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I don’t take enjoyment of Tucker Carlson’s firing.
That’s as a result of I don’t imagine he was fired for being Tucker Carlson.
Had he been fired for being Tucker Carlson — the white nationalist apologist identified for his spitfire misinformation and shameless hypocrisy — I’d most likely be extra cheerful. However this doesn’t look like a firing for behaving poorly.
Had he been fired years in the past for being Tucker Carlson, as an alternative of being elevated to TV host simply earlier than the Trump presidency started, it’s uncertain the previous president’s lies concerning the 2020 election would have gained practically as a lot traction. It’s uncertain there would have been a $1.6-billion defamation lawsuit introduced by Dominion Voting Techniques in opposition to his employer. It’s uncertain a twice-impeached former president could be the Republican Get together’s front-runner for the White Home.
Carlson understood all of this, which is why he texted this to his producer Alex Pfeiffer on Nov. 5: “What [Trump’s] good at is destroying issues,” adopted by, “He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He might simply destroy us if we play it mistaken.” And so Tucker Carlson did what he’s at all times executed for rankings: purposely mislead the most important viewers in cable information whereas fanning the flames of racism, sexism, antisemitism and homophobia.
That is the individual Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, known as “the most courageous person in American media.”
That is the individual to whom Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy determined to solely give hundreds of hours of surveillance recordings from the Jan. 6 riot. That is the one who dressed down Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on his present for daring to name that “a violent terrorist assault on the Capitol.”
“Of all of the issues that Jan. 6 was, it was undoubtedly not a violent terrorist assault,” mentioned Tucker Carlson on air.
But in personal in January 2021, after that assault, Carlson wrote this: “Trump has two weeks left. As soon as he’s out, he turns into incalculably much less highly effective, even within the minds of his supporters. He’s a demonic power, a destroyer. However he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been interested by this day by day for 4 years.”
Fox Information needed him to be Tucker Carlson as a result of it was a model that was good for enterprise. Retaining him on was about cash then, so why wouldn’t his firing be about cash now? Though the Dominion settlement actually didn’t mirror properly on him, it’s potential his firing has extra to do with a discrimination lawsuit filed by Abby Grossberg, a producer who was fired by the network last month. Within the go well with, she alleged she was bullied by Carlson, subjected to antisemitic feedback and pushed by firm legal professionals to present deceptive solutions within the Dominion case to guard the community.
In different phrases: cash.
Because of this I don’t delight within the firing.
Democracy could profit as a result of media mogul Rupert Murdoch has parted methods together with his hottest host. It could not. Exhausting to inform. In any case it doesn’t seem as if democracy was ever a part of the equation when it got here to Fox and Tucker Carlson — neither of their love affair nor of their breakup.
There’s additionally nothing to counsel Fox’s motion was about doing the correct factor for journalism. It’s not a public service as a lot as self-service.
There’s nothing that exhibits there was a change of coronary heart at Fox, solely a change in cost-benefit calculations.
The community has made that decision earlier than, when it ousted Invoice O’Reilly in 2017. That was in the end for a similar purpose: cash — particularly due to sexual harassment allegations and settlements, actually not for peddling hate and misinformation.
So I don’t get my hopes up about whom Fox Information will anoint as the following Tucker Carlson. Fearmongering and interesting to our decrease selves are nonetheless worthwhile.
The following Tucker Carlson received’t have to inform the reality to maintain the throne, simply keep away from turning into a monetary legal responsibility. Judging from Murdoch’s own testimony associated to the Dominion case, what occurs to democracy is just not a priority — only a byproduct.
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