Carlson In My Rearview Mirror

Tucker Carlson In My Rearview Mirror

Fox said goodbye to Tucker Carlson. Time will tell whether Carlson fades into oblivion like Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly other past Fox rabble rousers.

Tucker Carlson In My Rearview Mirror

By D. S. Mitchell

 

$787.5 Million For Dominion 

The Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit cost Fox (News?) $787.5 million big ones. If it sounds huge, it is. In fact, it is by far the largest defamation settlement in the history of the planet. Prior to the Fox-Dominion case, the largest defamation payout was for $177 million, in a 2017 case between ABC News and Beef Products Inc., a South Dakota meat processing company.

Five Factors To Prove Defamation

Five factors must have occurred to prove defamation. 1.) Publication of false information. 2.) The person, or in this case entity, Dominion Voting Systems, was specifically identified by Fox and its commentators. 3.) The remarks had a negative impact on the person or the entity’s reputation. 4.) The information disseminated (by Fox) was false and they knew it was false (reckless disregard). 5.) The defendant (Fox) is at fault, having published the lie for public consumption.

What Exactly Did Fox Do?

First and foremost, Fox and its on-air crew (Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham, and multiple others) repeatedly lied to their viewers. Despite information to the contrary, day after day, night after night, they repeated the lies, claiming Dominion Voting Systems had switched or credited votes illegally to Joe Biden. An intoxicated, red faced, Rudy Giuliani, a mentally disturbed Sydney Powell, and that weirdo Pillow Guy were on Fox every night pushing the lie that Donald Trump had won the 2020 presidential election with zero pushback from the commentators.

Nasty Secrets Revealed

As the trial date drew near, the cable news airwaves were filled with jaw-dropping leaks of emails between the folks at Fox. The texts and emails from the king of bullshit, and Fox’s biggest star, Tucker Carlson, stunned me. The shock came when I realized this SOB was even more disgusting in real life than I had imagined possible.  Behind the scenes Tucker was like a rabid dog going after everyone from Donald Trump, to his boss, Rupert Murdoch.

‘Antifa Kid’

The large number, and the toxic content of Tucker’s emails were truly outrageous. In one particularly egregious email he “prayed” for the killing of a protester being attacked by a group of white supremacists. Now that is sick. On 1/7/2021 Carlson sent a text message to his producer telling him about his visceral response to the video. In the video three or more white men were filmed attacking an ‘Antifa kid.’  Carlson said he wanted the victim to be killed. After some thought Tucker decided that was ‘deeply wrong.’

Tucker Carlson In My Rearview Mirror (cont’d)

I watched as Tucker Carlson was seduced by the Dark side.

Remember When?

I remember when Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson was a bowtie preppie pundit on CNN and then later on MSNBC. This was when he was at least a semi-accurate, semi-reputable, semi-serious, semi-cautious journalist, that appeared to crave authenticity and most of all respectability. After his move to Fox (News?) I felt as though I was watching the making of the Republican Darth Vader.  Tucker, like Anakin Skywalker before him, was lured to the dark side. Now at his full power, Darth Carlson set out bending the minds of Americans while directing the guns of his Death Star at the foundations of American democratic thought every night at 8 pm.

Outrage-Driven Commentary

The ‘new’ Carlson was a deranged populist, a hate spewing madman, with  irreverent contempt for decency. He turned white outrage, racial grievance, and outright cruelty, into a Molotov cocktail for his nightly audience of over 3 million followers. Whatever the topic; crime, ‘defund the police’, BLM, immigration, race, vaccines, education, health care, or the Democrats, Carlson used it as fuel for his outrage-driven commentary. Red meat for the masses. I heard someone call Fox (News ?) “today’s Roman Coliseum.”

