When Russia has repeatedly denied requests from other journalists in the past, I don't think that you can really associate Carlson with being "free press". This is a business deal, not journalism. How should we treat people who engage in business deals with sanctioned individuals?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/tucker-carlson-vladimir-putin-interview-b2492192.html

“Does Tucker really think we journalists haven’t been trying to interview President Putin every day since his full-scale invasion of Ukraine? It’s absurd – we’ll continue to ask for an interview, just as we have for years now,” said CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.

The BBC’s Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, wrote on X: “Interesting to hear @TuckerCarlson claim that ‘no western journalist has bothered to interview’ Putin since the invasion of Ukraine. We’ve lodged several requests with the Kremlin in the last 18 months. Always a ‘no’ for us.”

Yevgenia Albats, a Russian journalist and author of a book about the KGB, described Mr Carlson’s claim as “unbelievable”.

“I am like hundreds of Russian journalists who have had to go into exile to keep reporting about the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine. The alternative was to go to jail. And now this SoB is teaching us about good journalism, shooting from the $1,000 Ritz suite in Moscow,” she wrote on X.

[–] makeasnek@lemmy.ml 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

"Press" has always been a business. This isn't the dunk you think it is. They have always dealt with and interviewed sanctioned individuals. Some even interview prisoners! Imagine, interviewing not just somebody accused of breaking the law, but somebody convicted of it, like Mandela! What should we do with those journalists? According to some people on this thread:

[–] n0m4n@lemmy.ml -3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Putin is as far as one can get from Mandela.

[–] Aria@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 9 months ago

Your three sources are all undeniable propaganda. If you don't think Tucker Carlson is a serious journalist, that's perfectly understandable, but surely even the bottom of the barrel is more serious than the literal agents of the governments you're at war with? If I was Putin, I'd also turn down the literal BBC. Libs are so up their own ego they can't imagine someone not wanting to be filtered through their state's propaganda apparatus.