I’m sure some were shocked, disgusted, or stoic about the Newsweek piece that claimed Tucker Carlson was about to helm a new show on Russian television. The former Fox News host has been promoting one of America’s greatest geopolitical foes, even claiming some aspects of their society are superior to America. That’s his opinion, and he’s entitled to it. I’m not convinced that Russia is better than the United States in any way, but that’s immaterial. The piece was fake news, and Carlson has a feeling as to why the publication decided to run with this story.
Tucker Carlson launches show on Russian state TV https://t.co/5hvYjqcvuj pic.twitter.com/6nZwE6K5ce
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) May 21, 2024
First, let’s read the community note on Newsweek’s post:
A Russian newspaper reported that a Russian TV station aired clips of Tucker's show.
Newsweek is claiming that "Tucker Carlson launched his show on Russia state TV" , when there is no evidence of Tucker's involvement.
Additionally, Tucker's business partner denied the claim.
Now, the updated Newsweek story:
The CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network has rejected claims in Russian state media that the former Fox News anchor had made a deal for his shows to appear on Russian television.
The claims appear to have originated with the program Tucker, which is broadcast on Russia 24 but comprises old episodes of Carlson's shows taken from X, formerly Twitter, and YouTube, complete with a Russian voiceover. The first episode and other clips from previous months are now available online, Russian state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported.
There’s no editor’s note or apology—don’t expect one. Carlson does have a theory about why these stories are being published: the US intelligence community wants to secure a FISA warrant against him.
"Total bullshit in every way," Tucker Carlson tells me of @Newsweek claims that he launched his show on Russian state TV.
— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) May 21, 2024
"Newsweek is very obviously trying to give the Biden administration a pretext to read my personal communications under FISA. It’s pretty dark." pic.twitter.com/eXm1l07qp0
“Newsweek is very obviously trying to give the Biden administration a pretext to read my personal communications under FISA. It’s pretty dark,” he told Philip Wegmann of Real Clear Politics.
It wouldn’t be the first time the intelligence community went off the reservation and illegally spied on Americans—the FBI falsified documents and buried exculpatory evidence to secure FISA spy warrants against Carter Page. Someone leaked a fake lead on Paul Manafort to CNN, who ran with the story, which led to the government weaponizing it to nuke his attorney-client privilege.
It's been done before.