July 3, 2020

"This week, it was announced that Tucker Carlson Tonight recorded the highest-rated quarter for a cable news show ever...."

"[T]he data quickly debunks the notion that the channel and its hosts are not popular with the younger, key demographics... As was the case in total viewership, Fox News led by Carlson, dwarfed the competition in the 25-54 demo.... Carlson won the valued 18-48 demographic by an equitable margin... Executives are led to believe that the two demographics are highly influenced by Twitter and other social media platforms. Carlson, the media’s biggest star, provided a brutal counterpunch to that belief. Carlson tweets once or twice a week. He sent just one tweet in the entire month of April....  His head-to-head MSNBC competitor Chris Hayes’ timeline is updated by the minute. Hayes is beloved, retweeted, and praised.... Yet... [Chris Hayes is] a lackluster 23rd overall in the younger 18-49 demo.... Carlson’s most controversial monologues over the past quarter likely represent what at least half of Americans, young and old, think. He’s made no excuse for pathetic rioters, he’s raised concerns about the dangers of Black Lives Matter being immune from judgment, and has questioned if defunding the police force would truly make us safer. Publicly, online and on opposing channels, these comments are offensive, racist, and despicable. Privately, they are interesting, subjective stances worth considering.... Alternative views are particularly a refreshment to the younger demographics, who are showered in extreme thinking online. They are just trying to get through their days without getting fired or shamed. Carlson is that opposing perspective for them in the evening."

Writes Bobby Burack (at Outkick).

116 comments:

Temujin said...

This is good news. And it might also say something about what is coming in November.

Kevin said...

In today’s media environment, Tucker Carlson’s show is punk rock.

Fernandinande said...

the valued 18-48 demographic

18 to 48 Year Old Lives Matter. The Most.

Kevin said...

In other news:

Maddow finished the month of May behind five different Fox News programs in total viewership, including non-primetime shows “The Five” and “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

Maddow’s performance in May was even more alarming among the key demographic of adults age 25-54, where she averaged 455,000 viewers to finish tied for No. 7 in cable news, behind five different Fox News shows and even one program on MSNBC’s fellow liberal network CNN.

CNN’s “Cuomo Prime Time” beat Maddow in the demo despite a month filled with negative publicity over his bro-friendly interviews with his sibling, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Even the little-watched “Anderson Cooper 360” managed to tie Maddow among the key demo during May.

Maddow has been outside the top five cable news programs among total viewers and outside the top six in the demo for four consecutive months. Maddow has shed demo viewers for three straight months at the same time America has seen an unprecedented news cycle filled with everything from a global pandemic to rampant joblessness to the tragic death of George Floyd in police custody.

CJinPA said...

There is a 100% certainty that Carlson will be deplatformed.
He will be off the air by the end of summer.

PB said...

Public speech you disagree with is racist, but in private it's okay? I wonder how this writers private views differ from his public views? Inside very conservative, but outside it's virtue signal all the way.

Patrick said...

I cut the cord to cable tv long ago but I watch his clips nightly on youtube. Tucker has been the only voice of sanity as of late. Guy is admirably brave to say what he does every night in today's world, almost heroic.

Ann Althouse said...

"Carlson will be deplatformed"

As it says in what I've quoted, Carlson is NOT an important presence in social media. He is not at risk of being "deplatformed" in the sense of being kicked off Twitter and Facebook. He is on Fox News. That's the whole thing. I'm not picturing him kicked off Fox News. He's their biggest star. Fox would be an idiot to let itself get rolled by people who'd like to brand Carlson as a racist or whatever. If he had a #MeToo problem, we'd have heard about it already.

Tank said...

I don’t watch every day, but his show is the only one I do watch. It has vastly improved since it’s inception.

buwaya said...

I agree that Carlson is likely to be removed.
There is already a campaign to remove his advertisers.

An interesting phenomenon that, seen across most media, where major advertisers ignore viewer numbers and especially viewer quality (disposable income, etc., as with Limbaugh), if the political context doesnt suit them. The reasons why they are making these decisions re political context should be interesting. The details of an interests analysis for a given corporation would be fascinating. We can guess, but it would be nice to know.

Michael K said...

Limbaugh solved the "de-platforming" directed at him by syndicating his show himself. Most of his sponsors are local. That doesn't work for TV.

