Tucker Carlson’s Monologue Insults His Viewers
Conservatives are abuzz about a long monologue delivered on Fox News by the host Tucker Carlson, who intimated solidarity with “normal Americans” while accusing U.S. elites of callously betraying their countrymen. “If an obscure senator gave this speech,” Kyle Smith wrote at National Review, “he’d be famous overnight.”
“A man or woman who can talk like that with conviction could become president,” Rod Dreher gushed. “Voting for a conservative candidate like that would be the first affirmative vote I’ve ever cast for president.”
The monologue was compelling. It is easy to imagine large swaths of the viewing audience concluding that, if nothing else, the host is on their side. But Carlson failed the most basic test of respect for his audience: He told them blatant lies, falsehoods, and untruths, assuming that they wouldn’t notice. Some of us did.
[Conor Friedersdorf: Tucker Carlson is hurting America again]
A broadcaster’s untruths can be difficult to hear in real time, especially if he’s talented at modulating his
