In the fine art of forensics (public speaking, not dusting for fingerprints) are several formulae to fixate the masses.
Given Yours Truly was State Champion — back in ye olden times of yore…and I am reliably informed my photograph remains on the Wall of Fame — allow me to provide the easiest pointer among the lot.
Step One — You tell the Audience what you're going to tell them,
Step Twp — You tell them,
Step Three — You tell them what you just told them,
One may or may not, as physical attractiveness of attendees would dictate, imagine spectators nude.
Sometime between signing off he would "see you next week” and this actual week, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson was in fact seeing pink; that is, the proverbial Pink Slip.
Unlike so many firings these days, poor Tucker evidently never knew it was coming. This led to a variety of speculations about what occurred behind the scenes.
Below we delve into the murky world of broadcast journalism which is far more opaque than the casual viewer suspects…
Running the gamut from inference to innuendo are a myriad of suppositions why Tucker got the boot.
By order of likelihood from "Somerset, that's crazy talk!” to "Somerset, you are an astoundingly perceptive individual!” are the most prevalent theories.
While initially this sounds the sort of thing that homeless guy down the street mutters to you during his rest breaks from building the time machine out of tin foil…it's not quite so absurd as you may believe.
Almost everyone at a certain level in broadcast journalism is an Agency asset — both Right and Left.
Many try to laugh it off when questioned, but the truth remains nearly all of them are associates.
Don't believe me? Did you know Anderson Cooper (nee Vanderbilt) interned with the CIA? Or that Tucker himself is the son of a former major domo at the CIA?
Did you recall — amidst your chortling at the contention — that Katharine Graham, prior owner of The Washington Post, and her journalists routinely worked with the CIA?
Or you overlooked the fact if we peer back further there is the Church Committee and Operation Mockingbird — an American government undertaking to control The Press — which in 1976 found over 50 American journalists at that early date were CIA?
Yeah, smart fellow, better start reconsidering who is feeding you what birdseed each night on the telly.
Does this prove Tucker is a CIA man? No, it emphatically does not. After all, sometimes it takes a person who has been around the sausage factory to alert our public to the deplorable conditions within.
At the same time…
Finally, even if Tucker is an operative what does this have to do with his firing? Maybe that he's being assigned something else…Incidentally, did I mention it is an election cycle and populist Trump needs a Running Mate? Possibly a "handler” to ensure if he wins again he doesn't stray outside the lines?
Probable? No. Possible? Definitely.
We need not get into the minutiae of lawsuits and legal arguments — to say nothing of claims of a stolen election — to review the Dominion Case.
For those who rightly tried to ignore the whole thing it basically was a situation in which an electronic voting machine company was critiqued vigorously on air by Fox News guests and presenters.
To the extent criticisms crossed the line from questioning reliability of the systems to condemning them was essentially the crux the dispute — investigation is permitted, denunciation is forbidden.
During the Discovery process (wherein attorneys from both sides request depositions and documents) a cache of internal Fox News emails surfaced which appeared to indicate some journalists did not believe the assertions of impropriety yet continued to promote them nonetheless — a serious breach of ethics.
Foremost in the tranche were memos from Tucker who used some…colorful metaphors…about certain individuals. (Not unlike every other employee in the known universe speaking about their boss.)
When Fox News settled the lawsuit it paid nearly $800 Million to Dominion Voting Systems, which is a hefty sum no matter how many Billions you have already.
So Rupert Murdoch — owner of News Corp. and its Fox subsidiaries — chose to get rid of Tucker.
That seems straightforward enough to be what occurred, with a few nuanced bends in the road.
For one, mainstream advertisers veered away from the show Tucker hosted because he was characterized (wrongly) as "far right”. Thus, while he may have had the most watched monologue on cable he was distinctly not bringing in the cash.
(This is similar to another former Fox News host, Glenn Beck, who had a wildly popular program around fifteen years ago but also was poison to mainstream advertising dollars…and got fired for it.)
Much ballyhoo has been made the timeslot for Tucker Is now off 50% from last week and at one juncture reached pre-9.11 ebbs of viewership…except with a more anodyne personality the space may paradoxically make higher bank.
