Given that Friday "What the Heck" columns always focus on the things from the previous week that have left my mind boggled, I think it's fair to say that there will never be a shortage of material so long as the American media remains in its current state.
Tucker as Obi-Wan
Following Tucker Carlson's abrupt dishonorable discharge from his primetime perch at Fox News, you would have thought the propaganda press outlets he regularly harpooned would have been ecstatic. Nope.
It's almost like they fear that Tucker is going to pull an Obi-Wan Kenobi – "if they strike him down he'll become more powerful than they can even imagine."
That's certainly the vibe they were giving off this week as word emerged that Carlson would be taking his talents to the recently liberated streets of Twitter. I actually had to watch this NBC clip twice to make sure I was actually seeing it correctly. Everything in me wishes that there was some context missing from this snippet that would make it all logical and reasonable. But alas, there is not. This is what they really had to say:
This is giving up the game here, isn't it? Admitting that you see your role in media as getting to "police" people thoughts and expression? In an industry that owes its existence to the First Amendment, they sure do have a nasty opinion of it.
Meanwhile, over at CNN, here's what the "new, improved, and moderating" network tweeted out from their official account.
Tucker Carlson is an "extremist." But those pushing policies that lead to the sexual mutilation of children, and that bar parents from being able to stop it? That's compassionate, "gender-affirming care."
The only solace comes in the fact that more people watch re-runs of Mr. Ed than anything on CNN.
Audience alienation
Speaking of the bottom-dwelling cable news channel, it seems they can't even satisfy their rabid left-wing base. After hosting a very lowly rated townhall with former President Donald Trump, the network faced an intense backlash from lefties everywhere.
Former Assistant Attorney General for the state of New York, and MSNBC commentator Tristan Snell announced he is totally quitting them:
He wasn't alone. The anger manifested with an anti-CNN Twitter trend that even provoked outspoken representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to offer a stern rebuke:
I noticed there were several others that were left asking the same question that I was. Don't get me wrong, I completely understand the angst these folks felt watching Trump get an hour of free publicity in an environment perfectly suited to him (media foe, supportive audience). But that was what made these people realized CNN was a trash network? That? After everything else that's happened there?
It wasn't the fact that CNN had producers like John Griffin and Rick Saleeby who were pedophiles, or had hosts like Chris Cuomo who was faced allegations of sexual misconduct, or legal analysts like Jeffrey Toobin who exposed and pleasured himself on a company Zoom call, or a president Jeff Zucker who was forced out of his job for sexual misconduct with an employee?
None of those things caused AOC to shame CNN, or caused Tristan Snell to abandon them. But having Trump on is a bridge too far? Telling.
Republican auditions continue
What else is telling is how many "Republican rivals" to former President Trump as he campaigns for another shot at the White House, aren't really rivals at all. In fact, you could be excused for thinking that they are in the race merely to audition for a role in the next Trump administration, should there be one.
I wrote recently about former Ambassador Nikki Haley's disappointing criticism of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his battle with corporate behemoth Disney after the company began investing resources to push sexual content on elementary kids. Well, now it's fellow Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's turn, announcing that DeSantis was "outsmarted by Mickey Mouse."
First of all, the claim is patently untrue. Disney is reeling right now after unsuccessfully trying to backdoor their way around the state legislature. Their CEO Bob Iger has been reduced to making veiled threats about maybe not investing as much money in their Florida empire, despite the recent revelations that parks revenue (centered in their sprawling Florida property) are about the only successful thing going at the company right now. DeSantis wasn't outsmarted.
So why would a smart guy like Vivek say this? I guess there are really only a couple possibilities. One, like Nikki Haley, Vivek is doing the bidding of Trump in the hopes of getting a job. Or two, Vivek is attacking the guy he thinks he is going to have to beat for the nomination, and it isn't Trump.
I don't know which it is, but conventional political wisdom has always been that lower tier candidates attack the front-runner. That's how you get attention, it's how you get noticed, it's how you get donors…punch up. Remember that's exactly why all the Republican candidates in 2016 were collectively going after Trump. So what does it say that Vivek, Haley, and even Trump himself are so fixated on DeSantis? Time will tell.
