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Comment by hintymad | Hacker News Reader

> Tucker Carlson just broke the record for most-watched month of any cable news show ever. If that offends you as a journalist, it's probably time for some introspection.

I admire your optimism, but there won't be introspection. They will and already have labeled Carlson far-right, bigot, racist, sexist, liar, and you name it. His show broke the record because more than half of American population are basket of deplorables, least educated, and white supremacists.

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The problem is that Carlson is a far right, bigot, racist, and liar (I don't know that I've personally heard of sexism on his part).

The fact that half the population agrees with him doesn't change any of that.

Tucker Carlson thinks marijuana legalization is a massive conspiracy to pacify the youth and make them more compliant. I dont particularly give a damn about the mainstream media, but I'm not going to pretend Carlson is a paragon of intelligent political analysis either.

It's not that Tucker's an oracle. It's that sometime in the last 30 years the tenets of the journalistic priesthood have changed. In the past the (aspirational) goal was to provide the public with the facts; now it's to provide the (interpreted) Truth.

Biased media is nothing new. It just used to be biased in different, opposing directions. What's new is that journalists finally found something they could all agree on: pro-journalism!

Fox News literally argued in court that Tucker Carlson is exempt from slander accusations because the show is purely entertainment and no reasonable person would believe that the claims he makes are factual.

Similar arguments were made in defense of the Daily Show and Colbert Report (e.g. "just comedy shows"), yet those shows also often touched on big issues neglected by mainstream news.

If there was any confusion: Fox "News", Comedy Central

Isn't he mainstream media?

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know about that. I watched a few episodes of Carlson on rioting and critical race theory with blatant racism against white people in Seattle city government. Those were shocking news, and Carlson's attack was forceful yet followed common sense.

Most people don't agree fully with any person they respect politically. That doesn't mean you toss the baby out with the bathwater. Tucker Carlson's views on Marijuana may seem odd on Hacker News, but (1) they're fairly typical and mainstream and (2) they really don't matter when Tucker is reporting on things like the Joe Biden allegations.

> His show broke the record because more than half of American population are basket of deplorables, least educated, and white supremacists.

In another word, mainstream.

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