It's now clear that the three big names at Fox News are liars. But, of the three, Tucker Carlson's story is actually kind of sad. Michael Harris writes:
Back in his CNN days, he was a rare bird in journalism: a super-intelligent and articulate conservative, a kind of lineal descendant of William F. Buckley. In those days, he shared the stage with Bill Press, who represented the progressive point of view on a show called Crossfire. They were both so good at presenting their views that on any given day, a reasonable viewer could agree with either of them. So why did Carlson become the Benedict Arnold of journalism?
Harris believes it's an old tale about vanity:
Like Narcissus gazing into the pond and falling in love with his own image, Carlson looked into the vanity mirror of television and saw a titan who held public opinion in the palm of his hand, or at least he did weeknights from 8-9 p.m. At Fox, he became something he had never been before during earlier stints at the Weekly Standard, CNN, or MSNBC: a big star. Like a lot of right-wing media narcissists, his personal status eclipsed his obligations to his audience. Carlson’s own words, as revealed in court filings for Dominion’s defamation case, leave little doubt.
The vanity is all over Carlson's emails:
Here is what he said about the people at Fox News who correctly called Arizona for Biden in the 2020 election before any other network:
“We worked really hard to build what we have. … Those fuckers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”
Here is what Carlson texted to Ingraham when he found out that Trump belatedly disavowed Powell, and her Twilight Zone conspiracy lunacies about rigged election machines.
“Powell’s a nut, as you said at the outset. Totally wrecked my weekend. Wow, I had to try and make the WH disavow her, which they obviously should have done long before.”
Here’s what Carlson said when a Fox News reporter, Jacqui Heinrich, used her personal Twitter account to fact-check one of Trump’s tweets.
“Please get her fired. Seriously. What the fuck? Actually shocked. It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
Harris paraphrases Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons:
“It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world—but for ratings Tucker?”
Carlson isn't the first man to sacrifice so much for so little.
Image: Vox