The sponsors dropping Carlson's show are just hurting themselves but corporate pandering is the thing now. Gillette paid a big price for the trans sexual pandering. I sometimes wonder if these stupid marketing decisions are made by executives from India and other cultures who do not understand American culture and think Twitter is a good source.

buwaya said...

Fox can be induced to dump Carlson if faced with a large advertiser boycott, or if some other Fox business interest is threatened.

These days simple commercial reasoning is not enough. Political considerations, or commercial side-issues, usually trump ordinary money-for-service.

Wince said...

Carlson is a great at what he does, speaking truth to power. He has just a few bad instincts when it comes to actual policy and politics.

Hopefully the disorder will actually increase the rate at which young people uncouple from social media delivered information, commentary and politics. A cultural split likely to play-out along the lines of a shake-out in the education industry.

Carlson is well positioned to introduce an alternative platform.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Being the opposition always generates ratings. Look at MSNBC after Trump's election. This suggests that, among the current goose-stepping, conservative voices are the rebellious, transgressive ones. In a matter of weeks, the Left has made conservatism fresh.

wendybar said...

Who wants to hear about the debunked Russian Collusion story for hours each night??? (if you have to wonder why...)

buwaya said...

Bill O'Reilley was gotten rid of mainly due to an advertiser boycott.
He was also the top Fox show for many years.

All the rest of the media need to do is gin up the outrage machine about, perhaps, something Carlson has said on the air anytime in his career. No doubt there is something out there that can be made out to be intolerably horrible.

Carlson gives me the impression that he is on a kamikaze run. Going out in a blaze of glory.

Jeff Brokaw said...

He also runs the Woke Capital Twitter account which is an interesting but disheartening follow.

I had to mute it after awhile. Just know that *all* corporate marketing is fully woke and actively working against your interests if you value freedom or believe in any traditional values at all.

mockturtle said...

If the young are, in typical form, choosing to question their elders and their educators, there may be hope for America yet.

J said...

Familiarity breeds contempt.The more familiar the mob is with agitprop the more contemptuous they are of it.Explains Hayes,Maddow, and Reid.Also explains why Coleman Hughes,Glenn Loury, and John McWhorter sound at least reasonable on so many of these points.

J L Oliver said...

They already tried to deplatform Carlson. They went after advertisers and they protested his house, terrorizing his wife. He is still there.

Koot Katmandu said...

Maybe Twitter is not used much by a big slice of that demo? Could it be twitter is way over rated? I have an account and follow a couple of people. To me twitter is just a big cat fight platform. Horrible place to look if you really want information.

Dave Begley said...

There's talk of Tucker running for President in 2024.

mikee said...

791,000 viewers aged 25-54 for the supreme Tucker Carlson,and about half that for Maddow. Do the people who write such idiocy not recognize that the viewership for all cable news is essentially zero, with viewer numbers like this?

The Big Bang Theory had 17,193,000 viewers, about 20x more than the lauded Carlson, 40x more than Maddow, in its final season last year and is a forgettable sitcom. Carlson HAS NO VIEWERS in comparison to the US population, or even compared to the viewing audience for all cable. NOBODY CARES except the echo chamber of pundits, politicians, and advertisers for Depends.

mccullough said...

Tucker also goes after the GOP for their cowardice and Trump for his inaction.

Saying that “No one has more contempt for Donald Trump’s supporters than Jared Kushner” was a Hall of Fame slam.

It’s refreshing to see an independent voice. It’s why Joe Rogan does well, too.

John Borell said...

I didn’t used to watch Tucker. But I have not missed his opening in months.

He’s saying what many of us believe but few will say.

And he’s right. On almost everything, he is 100% correct.

BLM isn’t about incremental police reform. It’s radical. It’s tear down everything radical. And it’s controls the Democratic Party.

Charlie Currie said...

He'll get kicked off YouTube where I suspect a lot of new viewers original found him.

tommyesq said...

Maybe avoiding social media is part of the reason his ratings are high. Why would anyone tune in to Chris Hayes, when his every waking moment is literally on Twitter?

Jason said...

He may well soon have a #MeToo problem, even if he never acted inappropriately towards anyone.

We learned during the Kavanaugh hearings: Truth does not matter to the Democrat information ops people. The Robert Creamers of the world have no regard for truth.

Temujin said...

Fox has stood behind Carlson, even as the cretinous, bent knee companies who used to advertise on his show, now leave it because of Leftist pressure. (The reason I've just dropped T-Mobile. That and lousy service.)

