WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2023
...for what Tucker Carlson did: In this morning's widely praised report, we discussed some of what Tucker Carlson did in Monday night's opening monologue.
Just this once, let's be frank: We don't even have a word for what this "lost boy" did.
Also, we don't really have a word for a related phenomenon:
We don't have a word for the fact that someone can do what Carlson did and no one will say a word.
At this site, we've tended to describe this cultural phenomenon as an "imitation of life"—more specifically, in this case, as an imitation of discourse.
But no, we aren't the rational animal, and we don't have a national discourse. We have a culture in which tribes shout soundbites at each other and call each other names.
In fairness, it's very, very, very hard to critique what Carlson did. The lapses of logic and self-contradictions come at you thick and fast.
The false or unfounded factual claims are instantaneous and general. It's easy to create a realm built on misdirection, much harder to take it apart.
We tend think of something the later Wittgenstein said in a totally different context:
Here it is difficult as it were to keep our heads up...We feel as if we had to repair a torn spider's web with our bare hands.
Speaking to millions of people each night, Carlson tears spider's webs. His viewers don't hear the logical leaps and the flight from facts—and for the most part, the rest of the world just lets the whole gong-show go.
For what it's worth, we'll mention Morning Joe once again:
How did the virulently anti-Trump show react to Monday afternoon's court filing, in which Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that at least four Fox hosts had "endorsed" Sidney Powell's crackpot claims about the way Dominion Voting Systems had stolen the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump?
How did the program react to that front-page news? As we noted yesterday, the fiery program completely ducked the issue on Tuesday morning.
On this morning's four-hour show, the name "Murdoch" was mentioned exactly once. It was mentioned in the manner shown, right at the start of a new segment at 6:24 A.M.:
[Videotape begins]
JIMMY FALLON: A new court filing shows that Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch admitted some of the network's hosts endorsed false claims about the 2020 election. Today, Fox News promised to focus on real issues, then introduced their newest host, Dilbert.
[Videotape ends]
MIKA: Oh, wow! O.K. Welcome back to Morning Joe.
It's 24 past the hour. I guess we should give Trump a moment to not watch, because he doesn't want to get triggered, Willie.
From there, Mika introduced a discussion of Ron DeSantis. Translation:
When someone out in the world says "Fox," Morning Joe plays it safe and says "Trump."
We lack a word for what Tucker does, or for the ongoing dumbnification of the online Washington Post and the increasingly fatuous Slate. It's a dumb, dumb upper-end media world, and the media tends not to say so.
Again, MSNBC has been all over the Dominion story from the time FOX was shoveling the big lie bullshit. It was Bob who made it
ReplyDeletea moral imperative NOT to care.
He is a weirdo.
He didn't make a claim here that they have not.
DeleteIt’s implied strongly in his weirdo
Deletecomments about Morning Joe.
He is taking one thing completely
out of context that is a dubious
point anyway. He is playing his
readers for rubes.
Strawman arguments are very boring. Can't you do any better?
DeleteTrolls are very boring too. Can't YOU do any better @3:49?
Delete3:49 doesn’t know what a straw man argument is but I guess he thinks it sounds cool.
DeleteHow do you define a strawman argument 4:50?
Delete3:04, this is a quote from Somerby’s post: “ We don't have a word for the fact that someone can do what Carlson did and no one will say a word."
DeleteNO ONE, he says. That is untrue. False. BS.
Really? What is your source?
DeleteAs I said yesterday, O’Donnell led with the Fox story and came down hard on Murdoch and the Fox hosts. That was night before last. Chris Hayes covered it last night. Just go look for yourself. If you are too much of a dimwit to find their web pages, let me know.
DeleteFor the dimwits:
Delete“Rupert Murdoch's 'temple of lies' at Fox exposed by Dominion lawsuit”
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-rupert-murdoch-s-temple-of-lies-at-fox-exposed-by-dominion-lawsuit-164149317743
More for the dimwits:
DeleteWhy Fox is the 'most destructive institution in all of American politics'
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/hayes-why-fox-is-the-most-destructive-institution-in-all-of-american-politics-164223045855
No claim has been made here that Lawrence or MSNBC have not been all over the Dominion story.
Deletemh - you are misunderstanding what "what Carlson did" as the Dominion story. It was his overstatement about the origins of Covid.
