Pages

Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Sharp knives in coverage?

 NYTimes, 5/2/2023, dissecting Trucker Carlson at length and broadly, based upon one email to a producer, that email dated 1/7/2021, with the NYT authors declining to care, apparently, whether the producer/recipient is the one FOX fired along with Carlson, or somebody different. That question seems obvious, but the story treats the recipient's identity as if non-news. Also, the time gap from that email to the time of the firings exceeds that between the Dominion settlement and the firings, something the NYT item seems to find unworthy of note, or to downplay beyond noting that existence and content of the email may have escaped notice, somehow, among senior FOX powers until the eve of severance of business ties. With the email seemingly primarily a soul search, (you can read the full text below as NYT reporting set it out), it is noteworthy the time gap between it and the severance of the FOX-Carlson symbiosis was far less immediate than the time between Dominion settlement and severance. Crabgrass reads things as the three NYT item authors cutting Carlson no slack, but the link is there for readers to follow and form their own opinions. Here is the email text:

Tucker Carlson’s Text to a Producer

Exhibit 276

Tucker Carlson January 7, 2021 — 04:18:04 PM UTC
A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

Not being a Carlson follower, Crabgrass offers no opinion on whether the mood and focus of online opining was noticeably affected by the reflections stated in the email. 

About two weeks earlier than yesterday's NYT item, Forbes published about Carlson/Fox/severance, and that item stands as representative of coverage Mainstream Media has focused upon the Carlson saga. Grounds for the decision, and identity of who ultimately decided to end business on the FOX side of the contract, whatever might exist in writing, being also a point of media speculation, with many items mentioning anonymity of sources being a steady request from, apparently, all sources and all outlets with whom sources spoke. The Murdoch family members have also attracted more attention than normal. 

The opinion of Crabgrass: Where Carlson ends up next and how he handles himself and his opining in a new venue will be important considerations that hindsight speculation should not ignore. New facts should weigh more than past situations in terms of how members of the public react to how the story evolves.

Decide whether this is a hit piece. Then, does it express a part of an editorial direction NYT has decided to pursue?

Last, a video, ending with a Hunter S. Thompson quote.