It’s about time. Tucker Carlson is parting ways with Fox News. The news comes about a week after Fox News settled the Dominion defamation lawsuit, which cost the company roughly $787.5 million. Whether Tucker’s departure from Fox is due to the lawsuit brought about by Tucker and Fox’s attempt to spread lies about the 2020 election is not clear at this point. What is clear is that Tucker’s departure has been long overdue.
Tucker has been hailed as a “conservative” icon in journalism for quite some time now. His show has been the highest-rated cable news show in history according to Forbes and has received millions of views during the span of his career. However, he has proved time and time again to be a thorn in the side of the conservative movement. Carlson has been consistently anti-market. He has even gone so far as to praise Senator Elizabeth Warren’s economic proposals to break up large corporations and to give way to vast nationalizations of American companies, all in the name of patriotism. “Amazingly that’s pretty much what it is – economic patriotism,” said Carlson on his show. “Pure, old-fashioned economics, how to preserve good-paying American jobs.”
Besides praising progressive economics, something which should’ve gotten him the ax from the conservative movement long ago, Carlson has constantly lied to his viewers on many issues. During the discovery phase of the Dominion defamation lawsuit, Carlson’s texts were especially revealing. One of the messages sent by Tucker called for the firing of a Fox News fact checker who attempted to discredit Donald Trump’s claims about the 2020 election. Jacqui Heinrich, the fact checker, tweeted that several top election officials had found “no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” Tucker then texted Sean Hannity saying “Please get her fired… Seriously…What the f***? I’m actually shocked… It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.” Later text messages showed that Tucker was also fully aware of the illegitimacy of the 2020 election claims in which he admits that claiming the election was rigged was “reckless.”
Tucker and other Fox News members were exposed for their purposeful attempts to lie to their viewers to preserve their ratings. Their continual push for a news outlet that puts the pursuit of money over the pursuit of truth has done nothing but sowed discord among its viewers and those who govern. Countless conspiracy mongers were given legitimacy among their followers all because Fox did not want to see their stock drop. Not only is it a disgrace to the principles of journalism, but it has exposed people like Tucker for who they truly are. Conservatives often harshly critique the detrimental effects of telling people what they want to hear, and rightly so, but Carlson and others have for too long been allowed to play the similar games in which the left has indulged. Rank demagoguery has been the line many at Fox have taken and conservatives should not fear to call it out.
While some will make asinine remarks regarding his departure as being “A blow to truth in American journalism” or something along those lines, this could not be further from the truth. Carlson’s departure is both good for the world of journalism and good for the conservative movement. Tucker Carlson is not the embodiment of the conservative movement, nor should he be considered a figure of influence. He should be looked at with as much reverence as Buckley had for the John Birch Society. A crank whose lasting damage will take many years to repair, both when it comes to right-leaning journalism and conservative thought.
His departure from Fox News is not to be mourned or heralded as some tragic loss of high-quality journalism. Rather, it is a step in the right direction for journalism and conservatism.
Jake Kroesen
Jake Kroesen lives in Independence, Missouri and is a Junior pursuing an undergraduate degree in Political Science at the University of Central Missouri. He is a member of the campuses College Republicans branch and is a contributor to the school's paper. He is greatly influenced by figures such as William F. Buckley jr, Irving Kristol, Frank Meyer, and Friedrich Von Hayek.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
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