That said, Tucker Carlson has hit a nerve and now has a strong, loyal following. If he left Fox, he'd reappear somewhere else, in some other format, and his followers would make that adjustment with him. He's in his groove now. Fox would be stupid to let him go now and they are not stupid. In time he'll run out of steam, but for now, he's paying bills.

What's that? Paying bills? Good question, CNN. It's what happens when people actually watch your network.

Big Mike said...

You don't win the battle of ideas by trying to shut down opposing ideas, canceling people who have those ideas, or labeling those ideas racist or sexist or homophobic. You win by defending your ideas in open debate against the opposing ideas. The First Amendment was the greatest idea that the Founders ever had, yet it meant that they would have to offer up their own ideas and defend them in debate against the contrary.

Nonapod said...

I rarely watch his show live. I generally watch his stuff on Youtube the next day. Some of the monologues he's put up over the last month or so have been fire (to borrow the parlance of the young people).

As for the whole question of if he could be "deplatformed", his stuff could be removed from Youtube, which would suck for me and a the doubtless huge numbers of people who consume his stuff that way.

rcocean said...

Carlson was already accused falsely of rape. He wrote about it in his book. He's also been subject to a Left-wing/liberal Boycott of his advertisers. In other words, the Democrats are trying to silence him the "old fashioned way". Fox News getting rid of O'Reilly who was a fake and replacing him with Carlson was the best thing they've done in years. Tucker's come a long way from the CNN bow-tied wimp that was trampled on by a phony self-righteous Jon Stewart (not his real name).

Krumhorn said...

What is an “equitable margin”? I’ve been in the tv biz for decades and that would be a novel audience measurement.

- Krumhorn

Yancey Ward said...

"If he had a #MeToo problem, we'd have heard about it already."

Ain't you sweet! Do you really still believe Kavanaugh had an authentic #MeToo problem, Althouse?

rcocean said...

BTW, I get so tired of the equally phony manipulative "Hey, all you right-wingers are old". I've been hearing that for 35 years! It reminds me of people complaining how old Baseball/Golf fans are. They've been doing that for 35 years too.

Why doesn't anyone ever say: "Hey all your fans are so young, in 10 years they'll grow up, move on to other things and stop watching you". No, its always the other way round.

Jupiter said...

"Alternative views are particularly a refreshment to the younger demographics, who are showered in extreme thinking online. They are just trying to get through their days without getting fired or shamed."

You don't have to be in the younger demographic to worry about getting fired for being normal. If you work in tech, you are constantly bombarded by e-mails from smug idiots in top management slots blathering about the importance of "diversity" and "empowering women". Meanwhile, most of the work gets done by a bunch of white and Asian guys. There aren't many blacks or hispanics, and the young chicks they hire in droves are all busy jetting off to conferences where they give presentations for each other about how hard it is to be a "woman in tech".

rcocean said...

BTW, MSNBC and CNN are unwatchable. Its just DNC Propaganda 24/7. Jeff Zucker let the cat out of the bag when he attacked Fox News for taking the wrong position on "face masks", thereby admitting that its CNN that takes "Positions", not only on "face masks" but on everything else. How people know that Zucker has a telecon meeting with all his producers every day and gives them their marching orders? MSNBC and NBC, ABC, and CBS do the same thing. If you've ever wondered why these DNC-media reporters all use the same buzzwords and phrases, that's why.

Kate said...

The blurb says Tucker doesn't use much social media. However, I see clips of his show constantly in my feed. He may not promote himself but others do. Judging his social presence solely by his tweets doesn't indicate his actual presence.

Also, I can't imagine the cancel culture doesn't want his head on a pike, and I don't trust Fox News to resist that, no matter how popular he is.

Yancey Ward said...

I have been watching Carlsen's opening segments pretty regularly since the riots started in late May, but only the following morning on YouTube (which I am surprised still allows them to be played). I think Carlsen, on these issues, is speaking for what is still a significant majority of the country- at least 75%. Carlsen has regularly criticized Trump for not doing more to stop it- I actually disagree with Carlsen on this, but I get his point. It is going to be near impossible for Biden, or whoever the candidate ends up being, to square this circle. The funny thing is, this could have been a Sister Souljah moment for Biden, but the time when the Democrats could grasp this moment seems to have passed- you could see it with knee bending circus the House members went through- what a ridiculous spectacle that was.

Joe Smith said...

He can be annoying at times, especially when he has on guests he likes (a lot of giggling), but it's hard to dispute that the guy is very smart and knows how to cut to core issues. And unlike others (cough Hannity cough) he actually lets his guests speak, if only to let them hang themselves.

