What some fans disliked most about Tucker on Twitter’s first episode one suspects his Fox News overlords disliked most about Tucker Carlson Tonight.
On the latter show, Carlson occasionally flirted with sunbathing on the grassy knoll while wearing a tinfoil hat as he scanned the heavens for black helicopters. It represented a minor part of that program, which otherwise offered appointment viewing amid the cable-news wasteland.
His Twitter commentary did not flirt with such sensibilities. It slow danced with them.
Carlson and Conspiracy Theories Galore
The 10-minute-27-second inaugural episode started out, through cui bono logic, deducing that Ukraine blew up the Kahkovka dam; talked about alleged mysteries surrounding 9/11, Jeffrey Epstein, and the JFK assassination in the middle; and delved into UFOs and extraterrestrials toward the end.
Ep. 1 pic.twitter.com/O7CdPjF830
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 6, 2023
Surely someone out there, truly out there, complains that he did not make time for Big Foot and the Shadow People. Others more grounded wish that he had stuck to what worked on cable rather than branch out into areas the network format did not permit.
On Fox, Tucker Carlson morphed into this generation’s Rush Limbaugh. On Twitter, he sounds more like Art Bell. (RELATED: Life After Tucker Carlson: Is Fox News Finished?)
Both men pulled a crowd, so the comparison does not intend to insult but instead raise a question: What crowd? Does Carlson want an audience of the easily influenced? Then keep talking about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination. Does Carlson want an audience of the especially influential? Then emphasize illegal aliens and not space aliens.
Carlson Delves Into Ukrainian Politics
It got worse than the conspiracy-theory stuff best layered over Twilight Zone music.
He used a video, selectively edited (not by Carlson’s people), purportedly showing Sen. Lindsey Graham saying to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: “The Russians are dying. It’s the best money we’ve ever spent.” Graham did utter both sentences, but not in that order and instead 45 seconds apart. Playing that clip distorted the meaning of what Graham said.
Here, Carlson and Zelensky share more in common than either would care to admit. Both hold firm views on the Russia–Ukraine War, and, as another man who long ago served in the same chamber that Graham does once said, “The first casualty when war comes is truth.”
The office of the Ukrainian president doctored the video. A week prior to the release of the first episode of Tucker on Twitter, reports, though perhaps not far and wide, did expose the dishonest editing by the Ukrainians, making Carlson’s mistake quite preventable. Adding to the likely frustration of the host, the truth of the lie — Ukrainian propagandists twisted the words of a key U.S. ally for their ends — actually served Carlson’s broader rhetorical point better than the lie did. Carlson not only spread fake news here, but he missed an opportunity to better illustrate his heterodox take on Zelensky as villainous.
In Conservative News, Carlson Stood Out
A network gig comes with producers, editors, lawyers, and other vetting agents who compel a host to operate between certain boundaries. It seems as though Carlson did not like that aspect of his former job. But, as his Twitter program revealed, he needs the restraints imposed by such people.
As another child of a media mogul once sang, “Nobody does it better.” Tucker Carlson Tonight was not just the best show on cable news; it was arguably the best show in the short history of cable news.
Carlson’s commentary drew monster cable ratings for a reason. He captivated in his ability to convey a story, looked at the news from a unique perspective, and more often than not led his audience to his ground rather than follow them to theirs. Whereas other talking-head programs essentially offer the visual equivalent of a cliché in that the viewer can generally predict what comes next, Carlson often fell on the side of an issue the audience did not anticipate. It bores when you know what happens next.
Carlson did not fit in. He stood out.
Fox damaged itself gravely in dumping its ratings juggernaut. The initial episode of Tucker on Twitter suggests that the change hurt both parties.