[JEFFGOLDSTEIN] On the day I finally became verified on Twitter — which also happens to be my youngest’s eleventh birthday (Happy Birthday, Tanner!) — Fox News has announced it is parting ways with Tucker Carlson, host of what was the single most popular cable TV news show, and the only show on a major network that I can think of that matters in any important way to the national political dialogue. Per the LA Times, Rupert Murdoch made the final decision — purportedly over a discrimination suit — but most likely because Murdoch despises his own audience and always has. Murdoch was also none too pleased with Carlson’s willingness to state unequivocally that Big Pharma was granted the power to harm so many of us, and that federal agents were clandestinely placed undercover on January 6, which "60 Minutes" assures us is just plain silly, Mr Conspiracy Pants!
Love him or not — agree with him or not — Tucker Carlson’s voice is strong, unique, and bracing. Unlike, say, Sean Hannity, whose narrative brush strokes are driven by instructions on the paint-by-numbers canvas provided by his GOP and corporate handlers, Tucker was one of the few on-air talents on the network you could see at times wrestling against the network’s hidden restraints, which we’ve all long known were there, and which we’ve all along known were being used to keep certain stories out of the news cycle, and to foster certain narratives that the Uniparty favors or even promotes.
To me, it was obvious at the time of his release of January 6 footage — and the sudden and inexplicable stoppage of that release during subsequent shows — that bosses at Fox had applied to clamps to the January 6 story, and that Tucker had unfortunately buckled. Since then, though, his edge has only sharpened. He has, it seems, come to understand just exactly how important his voice has become to the New Right — which shouldn’t be confused with the "alt right." The New Right have adopted more populist positions than the establishment GOP, certainly; and yes, they fight more effectively than Conservative Inc., because they’re willing to get dirt underneath their fingernails without fretting about their recent manicures. But more than that, Carlson’s connection to the New Right is in his nascent understanding of the ideology that is driving both the left and, by proxy, those in the Uniparty who are happy to go along with it.
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