Company Owned by Rupert Murdoch Posts Tucker's Big Announcement Video - And the Comments Are Gold
You’ve probably heard by now that Tucker Carlson is resuming his program.
Recently cancelled by Fox News, Carlson says he’ll pick up where he left off — this time on Twitter.
That’s big news.
All the establishment outlets are covering it, including The New York Times, the Associated Press, NPR, and even Fox News competitors CNBC and CNN Business.
But at the Fox News YouTube channel — crickets. Same with the network’s web site. As if this was an oldtime Soviet purge, Fox’s former star of stars is a non-person.
Which is not surprising — it’s a typical move in media: Why mention someone we hope you’ll forget?
Which is why it’s a big story — the phenomenal success of Carlson’s 8 p.m. Fox show may have been what kept Fox’s right-leaning audience from completely leaving a network whose conservative fires have been fading.
Some claim ousting Carlson represented suicide on Fox’s part, which is why the word “Foxweiser” is being used.
If Fox is understandably silent, what is surprising is that Carlson’s new show has been covered by both The Wall Street Journal and, at least on YouTube, the New York Post.
Those publications belong to Fox parent News Corp., controlled by the Murdoch family, who are said to be personally responsible for Carlson’s ouster.
But coverage has been limited.
On its YouTube channel, the Post shared Carlson’s entire 3-minute announcement of his move to Twitter.
However, its online print edition carried no news story about the Twitter move by the departed Fox star, but did mention it in a story about Musk reaching out to former CNN host Don Lemon, cut from his network about the same time as Carlson.
Musk asked Lemon to consider coming to Twitter.
The Wall Street Journal carried an online and print edition story of Carlson’s move along with a video excerpt of Carlson’s announcement about it.
Most of the Journal’s story focused on Carlson’s tenure at Fox, the legal controversies surrounding his firing, the Dominion Voting Systems settlement, and the leaked Carlson communications regarding it, along with Musk’s comments to Lemon.
It also noted that Musk tweeted that no formal agreement had been signed between Carlson and Twitter and that Carlson would be subject to the same standards as other Twitter creators.
On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said.
And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes.
I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is… https://t.co/0TMjuYnKUp
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2023
Meanwhile, commenters on the New York Post’s YouTube channel were ecstatic about the news of Carlson’s return.
With some 46,000 viewers for just the Post video (Carlson received millions on Twitter), along with more than 2,000 “likes,” Carlson’s fans were saying things like:
“Glad to see you back so quickly Tucker! I’m cheering every step of your way!”
“People will walk over broken glass to hear someone who isn’t ‘beholden’ to corporate media speak freely. Tucker has been pretty even-handed in his criticism of BOTH parties. I’d encourage people to listen to what he has to say rather than what’s said about him.”
While one critic said the average Fox viewer aged 58+ “wants to sit and watch news,” and probably won’t “leap to a tiny cell phone reading tweets,” another commenter saw an opportunity: “You’re going to hear a lot of new users signing up for Twitter. [T]his is really going to rise up Twitters stock.”
So the hubhub and speculation about Tucker Carlson continues.
The rot of media credibility is reflected in the popularity of a host like him who can say — as Carlson did in his announcement about his move to Twitter, “At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie — a lie of the most stealthiest and insidious kind.”
And while the crickets chirp at Fox, some of their popular hosts may be wondering about their futures and their options.
Meanwhile, there’s a lot of news being made.
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