Tucker Carlson In Hungary Supporting Authoritarian Leader

"Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday whitewashed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's autocratic record, presenting the authoritarian leader's approach to politics as a model for the United States. He has said authoritarian Hungary is freer than the U.S..

It's also not just Freedom House that has raised concerns about Orbán. Numerous human rights organizations, democracy watchdogs, political scientists, and historians have underscored the myriad ways Orbán has tightened his grip over Hungary's political system while maintaining the veneer of democracy.

Reporters Without Borders in July, for example, pointed to Orbán as one of the world's 37 "press freedom predators."

In an interview with Insider last year, Sheri Berman, a professor of political science at Barnard College and author of "Democracy and Dictatorship in Europe," said, "At this point, Hungary is a full-on dictatorship. No if, ands, or buts."

Orbán is unabashedly xenophobic and bigoted, instituting policies against migrants and the LGBTQ community that have been condemned worldwide.

"The government used the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext for attacks on the rule of law and democratic institutions," Human Rights Watch said of Hungary. "The government has made access to asylum close to impossible, interferes with independent media and academic freedom, and undermines the rights of women and LGBT people, including blocking the implementation of the Istanbul Convention that aims to prevent violence against women."

But Carlson, who has espoused white supremacist conspiracy theories on his show and routinely attacks immigrants, effectively did what amounted to PR for Orbán. The Fox News host presented the Hungarian leader as a pro-family leader who protects his country's borders, without mentioning how the European Union's supreme court — the European Court of Justice — in the past year ruled that Orbán's government has been illegally deporting refugees to Serbia.

Orbán's border policies are driven by ethnonationalism, and he's made no secret of this. "We do not want to be diverse," Orbán said in a 2018 speech, adding, "We do not want our own color, traditions, and national culture to be mixed with those of others."

In the interview that aired Thursday, Carlson gave the Hungarian leader a platform to promote this worldview and bash his Western critics."
https://www.businessinsider.com/tucker-carlson-did-pr-for-hungary-authoritarian-leader-2021-8