Shock: Tucker Carlson Out At Fox
Run, Tucker, run! Carlson-DeSantis 2024!
Absolutely stunning news about Carlson’s leaving Fox. As of this writing, there is no indication of why he and Fox have separated, or who initiated it, though one has to assume that it was Fox corporate, given the circumstances. Was it because of the Dominion lawsuit settlement? Was firing Tucker one of the demands Fox agreed to? Or was it the case that facing such a massive payout — I think worth 25 percent of the entire value of Fox News — they couldn’t afford any longer to keep on a host whose show, despite being the top rated in cable news, lost money.
Did you know that? Yes, it’s true. The Left’s boycott threats intimidated woke capitalists, who declined to advertise on his show. The advertisers he did have, I understand (though not from him), paid a bargain rate. I don’t know if the show cost Fox money, but it wasn’t making them much, despite the blockbuster ratings.
Unless he has some other media plan up his sleeve, I hope Tucker Carlson runs for president. He has said in the past, both publicly and to me privately, that he wouldn’t do that to his family, but maybe he has, or will, change his mind.
Think about it: Trump is at this point the favorite to win the GOP nomination. He has just that much of a hold over the MAGA audience. He would lose to Biden, no doubt. DeSantis was supposed to be the savior — Smart MAGA, without the Trump drama, with a very good chance to beat the elderly Democratic incumbent. But he’s been choking so far in facing up to Trump, and there are serious concerns that his lack of charisma is going to get him walloped by Trump. It already is.
As you know, I’m a DeSantis backer, but at this point, less than a year before the first primaries, it’s looking like Trump is going to beat DeSantis like a drum, and DeSantis isn’t going to know how to handle him. I did not expect that, but here we are. This is an opportunity for someone.
Enter Tucker Carlson, who is like no one else on the Right. Nobody can question his MAGA credentials, and his anti-establishment populism. But he’s also not dumb about MAGA, either. Nobody can doubt his charisma, or his boldness. His show has been pretty much the only place in the mainstream media where you could find people of the Left who questioned the Narrative on war, for example. He would be the anti-Deep State president that Trump only pretended to be — or perhaps wanted to be, but was too distracted by his own weaknesses.
Could he take down Trump? I think he could. I think he understands Trump very well — his strengths and his weaknesses. And he’s very quick on his feet, Tucker is, in a way DeSantis is not. And he has charisma to burn.
A Tucker-DeSantis ticket would be the Generation X Saves The World team. As stunned and as sorry as I am by this news today, if it means we will see Tucker Carlson take on the mantle of MAGA-world Trump Slayer, and Trump Successor. That is, he could be the man who would save the country from a second Biden term by taking out Trump, and could actually get to Washington and, knowing well how it works (he was raised there, and his father worked for the government), might actually turn things around, in ways Trump failed to do. He could be Reaganesque. A Carlson-DeSantis ticket would be a dream team.
Watch the second half Tucker’s Heritage Speech last week. I’ve cued it to the right spot. Tell me what it would be like to have a man like that in the White House:
From Michael Brendan Dougherty's take:
<<Fox has plentiful reasons to believe that the 8 p.m. nightly time slot is the valuable property, not the talent that occupies it. But I doubt anyone will drive as many viewers or as much conversation as did Tucker. Tucker’s fall at Fox is almost certainly not just the result of whatever Fox is going through legally at the moment. It was also assisted by the left’s ad boycott against Tucker’s show, the largest audience in nightly cable television. A subscription service would eliminate any possibility of this.
The biggest dynamic now in media and politics is still insiders vs. outsiders. And consistently Tucker Carlson is taking a more outsider view — on the Ukraine war, the opioid epidemic, immigration, public-health diktats, the intelligence community, and so on. His being shut out at Fox News will be seen as a reconsolidation for the Establishment, even on the Republican side. His likely re-emergence in the world of independent broadcasters will further consolidate that audience as well.>>
NO NO NO NO NO. Buchanan should never have run for President either. DeSantis is NOT doomed and his wonkery is a plus. Carlson needs just to find another slot, and jolly good luck to him. At least he doesn’t have to play nice with that moron Hannity any more.