Charlie said...

Independent thought will not be tolerated!! Stick to the narrative, Comrades.

Owen said...

Ann Althouse @ 8:50: "...If he had a #MeToo problem, we'd have heard about it already." With all due respect, I disagree. The stakes are high enough, and the intervention here is well-enough defined and available, that the Forces of Darkness will act to take TuCa out of play. Christine Blasey Ford helped to establish the precedent for ruining a public figure. Facts don't matter. Some nobody will be induced to ride a kamikaze straight down the stack, and that will be that.

I hope I'm wrong.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Even Althouse is moving on from Trump. Tucker Carlson - the next great white hope.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

This could tell us about November, or about the decreasing relevance of legacy media.

PM said...

Mr Biden must be forced to debate the President, even if it takes place in his basement.

Christopher said...

As it says in what I've quoted, Carlson is NOT an important presence in social media. He is not at risk of being "deplatformed" in the sense of being kicked off Twitter and Facebook. He is on Fox News. That's the whole thing. I'm not picturing him kicked off Fox News.

I hope you're right, but we live in an environment where mass media ignores the nightly riots in Portland (going on a month now) and the few figures drawing attention to things like that, including Tucker, are objects of hate in journalism, academia, Hollywood, and even the C-suite. The advertising boycott is supported by former journalist colleagues of mine--I was told it's propaganda, which even if you grant, should not uniquely be worthy of gagging. And Fox itself is hardly a pure bastion of populism and Trump support. If you've watched Fox as long as I have, you have a sense of how wobbly it is now.

So I hope you're right, but I have as much faith in Fox standing behind Tucker as I do in Chief Justice Roberts. Lobbying works, especially when it strikes a chord with your social and business network. The executives running the show at Fox these days are not populists.

Jersey Fled said...

"If he had a #MeToo problem, we'd have heard about it already."

You don't need a MeToo problem. All you need is someone who will accuse you of one.

See: Blasey-Ford

Gk1 said...

Its a marvel young people watch any cable at all, so this adoration of Tucker is suspicious to me. The only place big 3 network news is on, is in the lobby of a retirement home. Cable news is on at airports, hotel lounges and maybe the occasional tire store waiting room. My demographic designation has slid into "Baby Boomer"and I had abandoned cable all together after 9/11 and am just internet news based.

The only time I ever catch cable is on the exercise bike at the gym and I may catch a bit of Tucker's monologue or watch the dumpster fire of CNN to get a whiff of their insanity as they still talk about Trump and "Russian collusion" as if it were still a thing. But who exactly is bothering with cable? Isn't viewership off all networks like 17 million?

Michael said...

"...by an equitable margin..." What is that supposed to mean? Should it be "equivalent"?

YoungHegelian said...

There is presently an attempt to get Carlson's sponsors to abandon him. It clearly doesn't seem to be working.

As for the younger set and "forbidden thought", Youtube & other streaming services are full of very long (sometimes up to 3 hours!) interviews by various talking heads. The commenters here are quite familiar with them, but it's important to remember that their audiences are far more varied than just us, with lots of younger listeners.

What's weird about this internet ecosystem is that it's thought by the outside mainstream media to be the lair of alt-right nut jobs. It's actually the lair of old-style lefties, Bernie bros, classical liberals, libertarians, & conservatives of every stripe who actually take a commitment to intellectual pluralism seriously. To give an example, of the membership of the original so-called "intellectual dark web", only one of them was a registered Republican (Ben Shapiro), and he didn't vote even for Trump in 2016.

MayBee said...

I love it. Twitter users think Twitter is the world, but it is not. I like this reminder (and I like watching Tucker)

roesch/voltaire said...

He does a good job of stoking white resentment, oh the poor statues, ignoring the magnitude of Covid19 as it spreads through the secret service and the rest of the nation, all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president. It will not fair well come November.

Howard said...

Blogger Fernandinande said...
18 to 48 Year Old Lives Matter. The Most.


... to the 58 to 88 Year Old demographic whom own stocks. Go shopping people, social security can't cover my nut

Freder Frederson said...

This is good news. And it might also say something about what is coming in November.

Carlson, even though he is at the top, still has less than a million viewers. Really doesn't tell you anything about the voting populace as a whole.

Leland said...

This is good news. And it might also say something about what is coming in November.

