Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had plenty of harsh words for “western media” on Friday — except Fox News.
Lavrov gave an “exclusive” interview with the state-funded Russian TV news network RT, during which he praised Fox News for “trying to represent some alternative points of view.”
During the interview, which was conducted in English, Lavrov took aim at “the West” and America in general, saying, “If there was any illusion that we could one day rely on our Western partners, this illusion is no longer there.”
However, his comments regarding Fox News came during a diatribe about Western media. Read the full quote below.
“We know the manners and the tricks which are being used by the Western countries to manipulate media. We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media. If you take the United States only Fox News is trying to present some alternative points of view.
But when you see, you watch other channels, and when you watch, read the social networks and internet platforms, when the acting president was blocked, as you know, and this censorship continues in a very big way and the substitution of notions whenever something is happening by the way of mass protest mass demonstrations, which they don’t like, they immediately call it domestic terrorism. So it’s a war, and it’s a war which involves the methods of information terrorism. There is no doubt about this.”
Lavrov’s praise for Fox News comes as no surprise; Russian state TV has been regularly featuring clips from the network amid the Ukraine invasion, and Mother Jones previously reported a leaked Kremlin memo that called for state media to feature Fox News host Tucker Carlson “as much as possible.”
Fox News hosts, and Carlson in particular, have earned consistent criticism for their pro-Putin coverage of the war in Ukraine, and Lavrov’s praise comes the morning after Carlson leveled claims of slander against Texas GOP Rep. Michael McCaul in response to McCaul calling the Fox News host’s show “an organ of Russian disinformation.”
“In recent days, McCaul has told a number of people that this show is an organ of Russian disinformation,” Carlson said on his Thursday night show. “In other words, not only are we wrong, which is fine, we are disloyal Americans. We’re doing the bidding of a foreign power. That is not fine. That is slander.”
“We don’t care what the Russian government says,” Carlson said on Thursday night’s show, chalking up claims of Russian disinformation as “a well-worn Democratic Party talking point.” McCaul is a Republican congressman.