The right-wing chudosphere will be merciless toward @JonahDispatch and @stephenfhayes for resigning as Fox contributors. But they made the right call. Nobody who loves this country should tolerate Tucker Carlson’s 1/6 revisionism even for a second. https://t.co/TOnL7cHPDM
— Berny Belvedere (@bernybelvedere) November 22, 2021
Asked about the resignation of Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, a Fox News executive said that the network did not plan to re-sign them as contributors when their contract came up next year: https://t.co/taz13lOTUW
— Jeremy Barr (@jeremymbarr) November 22, 2021
Whatever else you might say about Goldberg or Hayes, they’re both dedicated careerists. Their simultaneous depersoning from the FOXosphere seems, to me, like a potentially hopeful sign. IMO, Tucker Carlson is the contemporary version of Father Coughlin in the 1930s, who was generally considered an unstoppable media force until, suddenly, he wasn’t.
… Goldberg and Hayes joined Fox in 2009 as paid contributors, appearing regularly to offer commentary and analysis, but their role in the broader media ecosystem — and their positioning on the network’s ideological spectrum — had changed in the intervening years.
After lengthy careers in conservative media — Goldberg spent 21 years at National Review, and Hayes served as the top editor at the Weekly Standard — they emerged as critics of Donald Trump and found themselves on a small island with other conservative dissenters during his administration. They joined forces in 2019 and started the Dispatch, a digital news and commentary site that approaches national politics from a center-right perspective.
But that willingness to criticize Trump put them at odds with Fox’s prime time stars, who remain largely supportive of the former president as he weighs a possible 2024 campaign. Their recent appearances were mostly limited to straight-news hours, including anchor Bret Baier’s 6 p.m. program…
nothing wrong w/ that per se. I’m just suggesting outcome
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) November 22, 2021
i mean, it's been clear for awhile now that carlson's running the whole, entire show at fox news, and that murdoch the elder doesn't care because he's 300 years old and murdoch the younger doesn't care because he's a moron, so this is basically what i'd expect https://t.co/XCDoeI7M9g
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 22, 2021
there are three things that i can think of that change fox news' trajectory, one is that carlson starts bleeding viewers in a way that harms their licensing fees, two is that they hit regulatory trouble and the third i am going to not say on this website
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 22, 2021
JCJ
I do like the term “chudosphere” despite how creepy it sounds.
Cameron
Try Tucker Carlson’s Fox News Diet, and lose a pantload!
NotMax
The Welsh have a piquant saying which comes to mind.
Dim gwerth rhech dafad.
(Not worth a sheep's fart.)
eclare
I took a long nap earlier today, so I’m up late. I’m going to my aunt’s for Thanksgiving, there will be nine of us. I know eight have been vaxxed, I got my booster over two weeks ago, I’m ok with it.
First time I’ve seen relatives, except my aunt, since Christmas 2019. Wow
Eta> for all I know, my cousin coming in from out of town is vaxxed, I haven’t asked.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
I agree with the Welsh on this one.
mrmoshpotato
Does it involve a rocket bound of the Sun?
eclare
@NotMax: Hey if you are still here, my favorite Thanksgiving was the one I spent in Maui around 1994. I went with a good friend, and we stayed in Lahaina. Open air dinner under palm trees, wonderful.
Ruckus
Conservatives have always swung for the fences with their conservative crap, it’s always been more about money than anything else, and they have always crapped out because they really do not have a legitimate political stance and the larger the population the harder it is for them to control everything. That and a democracy can not actually be conservative in the way people like the murdochs want. They want a country like current day Russia, where they can keep all the money but they aren’t smart enough to manage it, nor do they have the backup to make it work, and that’s the people who will settle for a bit. These days those folks want more for themselves. The entire thing ends up a clusterfuck. Of course a lot of people get hurt along the way
ifwhen their ignorance, stupidity and greed get in the way. Which they always do.I believe that there is a good chance that we will be able to get out of this reasonably because the people running their news source, faux news are less capable at this than the murdoch clan and think the goal is a conservative government run by them. That does not mean there will not be a price. We’ve already paid a pretty big price of the 4 yrs that TFG was theoretically in charge and thought killing off a big portion of the population would work in his favor. I imagine that we will have more to pay and that a portion of the electorate wants the same all white country that the faux news brigade wants. We have problems and we are stretched to make them better. It will take all of us working together to make it better. We have a passel of good leaders to make it better but we really need to see the big problems in a realistic way so that we can figure out a way to get through.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@mrmoshpotato: The 21st-century American Lord Haw-Haw is a symptom, not a cause. I suspect that the unspoken third option would be reported initially by emergency dispatchers as a “mass casualty incident”.
