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If certainly Carlson was fired partly for office misogyny, he’ll fall right into a venerable Fox custom. The community has a historical past of tolerating the abuse of ladies till revelations grow to be too inconvenient, at which level even figures who’d appeared irreplaceable, like Roger Ailes and Invoice O’Reilly, are tossed overboard. Contempt for ladies was a part of Carlson’s model at Fox Information; his notorious “The Finish of Males” particular urged males to tan their testicles to ostensibly enhance testosterone and thereby rescue society from collapse. It could be becoming if contempt for ladies is what lastly derailed him.
However Carlson had contempt for therefore many. He was the Trumpiest of Fox Information hosts, though we now know, due to discovery within the Dominion case, that he hated Donald Trump “passionately.” Like Trump, he and his producers mined the white nationalist web for narratives, promiscuously unfold wild conspiracy theories, and hinted on the want for violence to take again America. After Trump was indicted final month, Carlson mentioned, “Most likely not the very best time to surrender your AR-15.” He created, as Nick Confessore wrote in The New York Instances, “what stands out as the most racist present within the historical past of cable information — and in addition, by some measures, probably the most profitable.”
The similarity of Carlson and Trump’s sensibilities may derive from the similarity of their resentments. Each have been kids of privilege — Carlson was kicked out of a Swiss boarding faculty — who sought the respect of the institution however by no means obtained it. It’s value noting, given his loathing of the putative deep state, that Carlson tried to hitch the C.I.A. however was rejected. He shifted his ambitions to cable information, however earlier than touchdown at Fox Information, he struggled to slot in. In a 2021 interview, Carlson described having a “type of meltdown” after being fired from MSNBC in 2008, the most recent of a string of failures, and having to promote his home. Talking of the tv trade, he mentioned, “I used to be residing in that world and I used to be not succeeding.”
Like Trump, he would discover success by catering to individuals who despised the world that had spurned him. He made revenge right into a profession.
It’s not possible to know what occurs to that profession now that Carlson has achieved the uncommon cable information trifecta of flaming out at CNN, MSNBC and Fox. He has an intensely loyal following, and will simply begin his personal enterprise or be a part of a would-be Fox competitor like Newsmax or OAN. It could be an amazing irony if Fox Information, which aired lies about Dominion as a result of it was afraid of being outflanked on the proper by Newsmax, now finds itself shedding to Newsmax due to the fallout from the Dominion lawsuit.
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