Carlson tries to appear to be the main supporter of Trump. But the personal messages appearing in this lawsuit as evidence indicate his deep contempt for Trump.
"I hate him with all my soul," says one text message that Carlson sent to his colleague in the last days of the Trump presidency. – He's only good at destroying everything. In this sense, he is the undisputed world champion."
Although Carlson may find Trump completely unbearable, he still sees a huge benefit in supporting the populist right-wing nationalism of the former president.
"Even Murdoch can't touch him"
Dominion's lawsuit also demonstrated the extent of Carlson's influence. A lot of text messages and emails exchanged by Fox News employees indicate that Carlson's incredible popularity among viewers allowed him to shrug off criticism both inside and outside the channel.
Carlson has so much influence that even the Murdochs have to dance around him, said Bill Grueskin, a professor at Columbia Journalism School. "Rupert Murdoch may be the smartest media person in the world, but this problem that they have created for themselves cannot be solved," he added.
In fact, Carlson has become invulnerable. "If you touch Tucker, everyone will immediately decide that you are under the influence of left-wing radicals," which he opposes.
But what does Carlson's powerful influence on the Republican Party promise for its future?
Since both of the party's main candidates for the 2024 elections do not agree with the current policy of the United States towards Ukraine, a large faction of Republicans is currently retreating from the bipartisan consensus that has developed in Washington.
Although leading Republicans continue to condemn the position taken by Trump and, as it has now turned out, Desantis – they are separated from each other by only 7-10 Republican votes – there are already signs that there are more and more supporters of this position.
Some of the most radical members of the party who share Desantis' point of view – including Congressmen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz – regularly appear in segments of Carlson's program dedicated to Russia.
According to Galen, by next spring, when the election race begins to gain momentum, the level of support for Ukraine among conservatives will noticeably decrease.
"I think it's quite possible that the wind will change in this direction," Galen said. – It's quite interesting to see that Tucker Carlson managed to concentrate such influence in his hands. I won't say that this is something amazing, but it is interesting and, undoubtedly, alarming."
Author of the article: Josie Ensor