DeleteNext.
mh I guess you missed it when he wrote that outlets were covering the Dominion story.
Delete"This week, pundits are asking why Rupert Murdoch, back in 2020, let Dobbs, Bartiromo, Pirro and Hannity pimp Sidney Powell's crazy claims about Dominion Voting Systems. We've seen no one ask why Murdoch lets his excitable boy go on the air with presentations like the one he offered this Monday night."
So yeah, you misread and misunderstood this one. Better luck next time.
Somerby did make that claim when he said that Joe didn't talk about Murdoch at all and Mika only read a hostage statement.
DeleteYa. Better luck next time mh.
DeleteThe usual suspects in Alt/Left media (mostly on YouTube) have always covered Tucker’s lunacy; collectively they have a greater audience than Fox even.
DeleteSomerby is wrong, today is Wednesday.
I slightly prefer the amusing trolls/fanboys over the ones that are just plain boring.
What is not a crime? What crime? Are you sure you are quoting accurately? Can you precise your claim and provide the relevant basis for it?
DeleteFunny mm was calling other people dimwits while simultaneously displaying a total misunderstanding of the concepts under discussion.
DeleteThese damn hellbillies man.
mm hasn’t commented here in years.
DeleteFreaks me out these idiot hicks that have taken over the Democratic party. They're dumb as stones!
Delete11:36,
DeleteAgree that Center-Left is almost a tenth as bad as the Right, and five times worse than the extreme Left.
ReplyDelete"in which Rupert Murdoch acknowledged that at least four Fox hosts had "endorsed" Sidney Powell's crackpot claims about the way Dominion Voting Systems had stolen the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump?"
Puh-leeze, dear Bob.
WTF does it even mean "endorsed"? Sidney Powell presented the claims, journos reported them. They report, and you, dear Bob, decide. Certainly your dembot side -- massively more powerful -- didn't have any obstacles in confronting those claims.
...and there's absolutely nothing "crackpot" about those claims. What, you can't imagine that software can switch votes? In that case, you're "crackpot", we're afraid...
It's totally like nobody counted the paper reciepts to check the machine tabulation you numbnutz. Even the goofy ass Cyber Ninjas with their baseless Bamboo Fiber theories came up empty. Try doing it more better.
DeleteCrackpots can’t see other crackpots, especially
ReplyDeleteyou, idiot.
Mao Cheng Ji is not a cracpot or a weirdo. He’s a Russian troll.
ReplyDeleteHe could certainly be all 3
Delete"We don't have a word for the fact that someone can do what Carlson did and no one will say a word."
ReplyDeleteThere is too much garbage out there for people to waste their time saying any words about it. If people are stupid enough to believe anything Carlson said, they are lost souls. Their relatives, who care about, will try to intervene, but usually it does no good.
This is a free country where people can say what they will. It would be nice if Murdoch had some social conscience but given that he doesn't, there is no reason to throw away their lives trying to address Carlson.
You might ask whether the same applies to commenting on what Somerby writes here. The main difference is that someone can leave a comment here. If an opinion columnist were to address Carlson's daily garbage, he or she would have to forfeit the use of their column for more productive purposes. The same is not true of comments on a blog.
I do question whether Somerby is sincere about people addressing what Carlson says. He hasn't spent much of his own time with it until just the last day or two. That makes me wonder about his recent motives for doing this.
It isn't the job of any mainstream newspaper or cable news show or opinion writer to address Tucker Carlson's noise. Trying to hand that responsibility off to the blue tribe is ridiculous and seems like a ploy to keep us busy with nonsense so we have no time to be effective at getting more Democrats elected. That is Job 1, not trying to fact check Tucker.
"We lack a word for what Tucker does, or for the ongoing dumbnification of the online Washington Post and the increasingly fatuous Slate."
ReplyDeleteFalse equivalency alert.
Somerby's inability to use the Search or links at the online Washington Post is in no way equivalent to anything Tucker Carlson says at Fox.
Somerby's dislike of advice columns and self-help on Slate is in no way equivalent to anything Tucker Carlson says at Fox.
There is nothing dumb or fatuous about people living their lives and having interests beyond politics that motivate them to read or listen to things Somerby is bored by, and this is in no way equivalent to anything Tucker Carlson says on Fox.
He didn't say they were equivalent.
DeleteYou just go right on thinking that...
