Welcome to the new ‘CNN Lite’

George Rebane

Fair, balanced, and scared shitless?

Unbeknownst to Tucker Carlson, last Friday he broadcast his last show, a  program that has become an iconic fixture in the homes of the largest fraction of America’s cable news audiences.  Readers of these pages have known for the last several years of my assessment that Fox News was losing its edge as the leading media voice against the anti-American Left that is daily championed by the Democratic Party through its boot-licking broadcast and online outlets.

Tonight Bret Baier’s flagship ‘Special Report’ took the Scared Shitless Trophy by not acknowledging the major news item of the day, let alone daring to even repeat the sparse announcement of the event that was released by Fox Corporation about the “parting of their ways.”

Everyone tonight is asking how did Fox come to that decision to fire Carlson.  It’s known that Rupert Murdoch is a tough old bastard who makes business decisions based on dollars and cents.  So people on other smaller and independent networks like Megyn Kelly on Newsmax are favoring reasons based on future profitability that requires moving FN toward the center of the political spectrum.

Meanwhile, the rest of us are standing by to see how Tucker, who can write his own ticket, will now land on his feet in a new sandbox more to his liking.  When he finally does land, you can expect a seismic shift of cable audiences.  The risky part is that he will then have to deliver even more of his gloves-off impactive commentary than in the past.  His new copy will have to shoulder not only the ongoing leftwing and government travesties, but also the added burden of real and represented slings and arrows that this transition made him suffer.

Comments

[Scott O]

I watched the Ytube Megyn Kelly take on this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrcXFtsGHuc
One posit was - was Tucker's scalp a condition of the settlement?
Hmmmm...
O'Reilly's take
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhAfNEqChWs
Bill thinks its just a business decision. One thing he mentioned was Ray Epps on 60 minutes this last Sunday saying Tucker "ruined his life".
Another law suit coming?

[scenes]

"...favoring reasons based on future profitability that requires moving FN toward the center of the political spectrum."

If 'center' means the nomenklatura, the public employee unions, Alphabet Corp, the 17 intelligence agencies, and BlackRock, I'd have to agree. You can pretty much count on any MSM hewing the line in the long run.

[Scott O]

It will be very interesting to see what ensues. My fav comment from the peanut galley:
Tucker and Bongino have new prime time shows on CNN?
Like all things corporate and bureaucratic - trying to get to the truth of the thing is a near impossibility.
Anyway, it's all window dressing on the big picture.
Our fed govt is full of corruption and lies.
Our fed govt is broke and its reliance on King Dollar is slipping away.

All we have left is the hope the CCP screws up somewhere.
And hope is not a plan.

[Scott O]

A bit of behind the scenes is starting to emerge:
"On her first day working for Mr. Carlson, Ms. Grossberg said she discovered the office was decorated with large doctored pictures of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wearing a plunging swimsuit. She said she was once called into the top producer’s office to be asked whether Ms. Bartiromo was having a sexual relationship with the House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy."
Damned near Auschwitz!
Who in hell hired this woman?
https://dnyuz.com/2023/04/24/in-a-lawsuit-tucker-carlson-is-accused-of-promoting-a-hostile-work-environment/

[Bill Evans]

Tucker will probably be picked up by OANN, NewsMax, Al Jazeera, or RT News.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/24/pro-russian-propagandist-after-carlson-exit-00093546

[fish]

REPUBLICANS POUNCE........

GOP runs ad using AI images to envision disastrous Biden second term

So news footage from now? Good to know.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/gop-ad-using-ai-images-biden-second-term

[scenes]

re: RT News vs 'Politico'.

The funny thing is to simply look at their websites.

https://www.rt.com/

https://www.politico.com/

Which one looks more like news? Seriously.

[scenes]

"GOP runs ad using AI images to envision disastrous Biden second term"

AI simulating Future Biden, while Present Biden is a mask on top of an activist movement. It's all matryoshka dolls.

VDH makes a not-bad point here, I have to admit that it's a thing I hadn't thought much about.
https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/21/victor-davis-hanson-the-useful-veneer-of-the-aging-democrat/

[Bill Tozer]

Megan says Tucker not fired. Like putting star player on the bench and not let him talk with other teams. (My interpretation.)

https://fb.watch/k9E9bZBmxT/?

[Bill Tozer]

It is clear now that it is Fox that is leaking bad Tucker stuff to the NYT and Media Matters. They must orchestrate a campaign to smear Tucker. Why? Because Fox is worried that Carlson will take his viewers with him and they will not remain at Fox.

Tucker brought in 350-400k of the coveted demo viewers. Since his departure, the demo in the 8:00pm time slot has fallen to about 125k and lost out to MSMBC is the slot and even CNN once. The 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm times slot also down.
While the entire cable news viewership is going the way of newspapers in terms of viewership (and MSM), podcasts are the way to go.
Viewers are mad. New term: Foxweiser.

I watch Metal Kelly’s podcasts for free cause they show up on my newsfeed. If I want to use YouTube to post one of her good podcast here, I have noticed that the best parts and quotes are not there! There is the podcast and there is the YouTube edited versions. Same with Glenn Beck on Blaze. They have to sanitize it to put it out on YouTube.

Bottomline. The smear campaign against Tucker is to separate him from his viewers. He questions the war in Ukraine, big Pharma, the Deep State, the press, etc. He is most hated by the establishment as he skewers the sacred cows of both the Left, the Administration, and the RINO’s, including Paul Ryan.

Foxweisrer.

[Buffalo Bison]

Fox News: "we've been lying to you."
Fox audience: "No you haven't".

Kinda sums up right wing sheep think. Baaaaaaa.

[scenes]

"The smear campaign against Tucker is to separate him from his viewers."

I guess another way to look at it is to think about the politics of corporations (something of a new phenomena) vs. their business. Are they going to make more money without Tucker C.? or does his absence simply align them with the nomenklatura? Gotta fight them Russians if nothin' else.

I mean, there has to be a reason that the biggest investor in the world, BlackRock, is forcing wokeness on companies. It ain't profit motive. Question, what's the underlying reason?

It's worth factoring in that Fox (and NBC and CNN and &tc) are less and less important over time. Lex Friedman 1 or 2 per week interviews, just on youtube alone, get close to as many views as a MSM talking head's show. God knows what numbers Joe Rogan gets.

It seems to me that fighting about broadcast 'news', practically 100% op-ed anymore, is old man yells at cloud. It's all kind of besides the point.

Buffalo Bison@4:31PM lol. What a low-effort post.

[fish]

Posted by: scenes | 09 May 2023 at 08:30 AM

Buffalo Bison@4:31PM lol. What a low-effort post.

Offered with all the thought and enthusiasm that you would expect from a an 80 year old rocking the Greek Fisherman.....

[scenes]

fwiw:

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1666203439146172419

[scenes]

and the beat goes on.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fox-news-says-tucker-carlson-breach-contract-after-launching-twitter-show

[scenes]

Episode 2 is up.

https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1666928190445477890