Mark Karlin: BuzzFlash Is Not Going to Build Up Tucker Carlson's "Right-Wing Shock Jock's" Calculated Brand of White Outrage. Progressive Sites Should Stop Giving Him Free Publicity.
Progressive publications should avoid daily Tucker Carlson scandalous remarks unless they are actually news (Gage Skidmore)
July 15, 2021
MARK KARLIN, EDITOR OF BUZZFLASH
The Washington Post headlined a story yesterday, “How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance.” Meanwhile, Raw Story ran an article entitled, “Tucker Carlson's first grade teacher busts him for lying about her: 'That's the most embellished thing I ever heard'“ And there were countless other articles about Carlsons outrage du jour.
The problem is that Carlson is continuing in the tradition of Trump, in which all media, including progressive sites, respond to his calculated assertions of not only white grievance but also conspiracy theories, including one that the FBI is following him for allegedly trying to arrange an interview with Vladimir Putin.
It’s true that with the relatively diminished presence of Donald Trump and the death of Rush Limbaugh, the radio father of racial-priming and white grievance, there was an opening for an unhinged right-wing commentator to cause a gaper’s block after each of his evening shows on Fox. To those who are not caught inside the psychotic bubble that is the legacy of Trump and Limbaugh (not to mention Alex Jones), Carlson appears to belong to Fox’s entertainment division. He built an audience that is challenging Hannity’s # 1 spot on Fox by unleashing one startling assertion of white privilege, resentment and vile racism after another, while toeing the Trump line on issues like raising doubts about vaccination, critical race theory and masks. Indeed, Carlson was the number one-watched talk show host in May of this year.
According to the Post, Carlson is a sincere racist and a defender of white grievance since his early school days. However, his prominence today is due to the thirst that the media has for good copy and a colorful visual circus to attract viewers and readers. According to media critic Eric Boehlert, the mainstream media is bored with Biden and written him off as a lost cause as far as attracting eyeballs.
Enter Carlson, who like Trump is totally unconstrained by any media guardrails. He tosses off shocking diatribes like a robotic tennis ball machine. In each show, he offers enough howling violation of norms to receive almost immediate coverage on the Internet, as his damning monologues begin to be circulated on right-wing television and in conservative print and net publications, building up into a tabloid cascade.
However, it is the daily promotion of “shocked, I tell you, we’re shocked” at whatever rabbit hole or Neo-Confederate proclamations he has crawled down by the progressive net that is a bit stupefying and reprehensible. It not only amplifies his message, although under the guise of outrage, for progressive sites to write one or more stories a day about Carlson’s degrading and delusionary remarks, it helps him personally raise his brand to position himself for large salary increases and promotions for books, personal appearances, etc. Progressive sites are airing his messages, with disdain but still repeating them, and personally enriching him.
Fox also makes a significant profit from Carlson’s presence in their lineup. This is because, in addition to advertising, Fox gets a payment from cable companies for each subscriber as a fee for carrying Fox. A typical cable subscriber is paying, pro-rated, Fox $2 a month via their cable bill.
Now and then, BuzzFlash posts articles when Carlson actually is a newsmaker, but to justify daily click-bait in order that leftists can indulge in righteous disdain does not advance progressive causes. All it does is provide a bigger megaphone for Carlson, a bigger audience for Fox and the further amplification of delusional and bigoted right-wing talking points.
Follow BuzzFlash on @twitter
Continue the conversation at the BuzzFlash Nation group on Facebook