Fractured faierie tales from Faux Newslandia

These faierie tales are about the Great Faierie, Tucker Carlson, the most popular faux news personality on the flat screen. Just so we don't forget.

NPR:

Now comes the claim that you can't expect to literally believe the words that come out of Carlson's mouth. And that assertion is not coming from Carlson's critics. It's being made by a federal judge in the Southern District of New York and by Fox News's own lawyers in defending Carlson against accusations of slander. It worked, by the way.

Just read U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil's opinion, leaning heavily on the arguments of Fox's lawyers: The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' "

She wrote: "Fox persuasively argues, that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statement he makes."

Vyskocil, an appointee of President Trump's, added, "Whether the Court frames Mr. Carlson's statements as 'exaggeration,' 'non-literal commentary,' or simply bloviating for his audience, the conclusion remains the same — the statements are not actionable."

Vyskocil's ruling last week, dismissing a slander lawsuit filed against Carlson, was a win for Fox, First Amendment principles and the media more generally, as Fox News itself maintains. As a legal matter, the judge ruled that Karen McDougal, the woman suing Carlson, failed to surmount the challenge.

 

I'm not fibbing, honest!

Washington Post:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is fashioning something of a professional defense: Sure, he lies, but not the way those guys at CNN lie.

In a 2018 podcast appearance, he ripped into CNN “Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter. “He’s just such a pompous little guy. … I mean, he’s one of the falsest people I’ve ever seen on television. … He’s just so, like, self-righteous … but also lying at the same time. Like, I lie ’cause everyone does. But one thing I would never do, have never done in my whole life, is lie self-righteously,” said Carlson in a chat with Jamie Weinstein. Moments later, he reversed: “I don’t lie.”

He lies because everyone does. Excellent reasoning.

WaPo again:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson made news in a speaking engagement in San Marcos, Calif., where he suggested that he hadn’t been vaccinated. On the topic of the second booster shot, Carlson quipped to the crowd at Awaken Church, “I skipped the first three, I’m not getting that one either.

Perhaps Carlson was just waiting for the right audience to talk about his vaccination habits. Last year, then-New York Times media columnist Ben Smith asked Carlson whether he’d gotten the shot. “When was the last time you had sex with your wife and in what position? We can trade intimate details,” Carlson replied.

Consider the turnabout here: Carlson insisted on more than one occasion that disclosing vaccination status was tantamount to disclosing details about your sex life — and yet there he was, committing that very offense at an evangelical church. 

Remember — there’s no worldview guiding Carlson’s rantings on any subject, be it covid or racism or testosterone. Carlson himself confessed as much at a 2019 conference: “The temptation in my politics — and my politics are evolving, although I don’t even have politics, I just have reactions to things, as you can tell.” 

Correct. He reacted to conservative distrust of the vaccines by hyping and deepening that distrust. He reacted to questions from mainstream media reps — those soulless elites! — by stiffing them with preposterous attitude. And he responded to the crowd at Awaken by giving them a helping of anti-establishment covid ideology.