Indeed. This type of news is why I ignore polls. People who vote with their time or money are more likely to show up at the polls.

walter said...

Well..gotta see the numbers for the advert rates, given supposed wokewalkin'.
I don't get it via cable, so only see clips on web. Are online viewers in the watch ratings?
For those raaaacist companies willing to make use of his show, a gold mine.

iowan2 said...

Hayes is beloved, retweeted, and praised.... Yet... [Chris Hayes is] a lackluster 23rd overall in the younger 18-49

Beloved, praised, and ranks 28th among the beloved and praised. Vocabulary and logic are not DNC stenographers long suit. Doesnt have to be, when your goal is nothing but narrative setting and propaganda.

daskol said...

Fox under current leadership would probably rather not have created the monster that is Tucker Carlson, whose brand is eclipsing Fox's. And Fox has "de-platformed" its biggest star before, although it was the more mercurial Glenn Beck who played a role in his own defenestration.

traditionalguy said...

Tucker is also running for President by earning the GOP Nomination in 2024. And right now he has a lock on it. Even my wife likes him and she often does not like The Donald’s style. And Carlson is a highly educated intellect, with an addiction to reality. Don’t misunderestmate him.

daskol said...

But yes, he can come across as strident and annoying especially to women in my life, but even my teen daughter despite disagreeing with his perspective tunes in because he says interesting things and has interesting conversations with a wide array of people. He's consistent but not orthodox, and seems to construct his worldview on principles. Only news show I try to watch, and only clips that my handful of dissident friends every circulate from the mainstream news.

daskol said...

This is from another piece on the newly released ratings from Burack: I was asked a few weeks ago in my mailbag who is the most valuable talent in all of media. I said it was close between Joe Rogan, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson.

I find Hannity genial enough, but his propaganda is more blatant and repetitive and predictable, and more expressly pro-GOP. Carlson is more independent minded and interesting and angry. Funny to see Joe Rogan in that trio.

drmanbot said...

He had a me too problem . He’s one of the few that actually fought back and won .

Birkel said...

The half of us that believe in American ideals have no intention of rescuing those of you who hate America.

Vote for whatever mental midgets you choose. You're on your own. Your governors send grandma back to the home to infect other people - by order of the governor's, mind you all - tough shit. You want endless illegal lockdowns that violate your freedoms? Fuck right off. Part of your city is overtaken by hoodlums? Go to hell.

Protect yourself. The rest of us are done with you.

Unknown said...

Re: roesch/voltaire said...
He does a good job of stoking white resentment, oh the poor statues, ignoring the magnitude of Covid19 as it spreads through the secret service and the rest of the nation, all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president. It will not fair well come November."

Is this supposed to be funny? I don't get the joke.

daskol said...

The Big Bang Theory had 17,193,000 viewers, about 20x more than the lauded Carlson, 40x more than Maddow, in its final season last year and is a forgettable sitcom. Carlson HAS NO VIEWERS in comparison to the US population, or even compared to the viewing audience for all cable. NOBODY CARES except the echo chamber of pundits, politicians, and advertisers for Depends.

mikee, this dramatically underestimates Carlson's (and the rest's) audience and influence. While Tucker himself may be quiet on his social media accounts, his clips are widely circulated on Youtube, and probably 30-40x if not a bigger multiple of people see him this way. The clips are all over social media posts. The numbers you see there for both network TV and cable news are an old-fashioned and inapt measurement of audience. Nobody really uses them, and as others have pointed out they don't even have a decisive role in commanding advertising rates anymore. It's a sundial in a world of atomic clocks.

Drago said...

r/v: "He does a good job of stoking white resentment, oh the poor statues, ignoring the magnitude of Covid19 as it spreads through the secret service and the rest of the nation, all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president."

In the race between the Althouse lefties to post the most lies within as compact a statement as possible, r/v takes a slight lead. Let's see how the other Althouse lefties respond.

I've got my eye on ARM but that's only because he makes the most use of the narratives coming out of Beijing along with the usual lefty hoaxer schtick in the US.

Big Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Big Mike said...


I agree that Carlson is likely to be removed.
There is already a campaign to remove his advertisers.


@buwaya, so perhaps what is needed is a plan to boycott companies that drop Tucker’s show from their advertising budget. Anyone who thinks some punk kids skulking in Mommy’s basement between riots have more spending power than I do doesn’t deserve to be the marketing VP of anything bigger than a donut shop.

Anthony said...

