Most Americans I talk to are clueless. They think that it is sufficient justification to pay dozens of billions of dollars because “Putin bad.” They are being led around like sheep. There is a history to this Ukraine War and there was a way to completely avoid this war, as admitted by NATO’s Secretary General:

But now Tucker Carlson is about to do what all good corporate media journalists should have done over the past few years: Interview Vladimir Putin. This is truly what real journalists do: They are curious and they go out into the world and they bring back important stories, important interviews.

Tucker has made a statement about why he is doing this interview and it is telling. This statement would not have been necessary had other journalists been doing their jobs.

I have transcribed Tucker’s statement below:

We’re in Moscow tonight. We’re here to interview the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. We’ll be doing that soon. There are risks to conducting an interview like this, obviously. So we thought about it carefully over many months. Here’s why we’re doing it.

First, because it’s our job. We’re in journalism. Our duty is to inform people, two years into war that’s reshaping the entire world. Most Americans are not informed. They have no real idea what’s happening in this region. Here in Russia, or 600 miles away in Ukraine. What they should know, they’re paying for much of it in ways they might not fully yet perceive. The war in Ukraine is a human disaster. It’s left hundreds of 1000s of people dead, an entire generation of young Ukrainians. It has depopulated the largest country in Europe.

But the long term effects are even more profound. This war has utterly reshaped the global military and trade alliances, and the sanctions that followed have as well. And in total, they have upended the world economy. The post-WWII economic order, the system that guaranteed prosperity in the West for more than 80 years, is coming apart very fast. And along with it, the dominance of the US dollar. These are not small changes, they are history-altering developments. They will define the lives of our grandchildren.

Most of the world understands this perfectly well. They can see it. Ask anyone in Asia or the Middle East what the future looks like. And yet, the populations of the English speaking countries seem mostly unaware. They think that is nothing has really changed. And they think that because no one has told them the truth. Their media outlets are corrupt. They lie to the readers and viewers. And they do that mostly by omission. For example, since the day the war in Ukraine began, American media outlets have spoken to scores of people from Ukraine and they have done scores of interviews with Ukrainian president Zelensky. We ourselves have put in a request for an interview with Zelensky. We hope he accepts. But the interviews he’s already done in the United States are not traditional interviews. They are fawning pep-sessions specifically designed to amplify Zelensky’s demand that the US enter more deeply into war in Eastern Europe and pay for it. That is not journalism. It is government propaganda. Propaganda of the ugliest kind. The kind of kills people.

At the same time our politicians and media outlets have been doing this–promoting a foreign leader like he’s a new consumer brand–not a single Western journalist has bothered interview the president of the other country involved in this conflict: Vladimir Putin. Most Americans have no idea why Putin invaded Ukraine or what his goals are now. You’ve never heard his voice. That’s wrong. Americans have a right to know all they can about a war they’re implicated in and we have the right to tell them about it because we are Americans too. Freedom of speech is our birthright. We were born with the right to say what we believe.

That right cannot be taken away no matter who is in the White House. But they’re trying anyway. Almost three years ago, the Biden administration illegally spied on our text messages and then leaked the contents to their servants in the news media. They did this in order to stop a Putin interview that we were planning. Last month we’re pretty certainly did exactly the same thing once again. But this time we came to Moscow anyway. We are not here because we love Vladimir Putin. We are here because we love the United States. We want it to remain prosperous and free.

We paid for this trip ourselves. We took no money from any government or group. Nor are we charging people to see the interview. It is not behind a paywall. Anyone can watch the entire thing shot live to tape, unedited on our website, tuckercarlson.com. To Elon Musk’s his great credit, he has promised not to suppress or block this interview once he posts it on his platform, X. And we’re grateful for that. Western governments, by contrast, will certainly do their best to censor this video on other less principal platforms because that’s what they do. They are afraid of information they can’t control. But you have no reason to be afraid of it. We are not encouraging you to agree with what Putin may say in this interview. But we are urging you to watch it. You should know as much as you can. And then, like a free citizen and not a slave, you can decide for yourself. Thanks

Here’s one example of many: The Corporate News Outlet reporters are freaking out because they are sitting on their hands like good well-paid servants, yet someone else is actually doing the work of journalism.

[Added Feb 8, 2024]:

What is a “journalist?” A.J. Sulzberger offered this definition at the Columbia Journalism Review:

First and foremost, journalists should remember that our core purpose, as I have been saying, is to follow the facts wherever they lead, even when we would prefer for them not to be true, and to fairly represent people and perspectives, even when we disagree with them.