Tucker Carlson and Fox News have played the part of Putin's 'Tokyo Rose'

It’s a strange thing for Americans to witness a major TV news network and its most popular host taking the side of a brutal dictator over a small country trying to forge a democracy.

But that is how it’s been for Fox News and its most popular host, Tucker Carlson.

They’ve been like a Greek chorus regurgitating the praise heaped on Russia’s Vladimir Putin by former President Donald Trump.

As far back as December, after Carlson appeared on 60 Minutes, a member of the of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Public Council, Igor Korotchenko, who is also editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine, said, “Excellent performance, with which we can only express solidarity.”

High praise from the wrong person

That should not – under any circumstances – be considered a compliment.

It got worse last month when a Russian TV propaganda outlet provided Russian subtitles and rebroadcast Carlson defending Putin.

You’d think Carlson and Fox would have learned a lesson from that. You’d think they might have figured out that they’re being used, that they’re providing aid and comfort to an enemy.

It’s all very much like “Tokyo Rose” from World War II – except for one big difference.

Tokyo Rose was an American-born Japanese woman who read radio propaganda broadcasts in English that American troops could hear. Her real name was Iva Toguri.

She had been visiting relatives in Japan when the war broke out and got stranded there. She was forced to renounce her citizenship and coerced into doing the broadcasts.

After the war she was tried for treason and convicted, but later pardoned once her circumstances became more widely known.

She was coerced. Carlson volunteered

Unlike Tokyo Rose, no one has been coercing Carlson or Fox.

They’ve been Putin’s fans.

Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Carlson wrote off the dangerous situation as a “border dispute.”

He’s even tried to play the victim, making excuses for himself and the Russian dictator by saying, “Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia?”

The nonsense went on.

'Putin wing' has morons on the team

The network has pulled back the reins and Carlson is more obtuse these days, given the brutal aggression Putin has aimed at Ukraine and the almost universal condemnation by Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives and just about everyone in between.

There is still what Republican Rep. Liz Cheney calls the “Putin wing” of the GOP. Arizona’s nutty Republican Rep. Paul Gosar would be a ranking member. As would Georgia’s just-as-nutty Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Proving what Republican Sen. Mitt Romney said recently on CNN.

Simple. Straightforward. True.

Romney said, “I have morons on my team."

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tucker Carlson and Fox News keep spewing Putin's propaganda