{"id":28476,"date":"2023-04-26T03:00:32","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T09:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?p=28476"},"modified":"2023-04-25T12:31:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T18:31:17","slug":"tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html","title":{"rendered":"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Fox News \u201cpersonality\u201d Tucker Carlson was fired without notice on Monday morning. There\u2019s lots of coverage of this around the internet (although there\u2019s very little on the Fox News website) \u2013 I don\u2019t intend to repeat what others have said. But I have some thoughts on this I want to share.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tucker Carlson in 2021. Photo by Gage Skidmore via WikiMedia Commons, used under Creative Commons license<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fox News is in trouble. They settled the Dominion lawsuit for $787.5 million. The AP says<\/a> Fox has $4 billion in cash reserves and can defray much of the cost through insurance and tax write offs, but that\u2019s still a lot of money. And there are more lawsuits coming. I haven\u2019t seen anybody seriously suggesting that Fox will go bankrupt, but rich people who lose money tend to get angry. I\u2019m pretty sure Rupert Murdoch is angry right now.<\/p>\n

The truth still matters. The most important thing that came out of the Dominion case was clear evidence that Fox personalities knew Trump\u2019s claims of a stolen election were false. They promoted the claims anyway because it\u2019s what their audience wanted to hear. It\u2019s one thing to promote vile political philosophies \u2013 that\u2019s freedom of speech. It\u2019s another thing entirely to promote things you know are lies.<\/p>\n

Carlson is also being sued for sex discrimination and harassment. The facts of that case reflect poorly on Fox management, and represent another liability to them.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that as popular as Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. Make no mistake \u2013 he was worth a lot to them. Fox was paying him $20 million a year because he brought viewers to the network. We see the same thing in pro sports all the time. Stars get away with behavior that would get ordinary players cut in a minute, because they make a difference on the field. But eventually, even the most talented players can become more trouble than they\u2019re worth.<\/p>\n

This was a move by the Murdoch family to protect their business. They\u2019re betting that getting rid of Carlson will minimize their losses short-term and allow them to rebuild their audience in a few years or even a few months.<\/p>\n

My first reaction to this was happiness that a mean-spirited purveyor of conspiracy theories was gone. Though he\u2019s likely not gone \u2013 speculation is that he\u2019ll end up on Newsmax, the channel for people who think Fox is too liberal. My second reaction was that finally, the adults on the right are starting to act like adults. But I\u2019m not sure that\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

Make no mistake \u2013 Rupert Murdoch believes the philosophies Fox News preaches: laissez faire economics, environmental exploitation, conservative social positions enforced by law, rigid social hierarchies with himself and people like him at the top. He started Fox News to promote those ideas as much as he started it to make money.<\/p>\n

And also, he started Fox News because he saw how popular Rush Limbaugh<\/a> was. Limbaugh was an entertainer first and a political analyst second. He often said he was successful because he \u201csaid what other people were thinking but were afraid to say.\u201d People watch Fox News because it tells them what they want to hear, whether it\u2019s true or not.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Fox\u2019s reporting is usually factual, even if it\u2019s framed in a conservative context. I watched and read them a fair amount during the 2020 election \u2013 their facts were usually in line with what other sources were reporting. They were among the first to call Arizona for Biden, which enraged Trump. But their programming moves seamlessly from factual reporting to editorializing and from editorializing to promoting conspiracy theories \u2013 something their average viewers fail to notice. Or they notice but they don\u2019t care, because it\u2019s what they want to hear.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I think is most important in this situation, and what I\u2019m watching going forward.<\/p>\n

Remember Occupy Wall Street<\/a>, when we were complaining (with great justification) about \u201cthe 1%\u201d? Rupert Murdoch and Fox News exemplify the 1%. They want to do two things: promote conservative ideology and make money. Making money may not always come first (those who insist \u201cit\u2019s always about the money\u201d miss the point that rich people can also be true believers) but money is always important.<\/p>\n

But the 1% are just one segment of the current Republican party. The other major segment are the populists and the culture warriors. These are the people who have been economically and financially \u201cleft behind\u201d by the 1%, but who are most angry with the cultural changes of the past half century, changes that are celebrated by the left. Individually these people have very little money or power. Collectively they have a lot of votes and a lot of TV sets. Fox News has always pandered to them. Donald Trump did a fantastic job of pandering to them in 2016. Ron DeSantis is trying to ride \u201cstop woke\u201d to the Presidency.<\/p>\n

Is Tucker Carlson\u2019s firing part of a push by the 1% to reclaim control over the populist mob? Or is this just about Carlson himself and the fact that what he brought to Fox was exceeded by his liabilities? Honestly, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

In 2016 I thought the adults in the Republican party would step in and make sure their nominee was at least qualified to be President. They didn\u2019t, we got Trump, and it\u2019s going to take many more years to repair the damage\u2026 and that\u2019s assuming Trump (or DeSantis, or someone like them) isn\u2019t elected in 2024 and does even more harm.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be watching the lawsuits against Fox carefully. Will they be able to pay them off like they did Dominion? Or will some of them go to trial and even more dirt will come out in the process?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very early in the 2024 election cycle, but I\u2019ll be watching for an establishment Republican candidate to declare for the Presidency. Will an adult run, or will Republicans have to choose between Trump, DeSantis, and a bunch of no-names?<\/p>\n

The conflict going on in our wider society is a lot more than Team Red vs. Team Blue. American political parties are all coalitions, and segments can turn on each other in a hurry \u2013 particularly if the party is losing. As with so much else in life, binary thinking is quick and easy but ultimately unhelpful.<\/p>\n

Fox firing Tucker Carlson is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Pay attention.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1129,"featured_media":28482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[272],"tags":[3505,1182,4371,3752],"class_list":["post-28476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-2","tag-fox-news","tag-occupy-wall-street","tag-rupert-murdoch","tag-tucker-carlson"],"yoast_head":"\nTucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-04-26T09:00:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-04-25T18:31:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/04\/Tucker_Carlson_51771256324-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Beckett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html\",\"name\":\"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-04-26T09:00:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-04-25T18:31:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\"},\"description\":\"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"description\":\"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad\",\"name\":\"John Beckett\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John Beckett\"},\"description\":\"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?","description":"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?","og_description":"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html","og_site_name":"John Beckett","article_published_time":"2023-04-26T09:00:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-04-25T18:31:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2023\/04\/Tucker_Carlson_51771256324-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"John Beckett","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John Beckett","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html","name":"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-04-26T09:00:32+00:00","dateModified":"2023-04-25T18:31:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad"},"description":"As popular as Tucker Carlson was, he became more trouble than he was worth to Fox and to the Murdoch family. His firing is a good thing, but what it means in the big picture remains to be seen. Pay attention.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/2023\/04\/tucker-carlson-fired-are-the-adults-in-charge-again.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tucker Carlson Fired \u2013 Are the Adults in Charge Again?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/","name":"John Beckett","description":"Musings of a Druid, Pagan, and Unitarian Universalist.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/b4c8980dc36f971434424c304ca429ad","name":"John Beckett","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f50bfa2a79f70103847fe75540bb29c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John Beckett"},"description":"I grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside my back door. Wandering through them gave me a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God. I\u2019m a Druid graduate of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids, the Coordinating Officer of the Denton Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans and a former Vice President of CUUPS Continental. I\u2019ve been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals for the past eleven years. I live in the Dallas \u2013 Fort Worth area and I earn my keep as an engineer.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/author\/johnbeckett"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/johnbeckett\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}