Calls for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson grow louder

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Steve Timko

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Apr 12, 2021, 12:50:56 PM4/12/21
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Take a look at this story from the Poynter Institute https://www.poynter.org/newsletters/2021/calls-for-fox-news-to-fire-tucker-carlson-grow-louder/ 

The Anti-Defamation League has called for Carlson to be fired after he brought up on air the white supremacist ‘replacement’ theory.

Dino Alexander

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Apr 12, 2021, 3:17:33 PM4/12/21
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I have a feeling that someone's due for a vacation, TOTALLY PLANNED!

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Greg Diener

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Apr 12, 2021, 5:08:26 PM4/12/21
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I'll believe he's getting fired when it actually happens like O'Reilly.

Greg

Tom Wolper

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Apr 13, 2021, 12:36:15 AM4/13/21
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On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 5:08 PM 'Greg Diener' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I'll believe he's getting fired when it actually happens like O'Reilly.

Carlson's not going anywhere. The thing about being a target of outrage is that the outrage comes in a wave. If the wave is not big enough to sweep away the target, the target can talk to management and become entrenched enough to withstand similar waves as they come. In order to succeed the outrage has to come in a much bigger wave. At this point Carlson is a known quantity and any company who pays to advertise on his show knows what the show is about. The advertisers aren't going to be blindsided over whatever he says and they're not sensitive to boycott threats.

The ADL did exactly the right thing in their language and demands. They have to publicly hold him to account for his bigotry. But their calling for him to be fired  isn't enough to get him fired and they know that.

In the longer term politics is continually undergoing changes and political media goes through its own changes. The circumstances might change to make it unacceptable to have a host openly spout bigotry on the air. We're not there yet and as much as it is important to keep pointing out instances of his bigotry it just won't get him booted from the air.

PGage

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Apr 13, 2021, 8:59:29 PM4/13/21
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I agree with this, but this incident may be a catalyst for a change in the political landscape; there has been a strange and unholy alliance between Evangelicals (White conservative Christians) and conservative Jews. Carlson’s  step in overtly embracing such clear and well known anti Semitic rhetoric may accelerate the weakening of that alliance, and if that happens it may significantly alter the economics of Fox News’s hate based programming.

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Kevin M.

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Apr 13, 2021, 9:58:48 PM4/13/21
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Firing him from FoxNews fixes nothing when there are countless post-Fox places for him to go, from The Blaze to OANN to starting his own online media content company a la O’Reilly. He can then write a book and buy a few thousand copies which makes him a NY Times bestseller even if those books all get pulped a year later. Then he can appear on other shows and write op-eds for the Wall Street Journal. 

Firing him accomplishes nothing. Not as long as the means are in place to shuffle his stupidity elsewhere 

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Marti Lawrence

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Apr 14, 2021, 1:02:16 PM4/14/21
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His show has their highest viewership, and I suspect the controversies he generates only bring more eyeballs to the network.

~Marti

Tom Wolper

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Apr 14, 2021, 2:11:29 PM4/14/21
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On Wed, Apr 14, 2021 at 1:02 PM Marti Lawrence <martil...@gmail.com> wrote:
His show has their highest viewership, and I suspect the controversies he generates only bring more eyeballs to the network.

That was true for O'Reilly and it wasn't enough to keep his show on FNC. It has to be something deeper than controversy brings viewers so keep ramping up the controversy. Anybody who does media training learns that stoking controversy brings attention from journalists who are otherwise indifferent to the righteousness of the cause.

Fox News doesn't seem to be trying to build the brand or bring new demographics of viewers. They have their captive audience and their incentive is to keep those viewers watching. Carlson's ratings come from a consistent number of viewers which is a relatively tiny part of the population. It's obvious that his viewers share his worldview and don't want to see it challenged no matter what reality is. So there's no standard of truth bound to him and no matter what Politifact or the ADL or Media Matters comes up with, it isn't going to sway his viewers, so it isn't going to sway him, and it's not going to cause Fox News executives to act.

That's the current situation but it doesn't mean it will hold over the long term. O'Reilly was forced off the air. For decades when a wave of outrage would rise against the Catholic Church over clerical abuse of children the church would make a lame PR response and the wave would die down. Until the one time it didn't. In that instance the change was abuse victims found they could use the internet to band together and amplify the wave of outrage. And with Tucker Carlson the cycle of bigoted provocation and outraged response can just keep going and it's going to take something much larger to force FNC to do anything.

Marti Lawrence

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Apr 15, 2021, 9:03:50 PM4/15/21
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Sadly, they seem to be doubling down  (or tripling down, since his new show that you have to pay for, is on three days a week.)

PRESS  RELEASE FROM FOX NEWS:
Tucker Carlson Today premieres on streaming service Fox Nation March 29. The show, an extension of Carlson's nightly program Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, will stream Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

~Marti

Greg Diener

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Apr 15, 2021, 10:10:53 PM4/15/21
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On Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 12:36:15 AM UTC-4 Tom Wolper wrote:
On Mon, Apr 12, 2021 at 5:08 PM 'Greg Diener' via TVorNotTV <tvor...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
I'll believe he's getting fired when it actually happens like O'Reilly.

Carlson's not going anywhere.

That's why I said that I'll believe he's getting fired when it actually happens. 

Steve Timko

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May 8, 2021, 10:51:15 PM5/8/21
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Some interesting legal analysis on Tucker urging people to call authorities when they see children wearing masks outside.


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