I really like TuCa. I don't agree with him on a lot of stuff -- he seems to think the government should decide how much credit card companies should charge for interest because, apparently, consumers are too dumb to not charge more than they can pay for -- (which many of them are, but that's their fault for being dumb) -- but he mostly has The Elites nailed down to a T. He's really most effective when he just lets them talk.

And he has Mark Stein on a lot. Who is a god.

bagoh20 said...

Apparently people who answer presidential polls do not watch television. How do pollsters find them all?

bagoh20 said...

What is a Chris Hayes?

Michael K said...

traditionalguy said...
Tucker is also running for President by earning the GOP Nomination in 2024. And right now he has a lock on it. Even my wife likes him and she often does not like The Donald’s style. And Carlson is a highly educated intellect, with an addiction to reality. Don’t misunderestmate him.


I doubt he wants it. He did not graduate from college according to his terrific lecture in 2017 He describes himself as "a talk show host."

Michael K said...

all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president. It will not fair well come November.

This stupidity from someone who describes himself as a college professor. What in? Gender Studies?

rehajm said...

Carlson won the valued 18-48 demographic by an equitable margin

As oldsters we tend to think of the cancel culture campus rabble rousers as the voice of 'young people' but I am told by the nephew there's a significant conservative edge to the current crop of late teens. They want to participate in society, not fuck it up.

MD Greene said...

Koot Katmandu said: "To me twitter is just a big cat fight platform."

I disagree. Twitter is more like a bunch of monkeys throwing poo at each other.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"He does a good job of stoking white resentment, oh the poor statues, ignoring the magnitude of Covid19 as it spreads through the secret service and the rest of the nation, all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president. It will not fair well come November."

As good a summation as any of why I'm confident of Trump's re-election.

Bay Area Guy said...

I thought Tucker was a little weak and whiney - but, to his credit, he has stood tall during this Democrat assault on our country and people.

Middle class Americans have been too soft and comfortable for too long. The barbarians are at the gates - nay, they have entered the city, and have taken over our colleges, media, statues and inner cities. Time to step up and push back.

Freeman Hunt said...

Regular people need to get organized to counter the highly organized tiny percentage of Twitter wokes. Pull your ads because the wokes on Twitter told you to? Prepare for a crushing boycott by the masses. Twitter as a cultural force would be over.

traditionalguy said...

Tucker is walking out Orwell's talk of " A man telling the truth in a time of universal deceit." He is the true rebel.

Jamie said...

Goose-stepping, Crack? Really?

Who's breaking windows and policing viewpoints these days? Who's labeling, isolating, and attempting to disempower people based on membership in a group?

And oh hey - who's marching in the streets just now, under a martial banner?

Lucien said...

Nonapod: If YouTube cancelled Tucker, then people would have to watch him on Fox, driving up ratings.

Gospace said...

My youngest is entering his senior year at college and AROTC. He says his NCOs tell his class the the most troublesome class they've ever had, totally and completely non-PC.

My oldest is an AROTC professor (we spread out children out...). He says the senior class is the least PC class he's seen in years. They're the first class totally brought up in an environment where they had to watch what they said, where they were "indoctrinated" not "educated" in many areas. The intelligent among them recognize the difference between education and indoctrination, and have rejected, consciously, the indoctrination. Going to be interesting as that age group rises to positions of power. Because as I said- the intelligent have rejected indoctrination. The not so intelligent? They'll be the ones favored by people currently in power because they're compliant....

How's that old saying go? Nothing is constant but change?

Original Mike said...

Althouse said: "If he had a #MeToo problem, we'd have heard about it already."
Blogger Yancey Ward responded..."Ain't you sweet! Do you really still believe Kavanaugh had an authentic #MeToo problem, Althouse?"


Yeah, I spit up my coffee when I read that.

Original Mike said...

I've appreciated Tucker since before Jehmu Greene called him a "bow-tying white boy". Currently, he's the only watchable thing on (except Bret Baier, who does straight news).

Jamie said...

My husband's been watching Carlson for a long time; I watch occasionally. At first, I wouldn't sit still for his show because of the expression of disbelief he uses - he looks absolutely vacant, totally brainless when he makes that face. Mouth hanging open, eyebrows drawn together like a Neanderthal...

But then I started listening to his monologues, and caught an interview with him on Shapiro's podcast, and now I can overlook the expression (especially since he does only use it when he is noting something utterly unbelievable). I don't always agree with him, but I appreciate his willingness to hold everyone's feet to the fire.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Tucker rocks.