Debbie(Aussie)
Have been behind in my BJ reading due to a hospital stay. So I know I have missed some interesting events, with tantalising titbits here and there. But I am concerned that I haven’t seen Amir can anyone help. Thanks.
keep up the great work jackals with all your fundraising and other political/election projects. We have an election coming up in the next few months. Oh how I hope we can get rid of Scotty from marketing and his sales team from hell. My not quite 3 word slogan ‘Scumo has to go’!
(I may repeat this comment in the morning thread)
NotMax
@eclare
Coolness.
NotMax
@Debbie(Aussie)
He’s nearly always in the COVID threads, providing the latest stats from Malaysia.
Amir Khalid
@Debbie(Aussie):
I’m right here, although lately I’ve been lurking than commenting.
p.a.
I like the “soon to be hired at CNN” take: call it defining deviancy down, or moving the Overton Window, but Jonah et al should ONLY be able to work at Fux, OAN etc, and not at any mainstream news outlets.
bjacques
I’m thinking Carlson is more like the J J Hunsecker of politics, down to the creepy personal obsessions.
See you Monday night at Morton’s
lowtechcyclist
Tucker went whole hog into Great Replacement Theory several weeks back. I have no respect for anyone who was willing to stay on board the Fox News ship while Tucker was spewing that shit.
But I’m almost afraid to ask what the “Patriot Purge” stuff consisted of, if people who kept their mouths shut through the blatantly racist Great Replacement garbage found the Purge stuff too much for them to handle. I mean, 1/6 revisionism, sure, but the wingnuts have been doing that for the past 10+ months. What sort of new level was there to take it to, that made Great Replacement pale by comparison?
eclare
@Debbie(Aussie): Are you ok?
satby
@Debbie(Aussie): I hope you’re recovering well from your hospital stay!
satby
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah, I would agree, unless it’s what AL up top says: that they feel the tide may be turning on Fucker Carlson’s particular flavor of sedition and they want to still have careers.
Lacuna Synecdoche
GoLikeHellMachine via Anne Laurie @ Top:
If Fox hits regulatory troubles, they’ll sell themselves as martyrs to their audience – so that probably won’t work. And Carlson won’t start bleeding viewers unless he’s caught in bed with a live Democrat or a dead Republican.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@JCJ:
I think I like it because of how creepy it sounds.
Nettoyeur
Wonder whether Goldberg and Hayes quit because they were not going to be renewed…..
Neither of these guys is all that swift. Some years ago Goldberg wrote the perfectly ridiculous book Liberal Fascism (which definitely clangs now that the GOP is openly advocating fascism). Back in 2003 Hayes was flogging Saddam Al Qaeda conspiracy stories long after their use-by date.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@JCJ: Apologies – in comment #21, the second half of my sentence somehow got appended to your sentence instead, and now I’ve missed the editing window and can’t fix it. My bad.
cmorenc
IIRC, wasn’t it Jonah Goldberg’s mom who lured Monica Lewinsky into revealing the affair she had with Clinton?
Jerszy
Lucky Jonah that this happens right after American Crime Story JUST served to remind everyone that the only reason he has a career isn’t intellectual rigor, but the fact that he creeped out of Lucianne’s uterus and a. number of Clinton-obsessed wingnuts owed her a big favor.
opiejeanne
@cmorenc: I had to look that up, but you’re right. She told Tripp to tape Monica’s conversations regarding her “affair” with President Clinton.
dopey-o
IIRC, Fox is cable-only and not subject to FCC regulation. Further, a significant part of their revenue comes from fees paid by cable companies. I know that I cannot get a cable package from Spectrum that doesn’t include Fox.
Meaning, like it or not, I am supporting Fox’ sedition and disinformation.
Another reason for ‘cord cutting.’
Matt
I assume this was 1% actual objection and 99% “Tucker gets all the attention”. They’re both still vile conservative scumbags.