JRL NEWSWATCH: “Two Hours of Unchallenged Propaganda From Putin” – New York Times
“… [V]acillating among pedantic, sarcastic and aggrieved, Putin spent the first uninterrupted half-hour on his tired claims that Ukrainians are not a nation, that they’re neo-Nazis, persecute Russians, and are tools of the West. He then turned to … all the ways in which the United States has humiliated, betrayed and insulted Russia, and how Ukraine and … [the] C.I.A. … started the war. Tucker, [with] a look of studious attention, made no effort to dispute anything …. There were a few tidbits that might have been newsworthy … like Putin’s claim … he was open to dialogue, or that he was not interested in invading … NATO …. [I]t became clear … the charade was really about getting the United States to back off. … Putin asked, with Carlson’s silent assent, why waste time on Ukraine? ‘If you really want to stop the fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks. …’ he said. And what then? Carlson didn’t ask. Nor did he raise the terrible destruction and death Putin’s invasion has visited on Ukraine, or the heavy Russian casualties, or the brutal repression of dissent at home, or the rebellion of Yevgeny Prigozhin. …”