Hacker News Reader

Comment by gjsman-1000 | Hacker News Reader

I feel like this is going to have the effect of Obi-Wan's quote:

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Some are saying, he'll go to OANN or NewsMax. I doubt that - he drew more viewers than any other host. He draws more views than arguably any other right-wing talk show host, or even almost any left-wing talk show host. (Unrelated, but Gutfeld! is more popular than Colbert, Kimmel, or Fallon.) He could set up his own media company with the money he's made and his popularity.

View on HN

Could he be popular because he's on at a time that a lot of people want to watch, on a channel with a predictable audience? The viewers aren't going to vanish, and they're probably not going to change their habits.

I suspect that rather than his popularity following him to another channel, they'll find an equally good entertainer to take over the time slot. It may take some time to find just the combination of personality and tone to connect with the people who are already tuning in to that station at that time, but he's far from unique. Plenty of people can do his job.

Fox wants to tone down the liability risk, so I don't think they want a direct replacement. The balance will be tricky.

But maybe thats what they wanted anyway, as it seems like Carlson was drifting away from Murdoch's political zone.

Bill O’Reilly never recovered. The question is, is there some sex scandal or other dirty secret behind this?

Most likely, as CNBC insinuates, it's tied to the Dominion Voting Defamation Settlement. They settled out of court for a huge sum... but who knows if some other conditions were attached. It's hard for me to believe that it was voluntary considering his commercial success.

If that is the case, this is not a Bill O'Reilly situation. He'll bounce back like nothing happened.

Tucker Carlson's private texts are public record now. They reveal he hates Trump and considers him quote: "a demonic force". Now that we know he really thinks of Trump, he's off Fox's brand. So of course he's out.

I don't think that would be the issue. One reason is that it can easily be explained away: That was a quote from Dominion's own legal motion and retelling of the evidence, and Fox's response to that motion (which supposedly contains context) was sealed. At least according to Fox, but there's no reason their viewers wouldn't buy that.

> One reason is that it can easily be explained away

Only to have that explanation (if it isn’t true and clearly verifiable from evidence) steamrollered as the SmartMatic case rolls on in the wake of Dominion?

The question was less about whether or not SmartMatic and Dominion's case was true, as whether it would damage Tucker Carlson's or other host's reputation and brand. I don't think that the legal case is going to damage their reputation with their fans one ounce.

And this isn't necessary some "right wing delusion" either, both sides protect their own. Blackface didn't end Trudeau's career. French Laundry hasn't ended Newsom.

SmartMatic is likely to have the same evidence (at issue here) that Dominion had and to use it similarly to how Dominion did (and would have at trial). So, explaining stuff away that might be easy to explain away in the wake of the Dominion settlement because the full context did not come out in that case may be more complicated because the same issues and much of the same evidence are being litigated in SmartMatic, and what did not get fully explored in Dominion may well do so in SmartMatic.

Fox was trying to pivote away from Trump, but that appears to have failed, so I think this is likely the reason.

Fox doesn't want any of their starts drifting close to sane, factual takes on anything, even in private text messages.

Well... there is the gender discrimination case against him that's currently going through the courts.

But main-stream Republicans tend to like abusive men, so he's likely to only get more popular. At least with republicans.

Your ignorant and hateful speech has no place here. I get that its fun to make up strawmen, but it's counterproductive to discourse.

Yeah, but Carlson has a technical problem.

His cable audience is relatively unlikely to set up YouTube, Rumble or whatever on their TVs just to follow Carlson. They will probably get angry, and then just keep watching Fox.

His audience is already there. Anyone young and even slightly right-leaning knows he's hugely popular on social media. His clips also drove Fox News's whole YouTube channel, so whatever viewers he might lose by leaving cable, there will be many more to gain.

So.. what.. like 40 College Republicans share his clips on 8chan?

You have the right to be as ignorant as you want.

I choose to be ignorant of RWNJs sharing Tucker Carlson clips on 8chan. I'm happy not to go there.

I dunno. This is not my universe, but I just don't see Tucker outshining younger conservative influencers without the backing of Fox.

I don't even know a liberal counterpart to him either... Rachel Maddow? Bill Maher? But I don't see anyone like that floating to the top of social media either.

Maybe I am just ignorant, as I do not follow partisan influencers at all.

He already has a standing offer from RT.

Russian prime time had Tucker's clips as a fixture.

> He already has a standing offer from RT.

He's much more useful for the Russians pushing then talking points whilst not being on RT so I doubt he will end up there.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com