All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Harris Faulkner admits that Fox, like all the other corporations will take the knee to diversity, equity and inclusion. Big surprise! After their capitulation over Tucker Carlson who expects anything more from them?
‘RIP Fox News’: Harris Faulkner Says Things Are Going to Have to Change at Network
So, I started my Friday as I usually do, listening to the mellifluous tones of the ZMan Power Hour podcast while I exercise. And as luck would have it, today’s show was made up of several segments about things in the news. I like this kind of show because he puts his slant on these topics and it gives him a chance to be amusing at the expense of the clowns involved.
For instance, he commented on the recent Banking Sub-Committee meeting that featured Senator John Fetterman. After a few clips of Fetterman attempting to articulate complete sentences about the recent bank failures ZMan opined that the real takeaway was that the Democrats want Fetterman there because having a brain damaged hobo in the Senate further disrupts the norms of our society. After all, if the most powerful deliberative body in the world can include a man who can no longer master the use of the definite article, “the” in his sentences then why shouldn’t the country go for decades without negotiating a budget for the federal government.
And I get his point. But the reward for me is listening to someone who can interlard his speech with a description like “brain-damaged hobo.” There’s an eloquence, a style there. We have to enjoy our lives and having someone as witty as that provides the opportunity. And he has a number of these witticisms. Some he borrows from impeccable sources. He has taken Oscar Wilde’s phrase, “It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at …” and used it to very good effect on a number of occasions. He invented that excellent trope “Xirl Science” where he reads from the published papers of mostly female practitioners of usually social sciences like “gender studies.” The contents are sometimes hilarious in their use of pseudoscientific jargon and obvious lack of rigor or even coherence. But my all-time favorite ZMan-ism was when he called David French an obsequious rumpswab. It doesn’t get better than that.
I don’t always agree with all of the ZMan’s conclusions. But his analysis of what’s going on is usually very insightful. And his podcast is extremely well done. The audio quality is good. His thought process is clear and well enunciated and there is enough humor with the often-distressing message about our times to keep us from gagging on the medicine.
So, he did a segment on Tucker Carlson’s banishment from Fox News and their replacing him. And while discussing this he made the point that eliminating Tucker Carlson may have also been a business decision based on the reality of cable news economics. Not enough people are getting their news from cable channels to make it a lucrative business. The highest rated news channels get one or two million viewers. There are YouTube channels that get ten times that. If Fox News pays Tucker Carlson millions of dollars a year, then there isn’t that much left for their bottom line. And they would prefer to pay chump change to some kid to read off the teleprompter instead. And I think he’s right. They’ll be “retiring” all the high salary pundits and hiring kids who just want a job.
And that makes sense. If a place like Twitter will give a megaphone to independent contractors like Tucker Carlson it may not be long before cable news is a thing of the past. And that’s good. The news channels have been shown to be a racket with their sham objectivity and their willingness to lie for the powers that be. In a sense what I do is no different from what the pundits perform. The only difference is the economics. And honestly, that seems to be shifting too.
The ZMan provides a quality product. The value proposition he provides is very equitable. He provides entertainment and valuable information. That’s much more than you get from many cable news shows. So, it was a good lesson I took away.
Now to figure out a way to make it pay!
We live in such strange times. Sometimes the headlines are a patchwork of tragedy, comedy and just plain weird. I guess you’d have to call the Bud Light/Dylan Mulvaney story a comedy. So is the Tucker Carlson story. In each case you have a corporation applying the woke rules and shooting itself right in the groin.
Then there’s the story of the Marine who stopped a lunatic on a New York subway car by putting him in a chokehold. Now he’s probably going to be put on trial for murder. That sounds like a tragedy. And everything else is somewhere in between.
The banking industry meltdown and the studiously ignored stagflation is a looming catastrophe that we’re supposed to shrug off. And the daily appearance of another whistleblower to announce that the Biden administration is constantly breaking the law and simultaneously shielding itself from these crimes is a tragicomedy so outrageously obvious that no one would believe it if it were the plot of a movie.
And heaven only knows what tomorrow will reveal. Today we heard that the Ukrainians launched a drone attack on the Kremlin to assassinate Vladimir Putin. The repercussions of that attempt may turn out to be the biggest tragedy of the century. As it is, the Ukraine war has the potential to destabilize the balance of power in the world. This new twist may cause an escalation that takes on a life of its own.
But none of these things changes the fact that we all have to live. We fret about the tragedies and wonder about the looming catastrophes that threaten from every side. But we still have to laugh.
So, I read about Anheuser Busch’s corporate leaders declaring that all of this was a mistake and that there was no campaign to make Mulvaney a spokesman for Bud Light. And they’ve promised to triple the advertising budget and fill up the television commercials with young people wearing cowboy hats at Zac Brown Band concerts. And I can’t help but laugh. Anheuser-Busch-InBev has hundreds of beer products. They could have selected a dozen craft beers and dedicated them solely to transgender awareness and the drinkers of Bud Light would never have known or cared. But someone at corporate, probably that ditz Alissa Heinerscheid or maybe her boss Daniel Blake, decided that it was time to replace all those rednecks with the millions of Audrey Hepburn impersonators who must drink Bud Light while soaking in the bathtub in full pancake makeup.
