Tucker Carlson was larger than life on the Fox network. He was the prime-time star host Fox News banked on for eyeballs. When Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corporation discovered the 53-year-old host had become a liability, it dismissed him on 24 April. Much like those twinkling stars in the sky, which die out eventually, Mr Carlson bowed out in a surprise ejection coup by Fox Corp. The Fox News Tonight showman was a nuisance and Fox Corp had no hesitation in getting him out.
Fox Corp is confident the show will go on nevertheless. So is Mr Carlson, controversies’ favourite child. He will soon find new media outlets to spread his toxicity. Expect him to ensure his poison reaches American homes soon every night. Mr Carlson’s abrupt dismantling from his prime-time pedestal at Fox News (hereafter referred as ‘Fox’) came as an unprecedented shock for loyal media constellations in America’s right-wing galaxy. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/24/tucker- carlson-fox-aoc-trump-twitter-reaction
Video Courtesy: YouTube/Inside Edition
America’s Resentment Receptacle
Not without reason. Mr Carlson was much more than a news host, he was the prime mover of right-wing conspiracy theories. As a right-wing propagandist, Mr Carlson strode across Fox as a cable-news colossus, for a good six years, purveying pernicious supremacist theories. In this divisive role, he played his part to perfection. He was Cable America’s most-watched and the most-discussed media personality, hate personified. https://poliphoon.com/fox-news-is-fracturing-democracy/
Mr Carlson has been America’s resentment receptacle, from wherein he doled out his populist hate-poison. He played this role in his own inimitable trademark style. Fox provided him a stellar stage to help him do that. As American democracy’s tormentor-in-chief, Mr Carlson was a prolific hate factory, churning out his nauseating output of resentment night after night. In his virtual kangaroo court for imagined grievances, he was the judge. https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2023/0424/Tucker-Carlson-gone-Fox-News-announces-departure-of-popular-host
Targeted the Liberal Elite Regularly
The jury and the executioner, as well. His unctuous body-language enhanced this triple-role performance. In the contemporary history of America’s host-show presenters, he occupies a prominent position, both as the most-loved and the most-hated. Simply because he was eminently destructive. As a sadist media personality, who relished propagating hurtful right-wing theories of polarisation and divisiveness, Mr Carlson had no match.
Targeting the liberal elite regularly, Mr Carlson discredited them and their narratives to further his weird theories. Mr Carlson had no option but to stick to this strategy, because he was not only the spreader of white supremacy, a firm believer of this mindless inegalitarian notion. His anti-Semitic orientation oozed through his talk-shows. Worse, his racist mindset fomented xenophobic and anti-LGBT hate in a society that takes pride in inclusion. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/03/tucker- carlson-film-antisemitic-attack-against-george-soros
Sure to Straddle Across the Cable
Evaluated against these metrics, Fox may struggle, albeit temporarily, to replace Mr Carlson. Eventually, Fox will manage. Yet, questions remain: will Fox be able to find someone to fill in the shoes of a fibbing and filibsutering Mr Carlson? Can the network bring in Mr Carlson’s place a news host who is such a prolific creator of canards? Seeped in separatism and seasoned with hatred, Mr Carlson, the merchant of political poison, is not going away so soon. https://poliphoon.com/fox-news-is-fracturing- democracy/
Mr Carlson may be out of Fox, his last show on Fox might have been on 21 April, but he is sure to straddle across the cable, at least as long as right-wingers exist. For them, Mr Carlson is a demigod, personification of everything they believe in. However, for those who swear by democracy and fair play, he is a devil incarnate who represents everything they deride against. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/opinion/letters/tucker-carlson-fox-news.html
The First Amendment Irony
There is an interesting and an inevitable irony here. So far, Mr Carlson has been able to carry on with his poisonous preaching and ply his trade only because of the protection American democracy’s First Amendment offered him. He reviled the same democracy and its tenets. As cross-currents of emotion like these whirled around, American media men continued to pull their hairs over what exactly transpired during the final moments before Mr Carlson’s exit from Fox.
As Mr Carlson’s exit comes in less than a week after Fox settled its defamation suit of Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5m, does his departure have something to do with Fox’s settlement of the suit? Or, were other similar pending lawsuits, like the one filed by former Fox employee Abby Grossberg for workplace discrimination, and the defamation suit of voting-tech company Smartmatic, responsible for aiding and forcing Mr Carlson’s exit? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/business/media/tucker-carlson-abby-grossberg-lawsuit.html
Will Play the Pied Piper
Whatever led to his exit, an out-of-Fox Carlson will not be out of right-wing politics. This is for sure. There are three options before Mr Carlson now. One, he may resurface soon on another right-wing network, perhaps Newsmax or One America News Network, aka OAN. Two, He may move farther right and float his own poison-filled network with some help from right-aligned private equity and venture capital firms.
Whichever option he decides on, Mr Carlson will try to play the pied piper to his loyal following on Fox. He will take them along to his network. Three, he may even stray into American politics and run for presidency against Donald Trump, the man he reportedly despises. So, Mr Carlson will not stop doing what he is good at. Probably, he will now spew more hatred, spit greater venom and spread his politics of polarisation far and wide. Bad luck for American democracy, Mr Carlson’s lies will get more audacious and more blatant. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/business/dealbook/th e-calculus-behind-firing-tucker-carlson.html
In Conclusion
Let democracy-lovers be forewarned, your bugbear is not going away for good. He goes missing from his Tucker Carlson Tonight at 8 pm hereon. However, he will be still there somewhere, on a network, to fox American audiences with his calculated conspiracy theories, inflammatory incitations against immigrants and blusters over black-rights activists. He will display his devious right-wing wares elsewhere on some fiery talk show, propped up by a profit-lusting and power-hungry media mogul. He can always find another Murdoch. Mr Carlson is not the one to get tuckered out so easily.
