Tucker Carlson And Missing The Main Part Of The Narrative

The media often seems to do this.

Above is a text message that Tucker Carlson, the five-or-six-year face of FOX News, sent to one of his producers (probably Justin Wells, who got the axe when he did) the day after the Capitol insurrection. Since this text message leaked, a big focus has been on “It’s not how white men fight,” which can be taken as racist and probably is racist. When I first read this, I thought of “not how white men fight” as less racist and more about harkening back to your grandfather storming some beach in Europe and how your entire family narrative was tied to that beach-storming, so you associated it with manhood and dignity. But, admittedly, it’s probably racist.

That line got 90% of the attention in all coverage about this firing. But what about the stuff at the bottom, where he’s saying “If I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than him?” There’s some nuance in that part. Now, it should be noted I don’t think from afar that Tucker Carlson is a good guy. He himself is probably a good dude, and a good dad-of-four, and he’s been with the same lady for 32 years, and even in lawsuits his lawyers are always arguing that he’s not really who he is on TV and that he’s playing a role. I am sure Tucker is like a lot of guys professionally: he hated what was happening…