I don't mean to imply Tucker is a youngster.
Although he absolutely lacks any gravitas, which was the #1 criteria for newsmen a generation ago.
He can come across as a silly, whimsical, not that serious type of guy, and he actually *doesn't* act his age.
After hearing some criticism of the interview, I have come to the opinion that it was a disaster and Tucker is a bad journalist.
I think there was a combination of not wanting to criticize the guy for showing the bravery he did by going over there and interviewing BadMan, and also some lingering Emperor's New Clothes thing that Tucker (as does Elon Musk) has enjoyed from the right, but the questions were really stupid.
It's been a long time since Americans have heard what real journalism sounds like (particularly in audio or video--we still have a few good writers like Seymour Hersch, Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Aaron Mate, Max Blumenthal, Anglin). If you were around for Roosh's censorship press conference, you may remember that the single biggest takeaway was how ridiculous and stupid all the questions were. I was incredibly impressed that Roosh kept his composure aftering hearing a string of horrible questions for over an hour. I could have played devils advocate and come up with more difficult questions than this group of supposed professionals did. So, as a nation, we are not used to intelligent journalism.
The last good interviewer I enjoyed was the great Bob Edwards of NPR. Despite being extremely popular, he was suddenly and inexplicably fired from his morning interview show (he was immediately hired by XM radio) and soon after all the diversity and sexual propaganda shows started popping up on NPR. Edwards was a distinguished older normal white man with a much younger wife. He was highly skilled at asking proper questions that allowed the guest to clearly communicate their ideas.
Indeed, we are so used to idiotic questioning that when Ben Shapiro faced some very routine questioning by conservative journalist Andrew Neil, Shapiro famously had no idea how to react with anything other than irrational emotion and was completely owned, unable to even explain his own positions (of course he holds no real positions but should at least be able to explain what he pretends to push).
But Tucker just asked dumb question after dumb question, failed to pick up on interesting lines of thought, interrupted, changed the subject, and did the obnoxious "maybe you don't want to blah blah but I'm gonna ask this anyway" whiny voice meandering rapid talk questioning, which was a huge contrast to the chad Putin laughing, calmly and slowly explaining the creation of the universe aeons ago.
News is a rapidly changing field of work. Had Tucker interviewed Putin in 2022, or even last year, that's one thing. But the war is over. We've already wasted hundreds of billions over there. Why didn't he get the Russian perspective before we essentially went to war against them? The timing, right when we are seeing the NYT and establishment voices already talk about the winding down of the war, is suspicious.
Oh but Tucker brought up God, you say. No, he asked about "The supernatural." The supernatural is how atheists refer to alien life. I have never heard a Christian refer to God as "the supernatural." Tucker was not asking about God, he was asking if Putin believes in space aliens (an idea Tucker has been pushing recently, along with the silly Chinese spy balloon nonsense). Who is pushing for alien life theory? The deep state. Who is pushing for Chinese War? The Deep State.
And then Tucker brought up some obscure spy that Russia has imprisoned. Asking about Snowden is one thing. It would have been interesting and the audience is familiar. But whining about releasing a spy caught red handed? Why? Why would Russia do that? Russia and the US used to routinely kill spies, it's a risk that goes along with the job. The US should be thanking Russia that they spared this guy's life. And Putin said there's no benefit to keeping him locked up. Our security services can work out a deal. But then Tucker whines some more "I hope you release him Mr President." How idiotic would that be! Just release a spy you caught in the act? WHY? Tucker lost all credibility with Putin at that moment, if there was any left.
Why would you even ask such an absurd question unless your Deep State handlers instructed you to? It's just so tiresome.
Anyway here are 2 good criticisms of the Tucker interview. The first I found really humorous, particularly in the second half.
How bad a job did you do as an interviewer when your guest complains afterwards that your questions were dumb and boring?