The Heritage Foundation's 50th anniversary, with keynote speaker, Tucker Carlson, days before Carlson and the Murdoch empire severed ties.

The speech is online, YouTube, here. It is a hyperactive, arguably prescient speech. Is Carlson always like that, or was he tripping on something? I've never watched except for once where a web search had him saying, once, something with which I agreed, and his not saying it in a hyperventilated fashion. They say even a blind pig can find a truffle.

Of importance, the sit-down part of things between Carlson and the head man at Heritage, so if you watch, don't skip that ending.

The amount of online hand-wringing and "why" and "what next" speculation is informative of many caring much about the severance of business ties.

HuffPo,  RealClearPolitics, WashTimes, Intelligencer, VanityFair, Politico, touching upon anonymous sourcing of news, Politico, different angle, Politico again, on "what's next and etc." Insider. And that is as of yesterday evening. It is likely the hand-wringing, inside-story, stuff will be a today item too, and onward. George W.H. Bush's death got less coverage. Within

Morning websearch = murdoch family tucker carlson

Guardian does story linking. 

From the coverage, Carlson must be as big a celeb as Brad Pitt. 

__________UPDATE__________

Compare the off-the-cuff spontaneity shifts and frenetic pace of the Heritage speech, with Carlson being quite coherent, linear, slow paced and sentient in an interview segment with Elon Musk. An interview in which nobody would worry about loss of audience to another more Trump-favorable outlet. Different things, different approaches? Different stakes.

Strib faces an overreactive political correctness issue. And apologizes.

 This link. "4 Muslim legislators condemn Star Tribune editorial cartoon; publisher apologizes - Lawmakers say cartoon linked Islam to gun violence, contributing to Islamophobia." This link, for the cartoon which drew lightning.

Get real. Any fool can see the cartoon mocks those who'd say Muslum prayer calls would be unacceptable "noise," when the thing segues to gun noise, by, interestingly enough, ones wearing hoodies.

If I have any complaint it is the depiction of hoodies, known to be popular among black youths, the gun shooters being so implied. 

Beyond that, animated cartoons are STUPID. If you cannot make a single-image cartoon that works, change jobs.

That said, that particular cartoon is stupid. But to suggest it intended to tie Muslim prayer, during the day, with dangerous gun violence activity (beyond the noise) at night is pushing norms of political correctness to new, wrong, levels.

It was a dumb cartoon, not Islamophobia.

So, Malcolm saying the white man is the devil, I take issue with myself generalized into the rich whites and the racist whites, the devil, but not me. But, again, get real.

We all knew who Malcolm was demonizing and it was not me or white people like me. It was police differential treatment, it was police doing what was expected by those with political power to set expectations for police behavior. It was "the system" which is still in need of major change with the wealth and income disparities that exist now, a real issue, as opposed to waving around non-Islamophobia. One thing that is interesting in the issue, call to prayers, church bells, nobody is in a snit about church bells, which seem to be fewer than in, say, the '50s.

Finally, gun noise is not the problem, it's the bullets fired hitting people that is the problem. People getting shot is not sensible cartoon content, even by implication.

Bottom line - really dumb cartoon. Really not Islamophobia.

This seems akin to all the self-righteous newspapers dropping Dilbert. Overreaction. Dropping Dilbert while thriving on reporting each and every gun death where the saying is, "If it bleeds, it leads." Strib online does over-focus on gun play, bodies found in road ditches, domestic violence growing to gunplay, etc.

Last, one thing which would surprise me - if the Anoka County Board were to introduce Muslim prayer calls into its jurisdiction. It trails Minneapolis in that respect.

 

Food waste, in light of people facing food insecurity.

 Dan Burns posts with an excerpt and a link. Check it out.

China bashing.

 Link.

 

Cold and short, the announcement of FOX firing Carlson, as broadcast. They did not even indicate whether the doorknob got him on the way out.

 Link.

Over the weekend they must have cancelled his computer network access, and it is unclear whether security put personal items into a cardboard box for his convenience. 

With Tucker out, will the man with the ax replace him? Just throwing the idea out, for consideration. Not aiming at any target. Hegseth looks enough like Carlson, talks like him, who knows? He is now in Tennessee where he can run against Rand Paul. Pete as a new Tucker, remember you read the thought first at DevCrabgrass.

