Fox News’ Tucker Carlson spent last week in Hungary, met with authoritarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and gave a speech at a far-right conference in Budapest that is backed by Orbán and his government.
If you saw any of it, it looked an awful lot like one giant infomercial for Orbán. And a preview for what Carlson would like to see happen right here in the United States.
In fact, Carlson even said on his show, “If you care about Western civilization and democracy and families and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by the leaders of our global institutions, you should know what is happening here right now.”
Carlson meant that as a compliment of Hungary’s ways of doing things.
Or how about this quote from Carlson? “Who’s freer? If you’re an American, the answer is painful to admit.”
The New York Times’ Benjamin Novak and Michael M. Grynbaum write, “For Mr. Carlson, the Hungary trip was an opportunity to put Mr. Orban, whom he admires, on the map for his viewers back home, a conservative audience that may be open to the sort of illiberalism promoted by the Hungarian leader.”
In a piece for NBC News’ THINK, Casey Michel, author of “American Kleptocracy,” writes, “For anyone who’s followed Hungary’s trajectory under Orbán, Carlson’s paeans to the country’s supposed ‘democracy’ are laughable. Under a decade of Orbán’s rule, Hungary has transformed from a bright spot of political freedoms to a cautionary tale in how a right-wing authoritarian can dismantle a democracy, piece by piece, while helping his cronies profit along the way. Pick any metric you’d like, and Hungary’s self-proclaimed ‘democracy’ hardly survives scrutiny.”
For example, start with press freedoms. As Michel points out, Reporters Without Borders named Orbán an “enemy of press freedom.” Orbán is the only European Union leader to make the list, his name alongside the likes of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“Or look at the culture of corruption and elite predation that Orbán has fostered,” Michel writes. “Not only does Transparency International now rank Hungary lower than dictatorships like Belarus or Cuba in its Corruption Perceptions Index, but the government in Budapest has transformed into little more than a vehicle for pillaging.”
He adds, “If anything, the notion that Hungary supports ‘Western civilization’ stems directly from the kind of bigoted policies that many far-right, traditionalist Americans would like to see replicated in the U.S.”
Carlson’s fawning over Orbán and Hungary is not all that surprising. Novak and Grynbaum write, “Even as Mr. Orban is increasingly shunned by many European conservatives, Mr. Carlson has been effusive in his praise, depicting the Hungarian leader as a virtuous champion of family values and a model for the United States.”
So, yeah, not surprising.
“After all,” Michel writes, “Trump and his supporters have proved only too happy to mimic Orbán’s authoritarian steps over the past few years. … If anything, the notion that Hungary supports ‘Western civilization’ stems directly from the kind of bigoted policies that many far-right, traditionalist Americans would like to see replicated in the U.S.”
During an appearance on CNN’s “Reliable Sources” on Sunday, The Atlantic’s Yasmeen Serhan said Carlson’s description of Hungary “really boggles the mind.”
Serhan added, “What I sort of took away from Tucker Carlson’s extolling of how great Hungary is is that he really wants Americans to see that brand of autocracy as something not only desirable, but within reach and something that we should be aspiring to.”
When you consider Carlson has the most-watched prime-time cable news show, that’s deeply concerning.
While, yes, it’s troubling to see Carlson’s trip to Hungary, let’s not forget this: Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch is signing off on this. Fox Corp. CEO and executive chairman Lachlan Murdoch is signing off on this. Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott is signing off on this.
Don’t blame just Carlson. His bosses are perfectly OK with letting Carlson say and do whatever he wants, including going all the way to Hungary to hand a microphone to a deplorable world leader.
End of the games