Red Meat Culture 

It’s important to understand, Carlson is the product of great wealth and privilege; a boarding school elitist. Despite his privilege his racism and homophobia are near legendary. He has always been a bomb thrower and a pompous ass, but over the last decade at Fox he has given up any pretense of journalism and his schtick has devolved into open senseless cruelty. After a visit to Iraq Carlson is reputed to have said, “it’s a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you known, semi-illiterate monkeys.” He has famously and publicly called women “whores,” “pigs,” and “cunts.” He must be a real charmer at home.

A Show Of His Own

Carlson joined Fox News as a contributor in 2009 and served as a co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend” from 2012 to 2016.  In 2016 Tucker Carlson got his own political talk show, ‘Tucker Carlson, Tonight.’ Carlson’s stint of peddling bullshit on Fox seemed to have self-radicalized the man.  Whatever the topic he offered up, he was pissed off about it, and so should you be, he told his audience. Be mad. Be angry. The madder he could get his viewers the happier he was. But, maybe he was only crazy about all the money he was making, because according to the emails most of what he said was said for the ratings.

Strongman Support

Whether it was vaccine skepticism, white nationalism, or his increased support of anti-democratic right-wing regimes around the world, Carlson was all about being an entitled white man. Several months before his firing he wasted a week embracing and promoting Hungarian strongman, Viktor Orban. Even I have been amazed at Tuck’s open love affair with authoritarianism.  Of course it is white male authoritarianism he likes and supports, certainly not black,  brown, or female (ha, ha) dictators.

 Legitimate Questions

Carlson always portrayed his bad faith attacks as honest, good faith inquiries. He irreverently sounded alarm bells over issues of fact under the guise of asking legitimate questions. There are answers to his questions, but Carlson always suggests there are not. Or, those answers were wrong or manipulated by the liberals. Consequently, conspiracy theories ran rampant on his show as well as outright lies.

Fat And Bloated

Carlson, like Hannity grew fat and bloated, continually attacking liberal democracy as the seed of our destruction. Together, Hannity and Carlson have focused on the culture wars; firing up the Republican base. While Carlson praised and pumped up the MAGA’s on television, in private text messages on Jan. 4, 2021, Carlson said he was done with Trump and his unfounded claims of a rigged election. “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” he texted an unidentified person. “I hate him passionately.”

Sent Packing On April 24th, 2023

Like Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck, and Bill O’Reilly before him, Fox finally had enough of the bullshit from their crybaby commentator and fired Tucker on April 19, 2023. He was not fired for being an ass, making incendiary statements on air, fervent racism, or outright lies, but apparently for what he had to say about his co-workers and the Fox management that finally caused the break. So, it seems, the Dominion pay off wasn’t blamed on Carlson, but the tenor of his emails being published daily were disgusting enough to piss off somebody important, whether it was Lachlan, Rupert himself, or someone on the Board, we’ll probably never know.

The Message

Tucker Carlson’s message is simple and he does not hesitate to play it over and over. The existential future of America is at stake. At the heart of the matter is the doomsday scenario painted by the right wing media.  Tucker Carlson believes America is on the verge of being lost, because old white men might lose political power in the United States. I’d say to Tucker, “about time.”

Where  To Now?

Where to now, people are asking. Outer Mongolia is my fervent hope. Unfortunately, that probably won’t happen. I’ve heard he’s going to do ‘something’ on Twitter. Twitter has boosted its character count from 280 to 4,000 for certain subscribers. I’m sure Carlson will use all 4,000 characters to continue his lies. My hope is that just like Beck and O’Reilly, Tucker will fade into oblivion.

Aftermath

Since Tucker Carlson was fired, Fox has lost viewers at the 8 pm hour, according to the folks that measure such things.  Fox has however, been gaining back sponsors that were lost due to Carlson’s barely veiled racial attacks and the unending election denials. Gillette is back, and so are a number of others who wanted nothing to do with Carlson’s war on everything non-white and non-wealthy. As far as I’m concerned, I’m glad to have Tucker Carlson in my rearview mirror. Hopefully, he’ll soon be out of sight.

https://www.calamitypolitics.com/2021/08/21/opinion-fox-news-and-its-shameless-bias/

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