Cant tuck tucker12/6/2023 ![]() We want to thank you for that, for sending your tax dollars here.” He smiled. There always is, in Washington, the richest city in America. “That’s because there is construction going on. “You may hear construction noise behind us during this show,” he said. Carlson broadcasts from the drab Washington office of Fox News, halfway between Union Station and the Capitol, and one night he was accompanied by the sound of heavy machinery. He moved there in 1992 with his wife, Susie, and they have lived there, happily, virtually ever since. He has endless disdain for the Washington élite and its conventional wisdom, including the belief-widespread among political insiders-that Washington stinks. In many ways, Carlson is a throwback, and a contradiction: a fierce critic of the political and cultural establishment who is also, unapologetically, a member of it. Often, watching the segments feels like stumbling into a Twitter argument, even though Carlson himself dislikes Twitter. The format is simple: Carlson prefers to talk to one person at a time, eschewing the “Brady Bunch” grids that many cable-news shows use to fill the screen with noise and drama. Carlson’s show was a success both on television and online, where clips of his segments, which are frequently and sometimes obnoxiously disputatious, are reborn as viral videos. Where Kelly had conducted a long and lopsided feud with Trump-she was relatively skeptical of him, he was absolutely cruel toward her-Carlson thought Trump was refreshing, not least because of his habit of making enemies on the left and the right. Buoyed by the election of Donald Trump, and the attendant explosion of interest in political news, Carlson drew even better ratings than Kelly had. ![]() The promotion was a surprise-Carlson had been hanging around the cable-news industry for far too long to be considered a rising star-and so, too, was the result. and then, in January, moved to 9 P.M., to fill the space formerly occupied by Megyn Kelly, who had defected from Fox News to NBC. Last fall, he once again became the host of his own show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which began its run at 7 P.M. The job required some amount of partisan invective, which Carlson was happy enough to supply, but he did not always manage to hide his opinion of politicians in general, which is rather low-or, as he might say, in his unplaceable high-preppy accent, rawther low. He had begun his career as a waggish writer for the conservative Weekly Standard, and his television segments tended to be wittier and shrewder than his competitors’. On Fox, his disdain for liberal piety was less anomalous than his manner. While Carlson was running the Daily Caller, he also served as a contributor to Fox News, where he became increasingly visible. What followed is one of the most unlikely comebacks in the annals of cable news. Unemployed at forty, Carlson launched a scrappy Web site, the Daily Caller, which published exposés, conservative opinion, and clickbait, such as “Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Cleavage: A History.” It wasn’t even enough to alter the public perception of Carlson, who seems like the kind of guy who would wear a bow tie, even when he doesn’t. But the change in wardrobe wasn’t enough to save the show, which was cancelled two years later. The Bow Tie.” He had been wearing a bow tie when, in 2004, Jon Stewart paid him a visit on CNN, to tell him that “Crossfire,” which Carlson was then co-hosting, was “hurting America,” and to call him a “dick.” And Carlson wore one again during a disastrous appearance on “Dancing with the Stars,” in which he was eliminated after his first routine, a semi-stationary cha-cha.Īt MSNBC, the producers had spent months asking Carlson to abandon the tie, because they felt that it encouraged the audience to view him as a character, or perhaps a caricature. ![]() MSNBC advertised his program with posters that read, “The Man. “But, from now on, I’m going without.” The affectation had come to define him: Carlson was primarily known-and, in no small number of television households, reviled-as the self-assured young conservative who dressed like a spelling-bee champion. “I like bow ties, and I certainly spent a lot of time defending them,” he said. He stopped wearing a bow tie on April 11, 2006, acknowledging the change in the final minutes of the show he hosted on MSNBC. George’s, a Rhode Island prep school with a dress code. Tucker Carlson started wearing a bow tie in 1984, when he was in tenth grade at St. Photograph by Philip Montgomery for The New Yorker ![]() Carlson has a knack for making any view, no matter how widespread or advantageous, seem like a brave rebellion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |