You see this smear passed on by the CNN media show host?:

“Fox News host Tucker Carlson is billed as a speaker at a far-right conference in Hungary on Saturday, according to a flier for the event. The appearance will come days after the Fox host met with the country’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.” https://t.co/tT46DyIqzm

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) August 2, 2021

It’s the usual bullsh*t from the American media when it comes to Hungary. It’s a youth festival sponsored by a conservative college, MCC. Here’s the website in English. Check out the program. See much far right content there? Of course you don’t. It’s mostly about academic topics, music, culture, career advice, and self-help stuff. I’m going to be speaking there, sharing the stage with Peter Kreko, one of Hungary’s most prominent Orban critics. Yep, that’s what the Viktator’s realm is like: allowing one of Orban’s leading critics to have a platform at a youth festival, with no restrictions placed on what he can say (I know this, because I’ve been involved with Peter in planning our discussion). Here is a screenshot of the festival program:

Why, it’s a veritable Nuremberg Rally, ain’t it?

I’m telling you: do not believe a thing. you read in the Western media about Hungary. It might actually be true — this is a real country with a real government, not a Magyar version of  The West Wing — but the media bias against Hungary and its government is so overwhelming that you cannot be sure. And if you are in or near Esztergom later this week, come to MCC Fest and see for yourself. It’s actually an interesting story that Tucker Carlson is here in Hungary — but if you think it’s because of some crackpot progressive idea that he’s here to appear at a “far-right conference,” you’re a fool.

I hope other journalists, conservative and otherwise, will follow Tucker’s lead and come to Hungary to see for themselves what’s really going on here. Just come and look around, with an open mind. Talk to people — and not just the Budapest elites. You won’t find the Garden of Eden, but you will find a country that’s very different from what you have been told by our media.

UPDATE:

$265k?

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia had multiple 7-figure US lobbying contracts.

Now tell me which country’s leader got called a positive reformer in the mainstream US press more. The one who pays low six figures, or the other who beheads journalists in his embassies. https://t.co/fDSdnHy0Gf

— Michael Brendan Dougherty (@michaelbd) August 3, 2021

Here is what happened. Tucker Carlson is a friend of mine. After I arrived here in April and spent a couple of weeks, I texted him and said he should come over to Hungary and take a look, that it’s a really interesting country — not at all how it’s portrayed in the US media. He texted back to say that he’s had his eye on Hungary for a while, but hasn’t been able to make it work.

Shortly after that, I had a meeting with a senior Hungarian official as part of the duties of my Danube Institute fellowship. At the end of the meeting, I mentioned that Tucker Carlson is a hugely influential conservative journalist, and that he would like to come to Hungary, but has been having trouble with red tape. The official said he knows who Tucker is, and would work to clear the red tape.

Now Tucker is here. Just that simple. Nothing sinister about it.