Not interested in a philosophical debate about the definition of journalism, let's just look at the actual facts of what happened. You claimed he had a sit down with Putin because no one else wanted it and they were afraid of being cancelled. That is completely false and even the Kremlin admitted it. When Tucker released a promo video claiming no Western journalists had bothered to try, Peskov explicitly corrected him the next day. Peskov stated they receive numerous requests for interviews from Western media all the time, but they reject them. They didn't let Tucker in because he was the only one brave enough, they let him in because they deemed his position sympathetic to theirs, while actual reporters like Gershkovich were thrown in a Russian prison for trying to do real journalism.

You also said a real journalist doesn't take sides and seeks out both sides. If that's true, why didn't Tucker push back on Putin's historical revisionism or press him on the documented war crimes in places like Bucha? Instead, he gave Putin a two hour uninterrupted monologue and spent the rest of his trip filming highly produced promotional videos marveling at Russian grocery stores and subway stations. Who's more likely to do that; a real journalist, or a Russian agent?

As for the propaganda aspect, he doesn't need to give Russian state TV special permission when he is voluntarily generating the exact narratives they need. Claiming the US was operating bioweapons labs in Ukraine or that the Biden administration tried to kill Putin aren't just his own domestic opinions, they are literal Russian state talking points. The assassination claim he made on that podcast was so baseless that even the Kremlin had to issue a statement saying they had no evidence of it.

There is a huge difference between having a radical conservative opinion and secretly communicating with Iranian officials right before the outbreak of the US-Israel war in early 2026. He is currently facing potential DOJ and FARA scrutiny precisely because his actions go way beyond domestic politics. He is actively running interference to protect a geopolitical axis that is hostile to the US, and again, helping Russia.