March 18, 2019
MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey
“First they Came for Tucker Carlson,
then for Judge Jeanine”: Where Is the Fox News Channel Headed?
Friends,
One of the few fearless and unapologetic voices remaining
on Fox News is Tucker Carlson, but over the past three months he has been the
subject of an intense campaign by the shrill and fanatical Left, in particular
the “anti-right wing watch dog” group Media Matters, to get him off the air. And he has also earned the enmity of “establishment”
conservatives, as well, including Neoconservatives (and semi-Never
Trumpers) such as Ben Shapiro and National
Review’s David French, who thoroughly dislike (and fear) his message of a
populist, America First, and traditionalist conservatism.
Perhaps only because of his high prime time
ratings Carlson remains on the air—but the attacks have been relentless, and a
major attempt to have advertisers drop him has had some success.
Recall, also, that last year a frenzied radical Leftist mob attacked Tucker Carlson’s home in Washington DC: “Antifa Comes for Tucker Carlson,” November 9, 2016: http://takimag.com/article/antifa-comes-for-tucker-carlson/print#ixzz5WMfdiqug
More on this in a future installment. But for
the time being I pass on some fascinating background sources:
“Revenge? Tucker
Carlson Exposed Media Matters’ Smear Campaign Against Conservatives in 2012,” March 12, 2019, at: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/03/12/revenge-tucker-carlson-exposed-media-matters-smear-campaign-against-conservatives-in-2012/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=daily&utm_content=links&utm_campaign=20190312
“Tucker
Carlson's remaining advertisers targeted in new call for boycott,” March
11, 2019, at: https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/11/tucker-carlsons-remaining-advertisers-targeted-in-new-call-for-boycott/23689418/
“Tucker Carlson Routs Conservatism
Inc. On Unrestrained Capitalism—and Immigration,” January 11,
2019, at: https://www.unz.com/article/tucker-carlson-routs-conservatism-inc-on-unrestrained-capitalism-and-immigration/
“Tucker Carlson Claims Market Capitalism Has Undermined American Society. He's Wrong,” January 4, 2019, at: https://www.dailywire.com/news/39964/tucker-carlson-claims-market-capitalism-has-ben-shapiro
And an excellent defense of Carlson by the
superb writer Christopher De Groot:
“A Defense of Tucker Carlson,” March 15, 2019, at:https://www.takimag.com/article/a-defense-of-tucker-carlson
While
Tucker holds on, under siege—and continues arguably as the only true voice of
effective populist conservatism left broadcasting in prime time, another Fox
personality has not been so fortunate. And the circumstances are ironic, to say
the least.
For
the past several weeks Fox has served up a steady diet of attacks on a couple
of newly-elected Democratic congressman whose public comments, say various
pundits on the network, are anti-semitic. In particular, Leftist Representative
Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has come in for her share of criticism. Omar’s comments have included
references like “it’s all about Benjamins [$100 bills]” (an apparent reference
to the political influence of wealthy Jewish Americans), the “problematic role
of lobbyists in our politics…AIPAC” [American-Israeli PAC], and accusations of the
“dual loyalty” of some Jewish Americans.
The
question of whether those comments are indeed anti-semitic or not was
immediately subsumed in frenetic attempts to censure Rep. Omar in Congress, and
calls for new steps to guard against “hate speech” in America.
And
it was Fox personality Judge Jeanine Pirro who managed to get caught up in it
and discover that even in pushing back against Islam, there are limits,
restrictions on just what you can say at that network. This past Saturday night
on her evening program Pirro made some comments about Rep. Omar—comments which
had the misfortunate timing of coming right after the shooting in a mosque in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
Here is what she said: “Omar wears a hijab, which, according to the Quran 33:59, tells women to
cover so they won’t get molested. Is her adherence to this Islamic doctrine
indicative of her adherence to Sharia law, which in itself is antithetical to
the United States Constitution?”
[“Fox
News Channel Pulls Justice With Judge Jeanine Pirro Show From Next Weekend’s
Schedule,” March 17, 2019, at: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2019/03/fox-news-channel-pulls-justice-with-judge-jeanine-pirro-show-from-next-weekends-schedule/?utm_source=TGPemail&utm_medium=email&utm_content=subscriber_id:553014025&utm_campaign=Auto%20Send%20from%20The%20Gateway%20Pundit%20on%20March%2017,%202019%20at%2003:06:06%20PM]
Apparently,
that was enough to get her suspended, her program off Fox for at least two
weeks.
Interestingly,
Judge Jeanine made those remarks in strong support of Israel and in stout
opposition to Representative Omar.
But Pirro lacks the audience base that Carlson possesses, and Fox can thus
treat her differently, at least for the time being. Nevertheless, there is a
lesson here…and it is something I’ve mentioned in previous installments in this
series. [See, for example: “Report: Fox News Installs Meditation Room with Muslim Prayer
Rugs,” May 18, 2018, at: http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2018/05/18/report-fox-news-installs-meditation-room-with-muslim-prayer-rugs/]
Fox News
has its gatekeepers, and this may well signal a direction in which the network
is headed. With the exception of Tucker Carlson, most real and unapologetic populist
conservatives are not given air time. There are restrictive parameters at the
network—racial, sexual, ethnic—which guide both reporting and punditry.
Feminist conservatives, gay conservatives, Muslim conservatives are all welcome,
as long as the narrative of equality for all is preserved. But cross the line,
and the hammer comes down.
Here’s hoping
that Carlson can survive.
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