TUCKER CARLSON IS WHAT
JOURNALISTS USED TO BE
It’s no mystery why Liberals hate Tucker Carlson.
Being Conservative, he’s seen as a traitor to the Left-leaning, country club, boarding school circle in which he grew up (his father had been president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and after divorcing Tucker’s mom would marry an heiress to the Swanson foods empire).
Why Tucker is distrusted by some Conservatives is less clear.
I suppose all of that upper-class childhood baggage created a lingering cloud of suspicion. And certainly his professional wanderings — from stints on CNN and New York Magazine, to co-founding the Daily Caller, to top billing at Fox News — have made him appear less than ideologically pure.
Many on the Right feel their unease was confirmed by text messages brought to light by a lawsuit involving Dominion, the manufacturer of dubious electronic voting machines. In those missives Tucker was revealed to have criticized Donald Trump for refusing to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration, and asserting that he “passionately” hated The Donald.
Ironically, thousands of pissed-off Trumpkins unexpectedly find themselves in agreement with CNN, which proclaimed that the texts exposed Tucker “as a fraud.”
To someone like me, who majored in a type of journalism now thought of as “old school” (Temple University 1969), Tucker’s apparent contradictions aren’t at all problematic. This is a guy who can raise questions about election integrity, vaccine effectiveness, administration perfidy, Biden family corruption, and numerous other issues close to the hearts of Conservatives — who can also endorse many of Trump’s policies, and applaud his accomplishments — all the while feeling repelled by a man whose behavior and personal idiosyncrasies make him very difficult to like.
I’d call that: Detachment. Perspective. Circumspection. Proportion. Balance.
In other words: Journalism.
It’s the way reporters, and rewrite men, and commentators, and editorialists, and TV news producers used to conduct themselves — or at least try to. It’s how journalism used to be done (that is to say, by keeping your personal feelings to yourself). At a minimum, it’s an ideal to which those in the news business once aspired, even if they fell short in the striving.
And for this Tucker Carlson is being slammed?
By airing January 6th footage provided by the GOP House leadership, Tucker has played an invaluable (even historic) role in exposing the Left’s anti-American treachery.
After his broadcast, it’s now beyond question that the Capitol Hill incursion was the Democrats’ version of the “Reichstag Fire.” Just as Hitler’s agents torched the German parliament in order to blame anti-Nazi political parties, Capitol police and federal plants apparently encouraged (even tempted) election demonstrators into the Capitol Building, making a legitimate (if rowdy) protest look like an insurrection.
With police assistance, Jacob Chansley, the infamous, horn-wearing “QAnon Shaman,” walked all the way to the House speaker’s platform. There he actually prayed for the welfare of the police officers, a moment that yielded a photo-op seen around the world, and portrayed as “proof” of revolutionary intent.
(To compound the Democrat’s sin, exculpatory video was withheld from the January 6th defendants’ attorneys, and even the judge in that case.)
Unsurprisingly, Leftists are falling all over themselves to deny the undeniable. A post on the website of the Poynter Institute (purported guardian of journalistic ethics) provides a perfect illustration. It alleges that Tucker’s broadcast made “7 false claims,” based on the January 6th footage, that “falsely portray the riot as a peaceful gathering and push long-debunked claims.”
Those “long-debunked claims” are about (naturally) the teensy-weensy possibility that there might have been something irregular in Joe Biden’s big win over Donald Trump…
“Allegations of a rigged election have been refuted by audits, judges, federal agencies, state election officials and technology experts, as well as officials and advisers in Trump’s administration.”
Oh, have they?
Really?
Mike Lindell, call your office.
So…are Conservatives rallying around Tucker, who is the only mainstream media figure to confront Democrat sedition so openly (and so persuasively)?
Where Leftists have long followed the dictum, “No enemies on the Left,” Conservatives are once again calling out the “circular firing squad.” For instance, a group of Republican lawmakers (shown below) are supporting Chuck Schumer’s objections to Tucker’s airing of the January 6th footage.
Rumors are swirling that Tucker is leaving Fox News. One story is that Rupert Murdoch has bowed to establishment pressure to silence Tucker before even more devastating images emerge. Another holds that Tucker has had it with management restraints on what he wants to reveal about the dubious regime in power.
I’m not sure either theory is true. Tucker may simply have shown everything his staff can document firmly, after their perusal of 40,000-plus hours of footage. Time will tell what the future holds for his status at Fox.
Meanwhile, let us acknowledge the obvious: Whatever his ideological anomalies, Tucker Carlson is a man who has made a remarkable life journey, from rich kid in a broken Liberal family, to media icon.
He is that rare thing today.
A journalist.
And in this, he is a national treasure.
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Update…
The Babylon Bee zeroes in on what’s really frightening about Tucker airing that January 6th video…
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Appearing on the online interview show, “Redacted,” Tucker Carlson explained to his former Fox News colleague, Clayton Morris, how the January 6th video footage was analyzed with complete cooperation from Capitol Police authorities, as well as how decisions were made about which images to show. He also shared some very affecting self-revelation about his background and personal philosophy. It’s an interesting insight into one of the most important media figures of our time…
10FFGRID says
Absolutely factually CORRECT.
D3F1ANT says
Tucker is almost what all journalists used to be. Even he is holding back exculpatory footage that he’s been given of J6.
Pat says
From Facebook…
Tucker Carlson is a strong, courageous man. I agree with his views totally and pray for his safety daily.
Diane says
I am grateful I am able to watch the news from this journalist. Tucker Carlson is a free thinking, sensible, and discerning warm human being. Americans need this sane voice as we resist the plummeting of Bad Ideas in government. Thank you—thank you, Tucker Carlson.