CARLSON UNBOUND: It was the sheer stupidity, Stupid!

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2023

But also, the danger and the silence: Tucker Carlson was loaded for bear when last Tuesday night's program began.

He began, as he often (though not always) does, with a baldly inaccurate statement. His presentation dealt with NPR—and with the transgender movement:

CARLSON (3/28/23): Good evening, and welcome to Tucker Carlson Tonight.

It was just last week that we noticed that parts of the transgender movement seemed to be getting militant and possibly dangerous. We did a whole segment about it on Thursday night [March 23]. 

That segment was sparked by an NPR segment we had heard and never expected to hear. 

NPR as always, as a matter of editorial policy, completely opposes civilian ownership of firearms, with the possible exception of the IRS agents.  

Yet here suddenly was that very same station, National Public Radio, positively urging trans people to buy guns, as many guns as possible, and if necessary to use them. 

As usual, Carson was warning his viewers that a certain group of Others were becoming very dangerous. 

He began with a bit of snark in which NPR was said to be advocating for heavily armed IRS agents. Then, he described a surprising NPR segment—an NPR segment, needless to say, which had never taken place.

Had Carlson actually heard a broadcast in which NPR "urged trans people to buy as many guns as possible, and if necessary to use them?"

Actually no, he hadn't. Simply put, no such segment had ever been broadcast by NPR.

No such segment had ever been broadcast. But so it went at the start of the evening on the increasingly dangerous, frequently crackpot "cable news" program, Tucker Carlson Tonight. 

As Carlson spoke, his corporate owner, Fox News, was up to its ears in a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems. 

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the Fox News Channel and the Fox Business Channel had repeatedly aired crackpot claims about Dominion—crackpot claims which major players at Fox News had privately described as "crazy" and false.

As Carlson went on the air last Tuesday night, this behavior by Fox News had been widely reported and discussed. But here was Carlson, beginning his show with a bogus claim about a nonexistent NPR segment he seemed to think he had heard.

NPR had never aired any such report. At this link, you can listen to the actual segment to which Carlson referred. You can also read a clean, proofread transcript of what was actually said during the actual segment.

The segment described a group of trans people who were training themselves on the use of guns out of fear of anti-trans violence. At no point had NPR's Todd Bookman engaged in the types of advocacy Carlson seemed to think he had scarily heard.

In fairness to Carlson, a person can almost believe that he may have actually thought that he heard a segment of the type he described. 

Carlson's behavior isn't overtly disordered during every broadcast of Tucker Carlson Tonight. That said, his presentations routinely involve leaps of logic and fractured facts in such overt, ridiculous ways as to cause fair-minded viewers to wonder about his mental and medical well-being.

That said, Carlson's presentation was severely disordered last Tuesday night. His claims about the murderous "transgenderist" movement would only become more perverse on the following night.

In even a mildly rational world, it would be astounding to think that a major network like Fox News would put this person on the air at all, let alone at a time when the corporation's behavior is being dismantled in the course of a high-profile lawsuit.

That would be in a mildly rational world. In the universe we all inhabit, an entirely different set of standards and norms seems to apply.

It's going to take us all next week to walk you through the disordered claims Carlson made last Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On a journalistic basis, the sheer stupidity of Carlson's work was matched by its ugliness and by its menace—but of one thing Carlson could be sure:

As Carlson went on the air all last week, he could be sure of this:

No one in the wider press corps was going to say a word about what he was doing on these deranged, disordered broadcasts. He would be able to air his broadcasts without any reporting or commentary in the wider journalistic world.

On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, the sheer stupidity of Carlson's torrent of claims was matched by their irresponsibility and their danger and menace. That said, Fox News could feel fairly sure that no one in the mainstream press would report what Carlson was saying and doing.

On the blue tribe's cable news channel, Carlson's counterparts were happily discussing the topic they ride as a pleasurable hobbyhorse and as a ratings magnet:

Trump Trump Trump Trump Jail!

Blue tribe hosts ignored Carlson's broadcasts. Almost everywhere else, a similar silence prevailed. 

Last Thursday night, Carlson staged his most disturbing broadcast of the week. As we noted in this report, one young journalist at Salon reported what he had said and done.

One very young journalist was alarmed by the Fox star's lack of clothes. At the New York Times and the Washington Post, near total silence prevailed.

It was the (ongoing) silence of the lambs—the lambs of the mainstream press corps and of the blue tribal world. 

Starting next Monday, we'll spend a week taking you through the various ugly and dangerous claims the Fox ratings star broadcast last week. For today, one early admission:

We won't be able to get to it all. The lunacy was general over CarlsonWorld for three consecutive nights.

Carlson's claims were frequently nutty—but they were also disordered, dangerous. 

The New York Times didn't say a word; the Washington Post was silent. Dating at least to the 1990s, life has been easier, for all concerned, when they choose to avert their gaze. 

"It's the economy, Stupid," a famous campaign bromide once said.

All last week, it was the blinding stupidity you might have noticed first if you watched Carlson's programs. At first glance, It was the sheer stupidity, Stupid on this disordered show.

Also, though, it was the danger, and it was the menace. It was the dangerous air of menace as mainstream press silence prevailed. 

Next week: We'll try to do the best we can. There's no way to get to it all.