Geez, from the way the left is reacting, you’d think Tucker Carlson was doing an imitation of the New York Times‘ Walter Duranty,  and slobbering over a Russian dictator and whitewashing the scene. Oh, wait. . .

It’s pretty clear that the mainstream media is angry at Carlson because he didn’t get their permission to interview Putin, and moreover won’t agree to stick with the approved narrative.

I haven’t had time to take in the whole interview, but one thing is obvious from brief samples: the reports last year that Putin was seriously ill, or losing his grip, are plainly wrong. This appears to be someone in full command of his faculties and outlook, unlike a certain other head of state we can name.

Before Tucker’s interview I made this suggestion on Twitter:

So I am glad to see he did exactly this:

The full exchange is longer than this clip, and shows that Tucker went after Putin hard about this:

I wonder if any network news reporter would have been as dogged about the issue as Tucker.