Maddow is a liar.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

How do you know if Rachel Maddow is lying? Her lips are moving.

Original Mike said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
iowan2 said...

I rarely watch any prime time cable news. But I have sampled about 80%. Tucker a few times, all of it. My issues with most of it, there is no information. 99% raw political posturing. FOX not so much. Their opinion shows and news readers, is being slid slowly left. Fox is reporting at least once an hour on the Russia bounty hoax, giving validity, where none exists.
Tucker is sincere in his values, and never waivers. Disagree with him is great patriotism. Infinately better then the rest that pander and waiver in a blind search for ratins.

Jim at said...

Outkick has quickly become one of my daily go-to sites ... especially since they brought on Jason Whitlock. Good stuff on a variety of subjects.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

R/V - you do a good job, like most loyal hiveminders, of eating the Putin shit yourself.

Putin wanted Hillary. Hillary made money off of Russia while she was head of the state dept.
You know - back during the Obama admin when it was legal to talk to the scary Russians.

Original Mike said...

"I am told by the nephew there's a significant conservative edge to the current crop of late teens. They want to participate in society, not fuck it up."

They better get in the game before there's nothing left to save.

Drago said...

Beijing Boy: "Even Althouse is moving on from Trump. Tucker Carlson - the next great white hope."

Yep.

A member of the party that is nominating Joe Biden wrote that.

Just now.

How funny is that?

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Michael K said...

I sometimes wonder if these stupid marketing decisions are made by executives from India and other cultures who do not understand American culture and think Twitter is a good source.

In the last decade or so, the management class in corporate America has become all about looking for magic bullets. They will glom on to any trend/philosophy in the hope that "this will be the one!" that will turn them into Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. Wokeness is tailor made for such people.

Drago said...

BTW, anyone else catch Gov Gavin Newsome's praise for the "media" in "staying on message".

Just like when Biden was working through the scripted and coordinated "questions" from the "reporters" at the Biden "press conference" a couple of days ago.

It's all so blatant now that the dem/lefty politicians keep forgetting they are supposed to pretend the media isn't working directly with them.

Original Mike said...

"…all the while skipping over Putin's hold on the president."

Give it up, dude.

mikee said...

daskol, Thanks for straightening me out on the issue of social importance versus ratings. If only there were some way to measure the impact, positive and negative, of a given person's online activities, such as logging where links and reposts appear, tracking who watches what online, and then using that information to determine who is important and who is not!

Maybe the same data could be used to provide a useful social score of individuals, who could be treated as each deserves by government, the press, academia, business, and society. What do you think? Good idea, or a bit too Chinese Communist Party totalitarian?

effinayright said...

mikee said...
791,000 viewers aged 25-54 for the supreme Tucker Carlson,and about half that for Maddow. Do the people who write such idiocy not recognize that the viewership for all cable news is essentially zero, with viewer numbers like this?

The Big Bang Theory had 17,193,000 viewers, about 20x more than the lauded Carlson, 40x more than Maddow, in its final season last year and is a forgettable sitcom. Carlson HAS NO VIEWERS in comparison to the US population, or even compared to the viewing audience for all cable. NOBODY CARES except the echo chamber of pundits, politicians, and advertisers for Depends.
*******************

Vacuous entertainment shows have much larger audiences than news/opinion shows.

You, sirrah, are a Grand Master of the Obvious.

wild chicken said...

whom own stocks

Ugh. Howard's the one who should be deplatformed, for illiteracy.

Nichevo said...


Big Mike said...
You don't win the battle of ideas by trying to shut down opposing ideas, canceling people who have those ideas, or labeling those ideas racist or sexist or homophobic. You win by defending your ideas in open debate against the opposing ideas.


"Isn't it pretty to think so?"



BleachBit-and-Hammers said...
How do you know if Rachel Maddow is lying? Her lips are moving

Which lips?

Francisco D said...

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said... In the last decade or so, the management class in corporate America has become all about looking for magic bullets. They will glom on to any trend/philosophy in the hope that "this will be the one!" that will turn them into Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos. Wokeness is tailor made for such people.

I agree.

From my experience as a corporate psychologist, the management class has been looking for magic bullets for a long time. As such, they are easily conned. Lots of con artists (e.g., Mark Cuban) made a fortune selling useless tech to them until the Y2K scare was over.