They just couldn’t help themselves. When you’re a woke evangelist, you’re always fighting the good fight. And so, they not only announced the Mulvaney sponsorship they released the video of Alissa Heinerscheid denigrating the present patrons of Bud Light as being not only benighted knuckle draggers who suffered from being terminal “fratty” but also were declining in numbers and therefore responsible for their product’s declining market share. This will be a beautiful thing to watch. Anheuser Busch won’t go out of business. But this will be so painful that the people in the front office will never forget it. And hopefully a lot of people who have right-wing customers for their products will also take note. And I just have to laugh. They did this to themselves, the chumps.
And right at the very same time Fox News fires Tucker Carlson. The replacement for his show is getting 48% of the audience that he used to bring in. And it’s had a knock-on effect on the rest of the line-up. And it’s getting worse. Enormous numbers of people are canceling their memberships in the premium plans that Tucker contributed to. Fox is losing a lot of viewers. And Tucker Carlson has the potential to take his audience wherever he decides to go next. And I just have to laugh. They did this to themselves, the mooks.
So, in the midst of the meltdown that is Joe Biden’s America there is still a way to have a laugh now and then. It’s a wry chuckle and it’s mixed with a groan. But it’s a laugh nonetheless. And we go on and we live our lives. So, until the Russian ICBMs start landing in Dunwich, I’ll continue doing my best to enjoy my life and share a laugh with you. And Alissa Heinerscheid, this Bud’s for you, ya dope.
Well, now there’s no reason to watch Fox News anymore. It should be interesting to see how Carlson decides to go forward from here. I’m assuming he’s not hurting for money. He should probably start a channel on Rumble and put up a paywall. He’s one of the more interesting people in broadcasting. People will pay to get his content.
The other possibility is he goes into politics. That I see as more problematic. Politics is a very dirty game. If you don’t need to use it to make lots of dirty money it won’t be an interesting career.
I think Carlson could form some kind of relationship with the likes of Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, Salena Zito, Sharyl Attkisson and a few other real journalists to produce a media outlet that would provide the kind of reporting and opinion that can’t be found anywhere else in the media. They would have believability. That’s something that is so sorely lacking everywhere else.
If done right and without all the overhead that comes with a Fox News or a CNN, Carlson and a few reporters could break away from the dying landscape of network and cable news shows that no one needs or wants anymore. News and analysis. With the internet and a few resources like Rumble and maybe Elon Musk’s Twitter who needs studios and boardrooms?
Come to think of it, Carlson interviewed Musk last week. Maybe those two could strike up a deal where Tucker’s content was available exclusively on Twitter with some of it behind a paywall. It could make both of them a lot of money. And it could serve as a model for the future. I’ve heard that Musk wants to add a “substack” option to Twitter. Having someone like Tucker Carlson as his first big “channel” might be just the thing he needs to steer talent to his platform.
So anyway, Tucker’s “firing” could be a very opportune moment to start seeing a new journalism. Without the bloat of the dinosaur media, a cadre of people who want to tell interesting stories that have some resemblance to objective reality could provide a service that people would be willing to pay for. I, even I, would pay a little bit for that.
Now it’s also certain that all the usual suspects on the Left will be gunning for Tucker Carlson. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s a target for the Justice Department’s attack dogs. Their hatred for him probably rivals how they feel about Donald Trump. After all he’s another traitor to his class. They’ve already once gone after his family at home. He had to move away from Washington to protect them. This is not a trivial threat. Hopefully he’s made enough money to be able to afford professional security services. But no one is safe from the abuse that the FBI can bring to bear. We’ll have to see whether these problems crop up for him.
Well, these are interesting times. Tucker Carlson has been the only truthful voice in mainstream news commentary. I hope that he will be able to find a way to continue shining a light on the criminal activities of the Washington regime. There isn’t any other voice out there that has both his reach and credibility. Hopefully someone like Musk who has the reach and also the money to set up a platform for him will come along and take advantage of this interesting opportunity.
This made me laugh:
“As ratings tank amid hostile coverage of former President Donald Trump, Fox News is purging its newsroom in an attempt to salvage the network’s fading brand. Political editor Chris Stirewalt, a NeverTrumper, and several digital editors were fired Tuesday.”
https://amgreatness.com/2021/01/20/fox-news-purge-begins/
What’s the expression? Too little, too late. In fact way too late. Even if they threw Chris Wallace, Martha MacCallum, Bret Baier and Sandra Smith into a volcano I don’t think they’ll get back the right wing audience they had. Their last chance was election night. Now I wouldn’t watch their trash if they had the news read by their bimbos naked. Sorry Tucker, you really should find a better home.