Regarding Tucker Carlson
The end of Tucker Carlson’s time at Fox News coincides with Fox’s payout of nearly $800,000,000 to settle Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against the news network. It’s hard to view this as happenstance.
Yet, Carlson didn’t defame Dominion, as even the Washington Post recognizes. It was Lou Dobbs and a few other low-tier hosts who did that. Carlson expressed skepticism on air about claims that Dominion fraudulently tabulated votes.
Discovery in the defamation suit revealed that, for years, Carlson was not honest with his Fox News audience. His emails acknowledge that he pretended the Trump administration was a success, whereas, in Carlson’s view, it was a “disaster.” They also reveal that he couldn’t stand the president for whom he shilled.
I would like to think that Carlson’s dishonesty had something to do with his departure, but I doubt this was the case. It’s quite possible that the Fox News brass knew all along about their popular host’s double game or, if they didn’t know all along, that they didn’t care when they found out.
But if the Dominion discovery and/or settlement didn’t lead directly to Carlson’s departure, what did? There are plenty of suspects.
From what I’ve read and heard today, the Dominion litigation may simply have provided Fox with the occasion to fire a host with whom the brass (especially Rupert Murdoch) was disillusioned and who was viewed as having become too hard to control. These suggestions are consistent with what we’ve long heard about tension at Fox between the news side and commentary/entertainment side. There’s also this: Some of the Carlson emails that emerged in the Dominion litigation were critical of Fox News executives.
In addition, there are reports that Murdoch and others on the news side were unhappy with Carlson’s conspiracy-oriented reporting on the events of January 6, 2021. Fox News may want to move on from that dark day, but Carlson did not. I should also note, for what it’s worth, that Ray Epps, whom Carlson insinuates was a government agent planted to incite violence at the Capitol, has threatened legal action against Fox News.
Regardless of the cause[s], the decision to cut Carlson loose was a bold one (assuming it was Fox that decided to end the relationship). Carlson was by far Fox News’ most watched performer.
From all that appears, the news that Carlson can’t stand Trump didn’t cost him audience share. Maybe his Trump-loving fans didn’t get the word. More likely, they didn’t care, as long as Carlson told them what they wanted to hear on air and kept them entertained.
Carlson’s departure isn’t just a potential blow to Fox News. It’s also a potential blow to conservative causes. His flaws notwithstanding, Carlson does a great job exposing and attacking wokeism in nearly all of its forms. Few do it as well, and some of those who do have been able to reach a mass audience thanks to Carlson’s show.
Can Fox News find a replacement for Carlson who will be able to approach his popularity? It won’t be easy. It’s true that few thought Fox could replace Bill O’Reilly without losing lots of viewers. Yet, Carlson’s viewership numbers surpassed O’Reilly’s.
However, this time around even a strong replacement will likely suffer due to resentment over the departure of Carlson (as may Fox News as whole). That wasn’t a problem for Carlson when he replaced O’Reilly. The unceremonious way in which Carlson was let go — he had no opportunity to say goodbye to his audience — might further fuel viewer resentment.
Will the anti-wokeness drive suffer from Carlson’s exit? Not necessarily. There’s a good chance Carlson will find a landing spot from which he can continue his assault on wokeism to a mass audience — perhaps one as large as the one he had at Fox News.
In addition, it’s likely that Carlson’s replacement at Fox, whoever that is, will use the platform to deride the woke and their agenda. Why wouldn’t he/she, given (1) Carlson’s ratings success, (2) the centrality of these issues for many conservatives, and (3) the constant flow of ammunition provided by woke excesses and absurdities?
Finally, at the risk of overdramatizing Carlson’s departure, I’ll add that it seems emblematic of the fissures within the conservative movement we’ve been seeing since the emergence at the head of the movement of Donald Trump. There are also fissures on other side of the spectrum, but liberals manage to paper them over — a feat that’s normally more difficult for the party in power, but not in this case.
Trumpism means different things to different people — and all of the different people are probably right. One thing it means for sure is chaos. I view the Tucker Carlson affair as the latest manifestation, albeit an indirect one.
"His flaws notwithstanding, Carlson does a great job exposing and attacking wokeism in nearly all of its forms."
I don't think you understand the dynamics of the last eight years. Carlson has been a boon to wokeism, as has Trump's whole movement. Wokeism, specifically identity politics, thrives when people seek something to believe in and turn to exalting their individual identities because they see nothing inspiring in the United States of America. Pride in the country is the antidote to identity politics, and opportunists who persuade people not to love their country enable identity politics.
Until eight years ago, the trash-talking of America was the province of the left. Since then, however, Trumpists -- I won't honor them by calling them the "right" -- have taken up the cause of discrediting the country. Trump's inaugural address spoke of "American carnage." The movement, with Carlson in the front row, tells Americans, particularly white men, that America is no land of opportunity and that all institutions are corrupt. This is clearest in their treatment of the military. Trump has opposed every action the armed forces took in his lifetime, other than the ones HE ordered. In his view, they do nothing good and do nothing which anyone should take pride in. Hence his gushing talk of honoring veterans is empty. For what should we honor them? In other words, Trumpists lack patriotism. That is why white nationalism sprouts up in their wake. Without love for American values, people who think they are supposed to love their country look around for something specific to value, and the only thing left is their own identities, exactly what the left does with wokeism. Tucker Carlson advances this agenda when, for instance, he legitimizes Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and delegitimizes the American values of compassion for victims, outrage at evil, national honor, American influence, and resolve in the face of danger.
To illustrate the economic dimension, in 2019 I attended a dinner conversation with Jeff Sessions right after he found himself with extra time on his hands. He pointed to Alabama truck drivers as examples of people whose lives have been ruined by capitalism. I recognized that this was not just a financial issue, but that Sessions rejected Ronald Reagan's optimistic faith in America. When I objected that truck drivers' standards of living have risen in the past generation, he replied, approximately, "Well, you can indulge yourself in your ideology..." Sessions showed that he lacked the patriotism of Ronald Reagan, and sounded like the whiny Democrats who have run for office since 1968. He also showed that he isn't that bright; someone has been leading him down this path. Who has been leading? Try Tucker Carlson.
Tucker Carlson was removed because he was the only journalist at Fox News critical of the Republican Establishment of which you are a card carrying member. It had nothing to do with Dominion.