Tucker Carlson & his 'Trump-worshipping audience'
Carlson's huge success at Fox had little to do with Trump or what he said or really thought about the ex-Prez.
On Facebook an old journalist friend of mine that I worked with at the LA Times long ago asked me “How does someone (Carlson) who publicly lies that he’s enamored of Trump and confesses in private how much he loathes the man stay cool with his Trump worshiping audience, Bill?
As a regular viewer of Carlson’s show, here’s my answer:
Carlson's popularity has little to do with how he really feels about Trump.
He and his show rose to the top of the cable shit-heap in the last three years in large part because he showed he was not attached to Trump or any politician or the Republican party, which he hates almost as much as he hates neocons of both parties.
Plus his show was good TV -- lively, entertaining, well-produced segments and good writing by him in his opening rants.
Plus, he was not afraid to go against the Fox Corp. party line on things like the wars in the middle East and the foolish proxy war in Ukraine.
Plus he was not afraid early on to bring on covid/fauci dissidents like Alex Berenson, Scott Atlas and other docs/scientists who questioned or debunked things like lockdowns, mask mandates and vax boosters.
Plus he made Glenn Greenwald and other critics of our dishonest mainstream journalists regular guests.
Plus he wasn't afraid to quickly publicize Seymour Hersh's claim that -- obviously -- the US or our stooges blew up the Nord Stream pipeline, not Russia -- and then ask why the mainstream media were not interested in looking into it -- or even mentioning it.
Plus he regularly slammed the FBI/CIA/NSA spy industrial complex for its crimes and partisanship.
Plus he was not afraid to bear down on the Hunter laptop story, years before our great fellow journalists at the NYT and WaPo decided it was safe to admit that, yes, it was really Hunter's computer.
These and other less important issues were among Carlson's regular 'beats' and he pounded on them.
Whatever his flaws and failures, his show was the most successful show in cable TV history because it rewarded its viewers with surprising stuff or stuff they wanted to see. Carlson's enemies were their enemies.
Unlike CNN and MSNBC, whose ratings crashed when they no longer had Trump to beat up on every night, Carlson's show's ratings did not fall.
Trump had far less to do with Carlson's success than Trump haters -- or Carlson-haters -- think.
I'm still a devout libertarian -- which Carlson surely is not -- and I wish he'd change his positions on things like immigration and learn more about economics.
But I'm not so blinded by my differences with him that I can't appreciate and applaud the many good journalistic things that he, and only he, covered on his show.
Anyone who was actually willing to watch his show more than once had to be impressed by his lack of partisanship -- for Trump or anyone else.
(I’d add that Carlson also brought on people like Tulsi Gabbard, Col. Macgregor and RFK Jr. — each of whom have been derided or ignored by everyone in the main stream media.)
Great summary of Tucker’s appeal. That pretty much covers why I watched.