Chris Cuomo on Comparing Tucker Carlson to Veteran Journalists Like Barbara Walters: ‘That’s a BS Way of Tearing Down a Standard’

NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo slammed Tucker Carlson over his recent interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, claiming he’s “cheapening the standard” of journalism.

On Tuesday, Carlson announced via X, formerly known as Twitter, that he was interviewing Putin while slamming Western media for giving too much air time to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid the brutal Russian invasion.

Cuomo mocked comparisons between Carlson and former Putin interviewers, such as award-winning journalist Barbara Walters, adding that comparison is “a BS way of tearing down a standard.”

“Tucker Carlson is getting exactly what he wants. Attention,” Cuomo told his audience on Tuesday night. “Now, frankly, I don’t care his explanation of why he’s doing it, that he’s a journalist and he needs to inform people. He can call himself whatever he wants. I think his work is demonstrable as not being just about giving people information. He has a point of view and often it’s not aligned with the facts.”

He then directed his criticism at another former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly over her 2018 interview with Putin.

Cuomo added, “Megyn Kelly, also, a pundit from the right, interviewed Putin in 2018 and got beat up by almost everybody, in what was the first criticism that kind of led to her failing at the network level. Why? Because that’s not what these people are. That’s what Barbara Walters was. Okay. That’s what big-time network people practice to learn how to do. In a way that is more than just pushing propaganda.”

Following his monologue, Cuomo was joined by former Fox News contributor Geraldo Rivera. Cuomo went on to argue that comparing Carlson and Kelly to Walters cheapened journalism.

I don’t care who interviews anybody. You know, this idea that there’s some club and certain people deserve access and others don’t. It’s the opposite of a free media. But I think, you know, there’s something suspicious about the choices Putin makes. But you know, what is going on here that needs to be checked is don’t compare Tucker Carlson to Barbara Walters. Don’t compare Megyn Kelly to Barbara Walters. Don’t compare me to Geraldo Rivera.

You know, there’s a subtext there of cheapening the standard that he’s no different. She’s no different, than Barbara Walters doing it. That is a BS way of tearing down a standard. And Barbara is not here to defend, to defend herself in the standard. But I learned it, her footstep the same way I learned at your knee. And you guys deserve your place in the pantheon. And we should not cheapen the standard by saying, oh, yeah, it’s the same as when she does. It is not the same as when she did it. She was a different class of individual, let alone journalists. You can call yourself a journalist, but don’t say you’re the same as Barbara Walters. That’s a bad thing to say.

Watch the clip above via NewsNation.

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