The Chatbot gave me two links when asked, "is there any news about pete Hegseth's future at FOX news?"

I found a recent article on Fox News that says there has been no public indication that Pete Hegseth is leaving the network¹. However, he was absent from the most recent set of weekend shows on Fox & Friends and the reasons for his absence are not entirely clear².

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Received message. I found a recent article on Fox News that says there has been no public indication that Pete Hegseth is leaving the network. However, he was absent from the most recent set of weekend shows on Fox & Friends and the reasons for his absence are not entirely clear. I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Learn more:

1. distractify.com2. hitc.com3. foxnews.com

So, check the links. Is Pete AWOL from FOX these days? Are Rupert and son making a clean sweep? Or might Pete be the new Tucker as Tucker was the new Bill O. Thug nation, enough attention. Time to move on.

It's like a daytime soap opera, with Dominion satisfied and likely watching. 

________UPDATE_________

A day later, Tuesday, 4/25/2023, when thinking about the FOX eight hundred million defamation settlement struck with Dominion, and the soon following dismissal of Carlson, and thinking of Hegseth in parallel to Carlson, it seemed natural to ask the ChatGPT news summarizer, "can you find things Pete Hegseth said during broadcasts about whether Trump won the election but was cheated?"

The returned item:

I found an article on HuffPost¹ that reports on an interview between Pete Hegseth and Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) where Talarico asked Hegseth if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and he dodged the question. Another article on Salon² also reports on this interview where Hegseth refused to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election when asked by Talarico.

I hope this helps!

Received message. I found an article on HuffPost that reports on an interview between Pete Hegseth and Texas state Rep. James Talarico (D) where Talarico asked Hegseth if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and he dodged the question. Another article on Salon also reports on this interview where Hegseth refused to admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election when asked by Talarico. I hope this helps!

Learn more:

1. huffpost.com2. salon.com3. mediaite.com

The links seem helpful, in speculating whether Hegseth may be solidly still a FOX darling, or whether he may suffer the same fate that befell Carlson. In effect, the question is whether FOX is concerned about reining in its commentators to avoid further lawsuits draining the fisc. Some reporting has mentioned Hegseth's tie to Koch efforts, and his being friendly with Donald Trump. 

With Trump having an open second spot on the ticket now, should he be the Republican 2024 nominee, who knows, Hegseth might find his future taking a turn.

Remote as that thought might seem, asking ChatGPT "Has Pete Hegseth publicly said or implied he has ambition to run for office?"

The reply:

I found an article on Wikipedia¹ that states that Pete Hegseth is an Army National Guard officer and former executive director of political advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. The latter, a conservative advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers, advocates greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I also found an article on The Family Nation² that reports that he was a close aide to Trump, his family, and Republican Party as a whole.

I hope this helps!

Received message. I found an article on Wikipedia that states that Pete Hegseth is an Army National Guard officer and former executive director of political advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. The latter, a conservative advocacy group funded by the Koch brothers, advocates greater privatization of the Department of Veterans Affairs. I also found an article on The Family Nation that reports that he was a close aide to Trump, his family, and Republican Party as a whole. I hope this helps!

Learn more:

1. en.wikipedia.org2. thefamilynation.com3. thenetline.com4. politifact.com

Simply using the query-response capability of the chatbot, as a form of websearch, there are links returned. Readers who care can follow them.

The guess here is that FOX is not yet finished in reining in their commentators, where firing the key figure is sending a message through the ranks, at least, even if no more heads roll.

Ron DeSantis, redux.

 While updating Friday's post about DeSantis delaying an announcement with donors getting antsy, another item worth mention, the Republican divide, operators choosing sides, Trump gains, DeSantis loses one. Is DeSantis less charming? Or less likely to pay off, jobwise next year? Or just plain less?

Led

Strib page: 

click the image to enlarge and read it

What is so hard about this that it is such a frequent online error? Lead is present tense of the verb, drop the a for the past tense, led. 

The main headline, no problem. Lead, as a noun, being ahead, is properly spelled. The problem is highlighted in the sub headline.

Lead is also the metal element, as a noun.