Bret Baier Reminds Tucker Carlson How to Do Journalism

Bret Baier’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky offered a strong example of how to conduct an interview with a world leader. The Fox News anchor probed and challenged Ukraine’s president on a range of important subjects, most notably on criticism from Republicans in Congress over military aid to the besieged nation.

Baier’s dispassionate approach gave Zelensky’s words a more profound impact. This was not a stilted back and forth in which both sides aimed to coax out and cement a conclusion they both had already arrived at long before sitting down together.

The net effect of such an interview, conducted as an earnest search for information and truth, ended up offering arguments against Republican opposition for aid for Ukraine so often heard on Fox News. The power of the interview was made stronger by the fact that the answers came from a resolute but embattled leader sitting just a mile and a half away from the front lines of battle.

From a media perspective, what the interview showed more than anything is how much of a sycophantic joke Tucker Carlson’s two-hour confab with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin turned out to be.

Earlier this month, Carlson conducted and lengthy interview with the man singularly responsible for this senseless war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people. On the one hand, Carlson pulled off an incredible booking, scoring an interview with a powerful figure who has not sat for an interview with a Western journalist in years. On the other hand, the announcement of the interview was met with a lot of skepticism that Carlson would be up to the task.

The skeptics were ultimately proven correct. Instead of confrontation, Carlson mostly rolled over, allowing Putin to prattle on for 30 minutes at the start of the interview about Russian history, supplicating himself to a powerful world leader, all in the name of…attention? Trolling? Mother Russia? Future historians will study the answer to that question for sure.

Even Putin himself criticized Tucker Carlson’s lack of piercing questions. Carlson did himself no favors with a weirdly promotional propaganda tour of Moscow’s subways and a French grocery store, which became impossibly more embarrassing when news broke that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny had been killed.

By comparison, Baier traveled to Ukraine by train from Poland, then by armed caravan to a secret location near the front line. Was it political theater that painted the subject (and host) in a more heroic light? Maybe. But the sounds of artillery rattling off in the distance were authentic. Lit sterno candles were not there just for dramatic effect; they were necessary to keep both Baier and Zelenksy warm, as it was cold enough for their breath to be visible.

The interview setting stood in stark contrast with the palatial setup that Putin and Carlson enjoyed. Ukrainian outlet Kyiv Post pointed out the difference in a post that spoke volumes.

Two different worlds. pic.twitter.com/XpgE3Da3IY

— KyivPost (@KyivPost) February 23, 2024

Baier asked Zelensky about the war effort and challenged him on how aid is being used in the battle against invading Russian forces. He also asked about Carlson’s interview with Putin.

“My former colleague, Tucker Carlson, recently traveled to Moscow and sat down for an interview with Vladimir Putin,” Baier noted. “Did you happen to see that or coverage of it?”

“I heard some messages in the media, and also my guys who are advisers told me,” Zelensky said, before giving something of a tough review. “I don’t have time to hear more than two hours of bullshit about us. About the world, about the United States, about our relations.”

“Two hours of bullshit” is exactly right. and reveals Zelensky to be not just an accomplished world leader but also a savvy media critic.

One could argue that Baier had it easier than Carlson — Zelensky is, after all, seen by most of the world as fighting the good fight against Putin’s malicious invasion. It’s not exactly difficult to pull off a compelling interview with a war hero, even if it’s held next to the front lines.

But Baier has shown how to do tough interviews with “evil” world leaders before, like his 2023 interview with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. His tough questioning of former President Donald Trump arguably fits the same bill here.

For guidance on how it’s done, Tucker Carlson should watch his old network to learn a thing or two about proper journalism.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.