Monday, March 13, 2023

John Oliver on Tucker Carlson, a blast from the past

Happy Monday the 13th! For today's observance of Garfield the cat's least favorite day, I'm following a recommendation to myself in Colbert and Meyers take closer looks at Tucker Carlson and Fox News: "'[Y]our comment reminds me that I should post John Oliver's video about [Carlson]'...That's on my to-do list." There's no better day than today, so here's Tucker Carlson: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) from March 15, 2021. Beware the Ides of March!

Tucker Carlson is admired by white nationalists, elected officials, and maybe some of your relatives or coworkers. Given that he has the ear of so many Americans, John Oliver explains where Tucker came from, what his rhetorical tactics are, and what he represents.
I hadn't watched this before today and I'm struck by how well this segment holds up and how consistent Carlson has been about whitewashing the January 6th insurrectionists. I'm also struck by how well Carlson has learned the wrong lessons from other right-wing media figures. MSNBC's Chris Hayes examined one such lesson in The Tucker Carlson villain origin story.

Chris Hayes: “That video right there—Tucker getting booed at CPAC—might as well be his villain origin story.”
I'm not the least bit surprised, so I'm reiterating what I last repeated in Colbert examines Rupert Murdoch's deposition, DeSantis's book, and Sedition Panda's arrest.
I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling what I first wrote in 2011, "America is quite clear about its screwed up priorities­. My experience has convinced me that the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with their entertainm­ent." I'm also recycling what I wrote yesterday: "Telling the Fox News audience a truth they didn't want to hear messed with their entertainment, they reacted to get it back, and Fox gave it back to them."
The clip Hayes showed of the 2009 CPAC audience booing Carlson showed that was true even before he was on Fox News. Some things haven't changed other than to become worse.

Enough politics. Stay tuned for a string of holidays, beginning with Pi Day and International Day of Mathematics, the Ides of March, and St. Patrick's Day 2022.

No comments:

Post a Comment