Tucker Carlson is not launching a show on Russian-state television.
On Tuesday, Newsweek published a story claiming that Carlson had launched a show on Russia 24, a state-controlled Russian media outlet. Newsweek cited a newspaper owned and controlled by the Russian government as its source.
‘It’s all fake obviously, like most stories in American news media.’
“Tucker Carlson launches show on Russian state TV,” Newsweek wrote on X.
The story quickly spread online, leading to accusations that Carlson is now “quite literally, a mouthpiece of the Russian state” and that Carlson “has now embraced his master,” a reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But it’s not true: Carlson has not launched a show with Russia 24.
“That Newsweek story is totally false,” Dean Thompson, head of programming and production operations at the Tucker Carlson Network, told Blaze News.
What is true is that Russia 24 is airing old episodes of Carlson’s show that include Russian translation. Thompson explained that “use of our content by that channel is without legal permission.”
Neil Patel, CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network, added in a statement:
The Tucker Carlson Network has not done any deals with state media in any country. Whoever is currently pretending to be the old Newsweek brand would know that if they had checked with us before printing like news companies are supposed to do.
Carlson, meanwhile, said, “It’s all fake obviously, like most stories in American news media. Of course I have no partnership with Russia. The first I’d heard anything about this was (this) morning.”
This is the second time that Newsweek has tried to connect Carlson to Russian-state TV. The outlet published a story last September suggesting Carlson had partnered with Russian-state TV. It was not true then, and it’s not true now.
The false claim appears to have originated from Ukraine’s Institute of Mass Information and Ukraine Pravda.
It’s not clear why the media keep pushing an already-debunked story to smear Carlson. One theory posits the false claims can serve as a pretext to justify government surveillance of Carlson.
Newsweek has since updated and corrected its story.
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Legacy media, Tucker carlson, Russian state tv, Propaganda, Newsweek, Politics