DeleteWhat do you think the word "or" means? Do you think words like dumnification and fatuous are compliments?
4:57
DeleteThe full passage is this:
“We lack a word for what Tucker does, or for the ongoing dumbnification of the online Washington Post and the increasingly fatuous Slate. It's a dumb, dumb upper-end media world, and the media tends not to say so.”
He calls Carlson, the Post, and Slate (the “upper end media world”) “dumb, dumb.”
What Carlson (or “Tucker” as Somerby affectionately calls him) is doing is propaganda (how’s that for finding a word to describe what Carlson does?). Calling it “dumb” is Somerby’s way of making the three equivalent. It’s plain as day.
They're only equivalent in that he doesn't have words for them. They're not equivalent to each other. There's no false equivalence of each to the other.
DeleteOne can lack a word to describe the deliciousness of ice cream or for the incompetence of, say, a person making an argument. That doesn't mean the two are the same. Does it now?
DeleteNext.
The word "or" means that either of the phrases can satisfy the criterion of lacking words. But mh is right that the negative adjectives used by Somerby within the phrases are not conditional, and since he has used them for both Carlson and the left wing media, he is finding them both lacking, equating them in that way. Often Somerby clarifies this by saying "just as bad", when talking about mainstream media.
DeleteI don't think anyone here is in doubt about how Somerby feels about the mainstream media. In his other essay today, he says:
"No such discussion could ever occur within our broken journalistic / academic culture. At present, The Crazy comes from several directions, frequently joined by The Merely Stretched or Overwrought, and of course by The Dumb and The Performative and The Merely Ludicrous.
This has been happening for a long time. We started this site in 1998 because things had gotten so bad within the mainstream press.
Our own blue tribe is involved in this cultural breakdown, though we're generally unable to see this. Meanwhile, as Carlson thrashes and flails, mainstream reporters frisk Murdoch's lassitude from three years ago, except on Morning Joe."
He is clearly equating Carlson with the mainstream media, more explicitly, in that passage.
Yes, you're right - he is probably drawing an equivalence between Carlson and the Washington Post and Slate as dumb. I apologize. That is probably true.
Deletemh, you’re right. A politically aligned talk show and the politically aligned Slate, should not be the equivalent of the WP. But they are.
DeleteBob’s point is that both commentary and reporting have been intellectually dumbed down and are also mixed together in a partisan fashion.
That take is just a bit less controversial than proclaiming that there is no anatomical basis for gender.
Your point is to fault-find Bob and typify that as being scintillating comment board discussion.
Leave the dumbing down of society to the GOP. They're the pros.
DeleteIt's funny that mm will post anonymously and under different names to quixotically and ham-fistedly try to take down Bob. I wonder what's that's about. I guess it's some sort of defense of the Democratic party. But he ends up supporting the most distrusted institution in our country by default, the mainstream media. He puts himself in the tiniest minority of Americans in that way. It's very strange. And he fails at it over and over and over again. It's very bizarre. He's very behind the times.
DeleteAnonymouse flying monkey 8:28 am, give anonymouse flying monkeys their well deserved credit. You’re the champs at that.
Delete9:28,
DeleteSorry, I left Third Grade decades ago. Remind me again, which one of us is rubber, and which one of us is glue.
Anonymouse flying monkey 9:39pm, Neither.
DeleteYou’re a flying monkey type of anonymouse . That’s the only accurate comparison.
I would say total bullshit alert. MSNBC calls
ReplyDeleteout Tokyo Tucker all the time.
Tucker recently said Trump is a “demonic force” and a “destroyer”, so Tucker is no longer getting a Christmas card from Somerby.
ReplyDeleteAlso Russia wants China as an ally so it prefers it’s “ambassadors” (Somerby, Trump, most Repubs, etc) not talk shit about China; having said that, it’s extremely doubtful Covid was a lab leak, and of course nobody credible is bothering to claim the nonsense that Covid is man made or purposefully released.
Unlike the Trump/Russia collusion, which was real, China is not really communist, not even close. It’s basically state capitalism functioning under an autocracy.
Poor Russia, they had it good with Trump, it was a successful collusion, but now with Biden, they’re getting their ass handed to them. Oof!
Oh and look at Iran, nearly having weapons grade uranium now; what a bunch of morons, Trump and his supporters.
I can’t think of anything stupid and irrelevant, so I won’t comment.
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