A friend posted his reaction on Facebook to Fox pulling Tucker Carlson’s show off the air by saying that he will shed no tears over Carlson’s departure. Why? Because Carlson didn’t advocate individualism, free markets or limited government but instead represents “right-wing tribalism” and a push for big government conservativism. Several other people expressed their agreement for my friend’s position.
My opinion of Carlson isn’t quite as negative. I won’t shed tears for Tucker either but for a different reason. He probably will land on a platform where his audience will be even larger (like Joe Rogan who has an audience at least three times larger than Carlson’s) and will make much more money. (However, will he have as much influence?)
What bothers me is how Democrats such as Chuck Schumer and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) openly called for taking Tucker off the air and, for whatever reason, Fox complied. (I’ve heard various theories what lead to his sudden silencing. My guess is that it was a combination of factors.)
I find it interesting too that Schumer or AOC aren’t demanding Fox to remove Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham or Jesse Watters. As I said, I don’t feel bad for Carlson; I’m more concerned about the concerted effort to silence people who question the dominant narratives.
Despite his flaws, Tucker played an important role in challenging and questioning many of the narratives pushed by the Left and their media cheerleaders. He revealed how DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) undermines meritocracy in the fields of airline piloting, medicine and corporate America, the incestuous relationship between pharma, government and media in pushing the vaccines and lockdowns while silencing and de-platforming prominent, respected doctors who disagreed, and the shady collusion between the various Federal agencies and Twitter (plus other social media platforms) to suppress mostly conservative voices. (Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi, who Elon Musk recruited to produce the “Twitter files,” call this relationship the Censorship Industrial Complex. Shellenberger and Taibbi have been guests on Tucker’s show. Both are self-described liberals.) None of the other mainstream media outlets said a peep about the Twitter files.
Thanks to previously unreleased videos of the January 6th protest/riot to which House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave Carlson access, you see a different version of what happened than what we were shown by other media. One of these videos show that Jacob Chansley [“QAnon Shaman”] was accompanied by Capitol police almost as if they were giving him a tour. This ultimately led to Chansley’s release from prison. Chansley’s lawyer didn’t have access to this video before Carlson’s show.
Yes, Carlson questioned whether our involvement in the Ukraine war serves our interests and is worth threatening World War III, shared claims of corruption in the Ukraine government and expressed concern about the lack of accounting for how our funds and military hardware are being used. Even if we endorse supporting the Ukraine militarily, these concerns shouldn’t be minimized or ignored.
I'm not saying Carlson is an individualist or a libertarian. I'd say he is a conservative populist. He regularly has liberal guests such as Tulsi Gabbard, Glenn Greenwald, Alex Berenson and Michael Shellenberger. I know from watching Carlson he believes we have a uni-party government consisting of an elite that imposes laws and regulations that affect us but not them. I also know he has taken pot shots at libertarians and free market economics. So be it.
According to Megyn Kelly, Carlson wasn't fired. His show was taken off the air while Carlson is still under contract which was renewed in 2021 and expires in 2024. There is speculation that this was done to muzzle Carlson so that he won't be able to influence the 2024 election.
In evaluating Tucker Carlson, we should weigh his positives and negatives. Others have covered the negatives, so I won’t repeat them here. I’d narrow Carlson’s positives to two themes. One, his concern over the breakdown of civilization. Two, his concern over the constant and increasing attacks on free speech. (Free speech and civilization are interconnected.)
Whatever his flaws, you can tell Tucker was effective in asking uncomfortable and unpopular questions when you see the paroxysms of glee his departure has spawned on the left … and even on the right.
