Tucker Carlson isn’t going anywhere, no matter how many times #TuckerMustGo trended. The morally repugnant Fox News host and “terrible, terrible person” brings in big ratings for Fox News, and as one ex-staffer told the Daily Beast, that’s the only thing that matters. “Fox cares nothing about integrity, character, decency,” former-host Juliet Huddy said, while another one-time employee added, “The dirty little secret is that FNC doesn’t care about losing advertisers. They make their money via cable conglomerates that pay them much money so that dumb fucks who worship FNC can continue being told what, in their heart of hearts, they want to believe. And that’s a lot of people.”
Carlson hosted Matt Gaetz in the midst of a sex trafficking scandal, reported on “the biggest story there is” (it involves sperm and smoking weed), angered military leaders after ridiculing female service members, defended Piers Morgan after his Megan Markle comments, endorsed a white supremacist theory, and was asked his opinion on the attack on the Capitol on January 6. He’s been extremely busy! Despite being “one of the most visible vessels[s] in America for white nationalist talking points,” as John Oliver put it, Carlson is “untouchable.”
“He’s untouchable. He knows it, his staff knows it, everyone knows it,” one Fox News insider said of Carlson’s standing with Fox management. “The Murdochs love him,” another former Fox News personality said. “Like them, he is a rich, prep school kid born with a silver spoon who traffics in populism while living in an expensive ivory tower and never meeting in real life the people he gins up for ratings.”
“Tucker is a near second,” one person said if Donald Trump is the most dangerous person in the world. Carlson, I have a feeling, takes that as a compliment.