Here is What (I believe) Really Happened…
Yes, Tucker likely has some degree of intermingling with CIA…Yes, Tucker did send some imprudent letters and gave a platform to dubious claims which at least in part cost Fox News $800 Million…Yes, Tucker was slightly right-wing making him thus only marginally profitable to the Fox Network…
No, none of these was the cause of his termination.
Anytime someone of consequence meets a public fate you must examine what else is going on in the world.
Right now there is a Main Event of the "Rules-Based Order” about to kick off any day — the vaunted Ukrainian Counter-Offensive.
All over Washington moves are being quietly made to distance previously strident advocates from the conflagration. We have the RAND Corporation "redispersal of resources” paper. We have New York Times editorials casually mentioning it needs to wind down soon. We have some Democrats (Kennedy) and some Republicans (Trump) openly querying when precisely Kiev became the 51st State of the Union.
Basically, a pervasive undercurrent is rippling through Foggy Bottom the Ukrainians are about to get trounced…Or at least, that is the anxiety.
The United States has been sending tens of Billions to King Zelensky well over a year. The fiscal impact from sanctions is decidedly in the Trillions. The public is heading into an election wherein many believe an Economic Recession is already upon them.
Who are they going to hold responsible?
Tucker was in a unique position of being able to tell them. Tucker was a doubter of this imbroglio since its early hours. Tucker was perhaps the most acclaimed single man on all cable news.
Again, some may be thinking, "But why ditch him if Murdoch is a Republican and this would benefit the Republican Party?”
To which I reply, "The very question implies the answer…Republican Voters are not the Republican Party.”
Perusing the Fox Corporation Board of Directors conveys some significant findings: Paul Ryan (formerly Speaker of the House) is there. William Burck (former Special Counsel and White House Special Counsel to George Bush) is there. Roland Hernandez (former Chairman and CEO of Telemundo) is there. Anne Dias (former portfolio manager for The Soros Fund — yes, that Soros — and analyst for Goldman Sachs) is there.
That's four of the eight Directors (two more of which are Murdoch and his son, Lachlan). Do these sound like red-blooded, meat-and-potatoes, American populists to you? (The appropriate answer is: "Hell no!”)
You think such people come from the anti-Lockheed Martin (around $4.2 Billion in Ukraine weapons sales) and the anti-Raytheon (about $7 Billion in Ukraine weapons sales) wing of the Republican Party?
The goal of The System is to keep Ukraine largesse flowing as long as possible. Should the much-anticipated Counter-Offensive fail and were Tucker Carlson in a position to capitalize on that failure then American involvement might be cut short by several months.
What's several months? Several hundred millions of dollars…to certain interested corporate entities.
So Tucker had to go…just in case.
As a broadcaster he brought in the watchers, but he wasn't fattening the wallet. As a thorn in the side of the "Rules-Based Order” he might have become particularly costly in the coming days.
There is one final thing to impart before we end this epistolary oratory.
For those who might remark, "It's all about the money!”…IT IS NOT.
The money is incidental. It is never about the money. Any who believe otherwise do not comprehend the function of money.
Repeat after me — MONEY IS A TOOL.
It is a fulcrum to power. That is the reason Tucker remained even when he wasn't especially lucrative. Having "the most popular man in cable news” was a means of controlling opinion of the masses.
When Tucker as a methodology, as opposed to a man, became a threat to an even greater power, being the "Rules-Based Order” intent on squeezing every drop of blood from Ukraine for geo-political gain, he became a liability.
Money is subsequent to influence; it always has been as it ever shall be.
This is the reason Art and Artists are coveted by those with money…because emotions rule.
Throughout history peoples have been convinced to die for useless causes if they can be made to feel those abstractions are of importance. It is an act of sacrifice which cannot be bought, even in this world of purchase, but it can be instilled by dint of passion.
Tucker, in his way, was of artistic value for his ability to sway belief. Thus, when it began to slant in a direction The System deemed contradictory to its designs for the map of Eastern Europe - he had to go.
Of course, not to worry, a figure like Tucker Carlson generally lands on his feet.
Whether it be his own media operation, someplace at another network or even as political candidate you can be sure to be seeing him again.
When you do, remember Somerset told you so.
Guy Somerset writes from somewhere in America