Now we have a different scare that is driving these fools.

daskol said...

mikee, google and facebook and maybe some of those other platform companies know. and I suppose whoever they share that info with.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

“Jamie said...
Goose-stepping, Crack? Really?

Who's breaking windows and policing viewpoints these days? Who's labeling, isolating, and attempting to disempower people based on membership in a group?

And oh hey - who's marching in the streets just now, under a martial banner?”

Read what I wrote aloud. Note the commas.

I'm Full of Soup said...

ARM: calls Tucker a great white hope. I’m confused ...is it now ok to notice someone’s color?

Banjo said...

NOBODY CARES except the echo chamber of pundits, politicians, and advertisers for Depends.

The Depends people watch network TV, stupefied. Every day, all day long. I know some of them. But even the lo-infos have an idea what's going on and will send Trump to a second term with a whacking big majority. Whether even it will be enough to offset the voter fraud being cooked up as we speak is another question.

Krumhorn said...

Bill O'Reilley was gotten rid of mainly due to an advertiser boycott.

That was certainly part of the problem, but the main problem was that he had #metoo issues up the ass. Way up the ass. No matter how dominant in the ratings, there was no way he could possibly survive his sex harassment charges. Left or right, nobody supports someone with well-founded provable sex claims.

- Krumhorn

Owen said...

Edit function invoked.

Global search and replace "Maddow" with "Madcow."

That is all.

tim in vermont said...

I don’t watch him every day, or even every week, but Tucker is the *only* show I ever tune into Fox to watch. I stopped watching Fox years ago. That’s kind of misleading, I totally stopped watching cable news of any kind three years ago, or so, except for watching Carlson from time to time.

tim in vermont said...

"is it now ok to notice someone’s color?”

Race is a "cognitive distortion," unless you are talking about a white guy, then it’s all you need to know.

Jamie said...

Being the opposition always generates ratings. Look at MSNBC after Trump's election. This suggests that, among the current goose-stepping, conservative voices are the rebellious, transgressive ones. In a matter of weeks, the Left has made conservatism fresh.

Crack, I went back to review your original comment (reproduced in total above) to see what I missed. I take it "goose-stepping" is being used as a noun? I'm going to assume here that that's the case - and I'm sorry for having misinterpreted your comment. But in my defense, it makes grammatical sense as I read it too - "among the current goose-stepping, conservative voices are the rebellious, transgressive ones," read as "there are transgressive voices among the current goose-stepping, conservative voices."

Sorry, though! I appear to have made an incorrect first assumption and hope I'm making a better second one. (Moderation has downsides, including slow feedback.)

boatbuilder said...

Yes only a small percentage of the population watches cable news. And a million viewers vs. half a million viewers amounts to only a minimal percentage of the 125 Million or so people who vote.

And yet...we are supposed to take seriously polls of less than a thousand people. Which is what virtually all of the "national" polls are.

BTW I think the "Tucker Carlson Face" is a priceless national resource. I find myself making the same face more and more each day as I listen to the nonsense and idiocy that people believe, accept, express and even proudly boast.

Narr said...

I've become a Tucker fan of sorts over the last few years. He's way more traditional in outlook on most things than I am, and is just a little too earnest . . . but I would have been glad to have him in a history class.

He holds R's and other 'conservative' people's feet to the fire, and makes oblique but real criticisms of Trump and his associates once in a while.

He'll sometimes go off on a fool tangent: he and a guest were complaining about the metric system NTTAWWT and how much better the old measures were and why didn't we just keep those?
(Because a universally recognized--even if arbitrary--standard was needed; the French inch was not the English inch, nor the English mile the German mile.)

Even my wife, the cradle Dem, no longer pointedly ignores what he says as I watch at least part of his show most days.

Narr
I was reading Steyn while Tucker was still in a bow tie

Kevin said...

Fox can be induced to dump Carlson if faced with a large advertiser boycott, or if some other Fox business interest is threatened.

I think Tucker is safe.

The MyPillow guy could probably buy all the spots.

Michael K said...

That was certainly part of the problem, but the main problem was that he had #metoo issues up the ass. Way up the ass.

O'Reilly was way too arrogant. Tucker isn't. He did get rid of his bow tie.

mockturtle said...

IMO, O'Reilly is not just arrogant but not terribly bright. Tucker is by far the most intelligent pundit on TV. [Not that that's saying a whole lot, mind you!]

JAORE said...

Tucker Carlson - the next great white hope."

Sure,ARM, that skin color is all that is important.

To you.