Rupert Murdoch and son talked with Zelenskyy before muzzling Tucker Carlson

Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan each spoke by telephone with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, some weeks before Fox News Channel muzzled Tucker Carlson. More importantly, neither Murdoch disclosed those telephone calls, nor did anyone else before last night.

Rupert Murdoch and son

Semafor Media broke the news at 9:59 p.m. EDT April 30. Max Tani and Morgan Chalfant report that each man had a telephone call with the Ukrainian President. Rupert Murdoch apparently called Zelensky first, wishing to talk about the war in that country and at least one Fox News journalist killed allegedly in the fighting. His son Lachlan had another call with Zelenskyy on March 15.

Zelenskyy noted his call with Lachlan in an aside in a national broadcast speech last month. Aside from that, no one said anything about it – until at least one “person familiar with the situation” told Semafor about the calls yesterday. The name of Tucker Carlson did not come up in either of those calls, according to the source(s). But senior Ukrainian officials have earlier made known their displeasure with Carlson. He is arguably the harshest media critic of continued U.S. support for Ukraine. Furthermore, he listed “war” as a “conversation” that “both political parties and their donors … actively collude to shut down” in his two-minute video last Wednesday.

Tucker Carlson has rounded on politicians in both Parties over the Ukraine war and U.S. involvement in it. Once, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) actually (though in private) called Tucker Carlson Tonight “Russian disinformation.” Tucker exploded and made his fury known to the Congressman – in public and private – and both time, in no uncertain terms. Publicly he accused McCaul of slander – and privately he questioned his intellectual capacity.

“Good riddance!”

The Ukraine war has clearly divided Republicans, according to Semafor and Mark Steffen at Trending Politics News. Axios counts Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) as assigned with Trump against further support for Ukraine. Tucker Carlson sent a questionnaire to all declared and potential seekers of the 2024 Republican nomination. DeSantis gave a definite anti-war response, which Carlson noted. In fact, Carlson dropped a twelve-tweet thread listing the answers he received – and noting those candidates who refused to answer.

But many more Republicans, like Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), are aligned with Ukraine. If they’re not exactly gloating, “Good riddance!” they are definitely sighing with relief.

Rupert Murdoch has had no comment since the silencing of Tucker Carlson began. But his other media organs, The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal, have drummed up war fever in a way that would make William Randolph Hearst blush. Whereas Tucker Carlson, unapologetic, once called Zelensky a “Ukrainian pimp” in a graphic backdrop.

Carlson has repeatedly tried to learn the reason for his sidelining, but Rupert Murdoch and his underlings refuse to answer.

Carlson has received offers of employment from parties as diverse as Newsmax, The Blaze, and even Russia Today. Separately, The American Prospect at first praised Carlson for his anti-war position, before others reminded the authors that Carlson is not at all “woke.”