All reports over the past several days suggest that Fox executives massively miscalculated in their decision to fire Tucker Carlson. Yes, of course, he was just an employee and every business has the right to hire and fire at will.
For a moment there, the Murdochs figured that this insubordinate commentator was more trouble than he was worth. They decided to show him who was boss.
And yet, two days later, Carlson did an interesting thing. He used his personal Twitter account to relay a short message. He said it’s time for media culture to start talking about things that really matter, big topics such as war, civil liberties, corporate power, corruption, and more, and stop with the petty squabbles that distract from the scandal of the uniparty in Washington.
In a mere 12 hours, that one short video racked up 45 million views, or more than 10 times the most-watched show on Fox and 30 times the typical views in prime time.
Everyone who’s fired from a media job should look to this as an ideal. Carlson didn’t kvetch. He used it as an opportunity to test out new strategies for public reach. He comes out of this fiasco as the indisputable victor.
Maybe his next home will be Twitter, or perhaps he has something else in mind. Regardless, his influence and reach are now higher than ever.
The incident couldn’t have been better timed to reveal the massive media shift that has taken place in this country and the world. As the mainstream press mostly cheered the transformation of our lives and liberties over the past three years, alternative media of a decentralized sort has come to dominate the landscape.
Among those who love the truth, we’ve long ago moved on. Tucker was one of the last holdouts. His departure will likely end as a disastrous decision affecting Fox’s revenue stream long-term.
The legacy media still held on a bit, but it was only thanks to people like Carlson. Now, he’s gone. This could be the historical mark, the real turning point, the blow that finally deprecates legacy media once and for all.
I can’t shake the feeling that there was more going on with his termination than just the reduction of legal liabilities or disputes with management. It has something to do with the topics that Carlson has covered, which hit all the most important issues in the lives of Americans.
1. He was great on the COVID-19 lockdowns. An early alarmist, even an influence over the initial 15 days, he shifted his views quickly once he saw how a virus was being used to attack fundamental rights. For three years he took on the most powerful elements of media, tech, and government to raise core questions about the lockdowns, masks, and vaccine mandates. He put on his show important voices of dissent who made a huge difference. His efforts contributed to sparing this country permanent vaccine passports and segregated cities. Cooperating with his colleague Laura Ingraham, they did great work to unravel this disaster.
2. Carlson has been nearly a lone voice, especially at Fox, in raising questions about this Ukraine/Russia war, with the persistent query: How is U.S. intervention here in the national interest? What’s the end game? Why are U.S. taxpayers being fleeced to prop up the Ukrainian government at a time of incredible economic suffering right here at home? Why are we supposed to believe that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a uniquely evil force in the world today?
3. Carlson’s segment on the John F. Kennedy assassination brought an alternative story to millions of people who had never heard of the deeper scholarship on this evil tragedy. He mapped out CIA involvement and laid bare the possible motivations. He even took on friends of his who have served in the CIA and challenged them to come forward with what they know. Robert Kennedy Jr. called this segment the most important to appear on mainstream TV in 60 years.
For people my mother’s age, this event was the defining political news of a generation. To have the whole episode upended as nothing but another deep-state coup is remarkable. My father was a fan of Nixon because of the enemies he earned. I wish he had lived to see Carlson’s monologue: He would have said, “I knew it!”
5. In his last episode before he was canned, Carlson went after what’s arguably the most powerful and most well-connected industry in the United States and the world: big pharma. He explained how their advertising dollars and extensive connections with regulatory agencies are fundamentally corrupting the business of major media. Then, he highlighted the insurgent political run of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who clearly represents an enormous threat to the political establishment and is now polling at 19 percent among Democrats.
Given all of this, are we really supposed to believe that Carlson was terminated for a lawsuit and criticisms of his texts to colleagues? Was there really nothing else going on here?
Presumably by marginalized groups, this “reporter” wasn’t referencing Americans who think they should have rights and freedoms and that the government should follow the Constitution. Because those are the real marginalized groups.
To read all these attacks on Carlson is a very strange experience. Ever since he started exposing the evil of COVID-19 controls, I’ve probably watched half or more of his monologues and interviews. None of these descriptions make any sense to me, and I write as someone who has written an entire book on racialist and right-wing dog whistling. That isn’t what he’s about. Tucker Carlson’s ideological orientation is more classically liberal in a traditional sense, perhaps in the style of Edmund Burke, and never really dabbled in rightest extremism at all.
The most salient feature of Carlson’s journalism has been his fearless desire to get to the bottom of major issues that define American life today. He isn’t good at following orders. He merely needs a platform to dig more deeply to find the truth, which he rightly says will set us free. He’s a man of extraordinary talent, no question, and he combines that with the curiosity of a great reporter. Can such a person last in legacy media today? Of course not.
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox and Jacinda Ardern, the lockdown and censorship queen of the world, has been hired to do a year of teaching at Harvard University. That tells you all you need to know about the current state of media and education in this country.
