A special meeting of CPAC is being held in Hungary this weekend, where all those “America first” conservatives like Mark Meadows and Candace Owens can slobber over a foreign leader who controls most media outlets, including state TV, The Guardian reports. Perhaps in solidarity, CPAC banned American media outlets such as the Associated Press, The New Yorker, Vice News and Rolling Stone.
Orbán told a presumably adoring audience to transform American institutions so that they look more like Hungary’s. He saw the media as an important tool for success, particularly Tucker Carlson’s show:
From The Guardian:
“Of course, the GOP has its media allies but they can’t compete with the mainstream liberal media. My friend, Tucker Carlson is the only one who puts himself out there,” he said. “His show is the most popular. What does it mean? It means programs like his should be broadcasted day and night. Or as you say 24/7.”
Carlson had been billed as a key speaker, The Guardian said, but only sent a brief video message. In it, “patriot” Carlson explicitly described Hungary as a better country than the U.S.:
“I can’t believe that you’re in Budapest and I am not,” he said. “What a wonderful country. And you know why you can tell it’s a wonderful country? Because the people who turned our country into a much less good place are hysterical when you point it out.
“The last thing they want is any kind of signpost to a better way, and Hungary certainly provides that,” Carlson added. “A free and decent and beautiful country that cares about its people, their families and the physical landscape.”
I suspect Fox News pulled the plug on Carlson’s CPAC appearance because the network thought it didn’t look good for their top white nationalist, already under fire for espousing the same “great replacement” theory that motivated the Buffalo shooter, to share the guest of honor spot with the model leader for white nationalists. Especially when it was recently revealed that Carlson is considered "essential" to Kremlin propaganda.
Of course, if Fox really cared about Carlson not looking like the nation’s premier white supremacist and poster child for authoritarian propaganda, they could order him to stop acting like one on their airwaves. But so long as he’s rolling in the dough for the Murdochs, that is not likely to happen.
