Reality Check Commentary: Tucker Carlson Sits By as Putin Claims Poland Started WWII
"Carlson's fawning interview is an argument for providing more information about news sources and claims, not for censoring," writes NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz
Welcome to a special edition of NewsGuard's Reality Check, a report on how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
NewsGuard Commentary: Tucker Carlson-Vladimir Putin Interview Makes the Case for More Information
By Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard Co-CEO
We founded NewsGuard as a free-speech alternative to either governments or digital platforms censoring news. Instead, our mission is to give readers more information about the news sources and claims they see online. Last week’s interview of Russian President Vladimir Putin by Tucker Carlson is a strong argument for why people could benefit from access to more information about who’s feeding them the news.
WARNING: TuckerCarlson.com gets a 17.5/100 rating from NewsGuard, along with this warning: “Proceed with Maximum Caution: This website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalistic standards.” (Read NewsGuard's Nutrition Label here.) Among Carlson’s earlier false claims: That the U.S. operates bioweapons labs in Ukraine, which is Kremlin disinformation to justify its invasion. The untrustworthy rating and warning for Carlson’s website thus “pre-bunks” whatever new falsehoods he promotes next.
Carlson’s former Fox News colleague Chris Wallace called him an “eager puppy” for failing to ask Putin why he invaded Ukraine, why his military targets civilians or about the war crimes they have committed. Carlson failed to push back on Putin’s claim that the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine was run by the CIA. Even when asking about jailed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Carlson said “maybe he was breaking your law in some way,” an assertion of guilt for which there is no evidence.
But even this fawning interview is an argument for providing more information about news sources and claims, not for censoring or otherwise blocking what was said.
Most amazing claim: Putin offered an eye-opening lecture on the history of Eastern European geopolitics to justify his invasion of Ukraine. “Poland cooperated with Germany, but then it refused to comply with Hitler’s demands,” Putin told Carlson. “By not ceding the Danzig Corridor to Hitler, Poles forced him, they overplayed their hand, and they forced Hitler to start the Second World War by attacking Poland.” In other words, while Carlson sat there silently, Putin actually blamed Poland for World War II, giving Westerners startling clarity into his might-makes-right thinking.
Ukraine Now = Poland 1939; Putin = Hitler: As Russia expert Masha Gessen wrote in the New Yorker: “The idea that the victim of the attack serves as its instigator by forcing the hand of the aggressor is central to all of Putin’s explanations for Russia’s war in Ukraine. To my knowledge, though, this was the first time he described Hitler’s aggression in the same terms.”
Carlson failed by letting Putin spread propaganda and leaving false claims unchecked. But censorship is not the answer. It’s good that people got to see this interview and to learn Putin’s self-justifications. It would be that much better if everyone watching it had more information about the “journalist” who promoted Putin’s claims, including his standards and his agenda.
We launched Reality Check after seeing how much interest there is in our work beyond the business and tech communities that we serve. Subscribe to this newsletter to support our apolitical mission to counter misinformation for readers, brands, and democracies. Have feedback? Send us an email: realitycheck@newsguardtech.com.