Tucker Carlson, a fired FOX News host and pro-Russian propagandist, has tweeted the first episode of his new show. In it, he claims that the Ukrainians blew up the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, and the American government controls the media and hides important stories from the Americans. The video was distributed among others by Elon Musk, and as of now it has already been viewed more than 50 million times. Detector Media singled out the main propaganda messages in the video.

1 Ukraine blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant

The TV presenter claims that Ukraine, at the direction of Zelenskyi, blew up the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. His argument is that if Volodymyr Putin ordered it to be done, it would be absurd because it harms Russia itself. Carlson is ironic that, despite the fact that everyone is used to thinking that Ukraine does not have the resources to do this, this does not negate the fact that it can do it.

Ukrainian members of the government and public organizations, in particular the organizations of the coalition Ukraine. The Fifth Morning claims that it was Russia that purposefully undermined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant. The destruction occurred from the inside as a result of the detonation of explosives. Ukraine has no motive to destroy the dam, especially now.

2. The US should stop supporting Zelenskyi as he is doing bad things

Further, the TV presenter begins to be ironic towards the President of Ukraine, calling him “almost a saint”. He criticizes the information noise around Zelenskyi and his support among Western countries. In addition, Carlson hints that Zelenskyi is allegedly the real evil in the war against Ukraine, but it is easy for everyone to say that Russia is committing crimes. The TV presenter reproaches the President for choosing clothes for official meetings and calls him rat-shaped, almost accusing him of destroying Christian values. Therefore, according to Carlson, the United States should stop supporting Ukraine.

Although such statements are the subjective opinion of the TV presenter, among them there are objective accusations against Zelenskyi. However, reality proves otherwise – it is Russia and its army that daily commit war crimes against Ukrainians, including the forced deportation of children, the mistreatment of prisoners of war and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. Even the example of the dam blowing is indicative - while in the settlements controlled by Ukraine, people are being evacuated and given the necessary assistance, in the flooded temporarily occupied territories, the so-called “local authorities” have left civilians to fend for themselves with tragedy.

3. The American government is hiding “really important topics” from Americans due to “puppet media”

Trying to explain the appearance of his new show on Twitter, Carlson accuses US President Joe Biden and his team of censorship and silence on important topics. In particular, he appeals to the fact that the “puppet media” allegedly too actively covers the aggression against Ukraine, the problems of broadcasters and the topic of global warming, so the Americans do not know what is really happening in the world. The TV presenter compares the situation with freedom of speech in the last years of the USSR, recalling foreign radio stations listening “under the covers”. According to him, this new show will be analogous to those stations so that Americans know about “really important things”. For example, a former American intelligence officer allegedly announced the shooting down of an unidentified flying object with unknown creatures on board.

Tucker Carlson deliberately substitutes the concept, reinforcing the message about “conservative censorship”, which is quite popular in certain circles. Like, corporations deliberately block conservative figures just because they have conservative views. However, in fact, most of these cases of blocking the accounts of conservative figures are related to the fact that they disseminated information dangerous to the lives of social network users. For example, when they publicly spoke out against vaccines, called the coronavirus a global conspiracy, or called on people to protest on January 6, 2021 to take over the Capitol by force.

By the story of the former intelligence officer and the UFO, Carlson means the testimonies of David Grush, which he gave to NewsNation yesterday. The man claims that the US government allegedly has a special secret program to collect UFOs and the remnants of persons on board. Tucker Carlson condemns the fact that many American media like The New York Times have not published any material on this topic, so it can be considered hushed up. A Google search shows that a number of leading conservative media and tabloids not only in the US but also in the UK wrote about this “sensation”. It is currently difficult to verify the credibility of Grush's testimony, but both the FBI and NASA have UFO pages on their official websites.

We recall that Tucker Carlson regularly distributes Russian propaganda messages. Previously, he claimed that Volodymyr Zelenskyi is a “Biden puppet”, Ukraine is “not a democracy”, and Volodymyr Putin is “America's true friend”.

Such rhetoric around the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant is beneficial for Russia and resembles the situation with the loss of the Boeing-777 flight MH17, since it dilutes responsibility and creates ambiguity. In fact, Carlson is helping Russia justify its aggression against Ukraine, confusing foreign audiences about Russia's role in this war, and further destabilizing American domestic politics.