In a predictable move, the left has focused their collective outrage on a new target. Tucker Carlson of the Fox News Network is now the living embodiment of everything they feel is wrong with America.
Tucker is a danger to America. #CancelTuckerCarlson https://t.co/bBYpwGXrmx
— Stuart Schnapp (@TheHonestS) May 6, 2021
Tucker Carlson seems to still be employed. Let’s change that!#CancelTuckerCarlson https://t.co/auGunEECTo
— Betsy O’Riordan (@BetsyORiordan1) April 28, 2021
According to an article from The Daily Beast, many on the left are proclaiming Tucker Carlson the second most dangerous person in America.
“If Trump is the most dangerous person in the country, Tucker is a close second behind him.”
This is nothing new. Conservatives are no stranger to feigned moral outrage. This isn’t the first time the left has tried to cancel Tucker either.
However, there is something new about what is happening.
They aren’t shouting for Tucker’s ex-communication because he questions the validity of vaccines. It isn’t because of his supposed “white nationalist” rhetoric either.
It is because Tucker knows how to beat them and he’s just given the blueprint to Fox News.
In the Daily Beast article, former Fox staffers are quoted declaring that Tucker is untouchable.
It’s a scenario that has become all too familiar for media watchers: Fox News star Tucker Carlson is once again under fire for his offensive and inflammatory comments, sparking widespread backlash and calls for advertisers to drop his show and for Fox to fire him.
And the expected outcome is also all too familiar, as current and former Fox News staffers told The Daily Beast this week: The network does not care and nothing will happen to Carlson.
He’s untouchable. He knows it, his staff knows it, everyone knows it,” one Fox News insider said of Carlson’s standing with Fox management.
Besides President Donald Trump, Tucker seems to be the only conservative, on the forefront of the American consciousness who has avoided cancellation, despite the left’s best efforts. This has liberals terrified.
Tucker’s program is one of the only programs on television that is not corporately sponsored. The lovely people at Popular Information corroborate this.
Tucker Carlson has lost virtually all of his advertisers. A typical broadcast includes no national brand advertisers, a few direct response ads from companies like MyPillow, and house ads promoting other Fox News shows.
How is Tucker still on the air? After all, the Murdoch’s aren’t running a charity. Fox is still a company focused on profits above all else.
The reason appears in the same article.
Here’s how it works. Cable companies pay “carriage fees” to networks for the right to carry their channel. These fees are then passed on to users in their monthly bills. In 2020, Fox News made more money from carriage fees ($1.6 billion) than advertisements ($1.2 billion).
Other channels, of course, also receive carriage fees for their content. But the Murdochs have negotiated exorbitant fees for Fox News that are far greater than any other non-sports programming.
Tucker Carlson is still on the air because people actually watch his show. As a result, cable companies pay Fox News major money to carry their content.
Compare that to CNN who posted its worst-performing week of the year in March.
Overall, Fox News was the highest-rated network in cable news among total viewers in both total day and prime time. In prime, Fox drew a total audience of 2.3 million viewers, and 351,000 viewers in the key demo.
Fox’s rise came at CNN and MSNBC’s expense, with CNN posting its lowest-rated week of the year in prime time, with shows like Cuomo Prime Time experiencing steep declines—down 65 percent from the week of January 18.
The left is mad that Tucker has taken away their only weapon against conservative media. Money.
It used to be that if the left wanted to cancel an actor, media personality, or television show, all they would need to do is put pressure on their corporate partners to pull advertising dollars from anything associated with their target. Out of fear of financial loss, networks and studios would cave to the left’s wishes.
Tucker Carlson has shown Fox News how to cut the puppet strings. He’s shown them another financial avenue that is completely based on the capitalist free market. If people watch, cable carriers will pay a premium to keep those eyeballs on their service.
As a result, Fox can operate free from the threat of cancel-culture and progressive corporate manipulation.
What Tucker has done is reveal a blueprint for other conservative voices to follow. Could this mark the changing of the tide within media?
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