Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch held a secret call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky shortly before he made the shocking decision to fire star anchor Tucker Carlson, according to a new report.
Carlson is the most outspoken critic of the war in American corporate media.
The troubling report comes from veteran journalists at Semafor.
The Ukrainian president also had a conversation with Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s heir apparent, on March 15.
That conversation was already confirmed by Zelensky.
According to Semafor, “Senior Ukrainian officials had made their objections to Carlson’s coverage known to Fox executives, but Zelensky did not raise it on the calls with the Murdochs, according to one person familiar with the details of the calls.
“The Murdochs have not revealed which of Carlson’s many provocations triggered his firing, and there’s no particular suggestion that Zelensky — whom Carlson had called a ‘dictator’ — delivered the final blow.
“But Carlson’s firing will immediately relieve pressure on key Capitol Hill Ukraine supporters whom Carlson had criticized on air — and sometimes pressed behind the scenes to change their positions on the war.”
.@maxwelltani scoop: The Murdochs talked to @ZelenskyyUa in March, and Carlson’s firing ended his public *and private* pressure on pro-Ukraine house Republicans https://t.co/7ruZO2tjHY
— Ben Smith (@semaforben) May 1, 2023
The Ukrainian Government issued an official blacklist of Americans, Brazilians and others it accused of being Kremlin assets due to our opposition to the US proxy war – including Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker, Lula da Silva, Rand Paul, me and John Mearsheimer, https://t.co/mRXqDDN0ER https://t.co/NtfaD51VNA
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 1, 2023
Liberal journalist Glenn Greenwald brought up an earlier report in The Week.
Greenwald, a frequent guest on Carlson’s old show, said:
“The Ukrainian Government issued an official blacklist of Americans, Brazilians, and others it accused of being Kremlin assets due to our opposition to the US proxy war – including Tulsi Gabbard, Tucker, Lula da Silva, Rand Paul, me, and John Mearsheimer.”
This article strongly suggests that the Murdochs talked to Zelensky, and Tucker’s opposition to the US proxy war in Ukraine was a major factor in his firing.
I’ll await confirmation, but one thing is for sure: his removal eliminated the most influential anti-war voice from TV: https://t.co/eZ8DODnsLk
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 1, 2023
In July 2022, The Week reported:
Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation announced Monday that it had compiled a list of American citizens who have been “promoting Russian propaganda.”
The center, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky created in 2021, named Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), journalist Glenn Greenwald, retired U.S. Army Colonel Douglas MacGregor, academic John Mearsheimer, and military historian Edward Luttwak.
Gabbard and Greenwald have endorsed the theory — which Russia promotes and Ukraine denies — that there are dozens of U.S.-funded biolabs in Ukraine.
In the early days of the invasion, MacGregor told Fox News that Zelensky was a “puppet” and was “putting huge numbers of his own population at unnecessary risk” by refusing to cave to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands.
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