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“Tuning in [to Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union Address] was a grim task. 80-year-old Joe Biden shuffling, stiff legged and bewildered to the podium, a husk held together by Botox and enough amphetamines from the White House doctor to read the slogans written for him by unelected Obama acolytes who actually run the government. This is our President, ladies and gentlemen. It’s always pretty hard to believe when you see it. The whole scene is so awful, so degrading to our once proud country, it cannot end soon enough.”
- Tucker Carlson, “Tucker Carlson Tonight”, February 9, 2023.
Has Tucker Carlson become the current incarnation of Howard Beale?
In MGM’s 1976 movie Network, newscaster Howard Beale becomes a vociferous, investigative talk show host targeting the disaffected population of middle-class America. His talk show’s an instant hit…that is, until he speaks truth to power. After he’s reminded that there are interests far more important and entrenched than his controversial show, he’s told to kowtow to those interests or be fired.
It seems that Fox News – once a steadfast bulwark of conservative news and opinion until the head of Fox Entertainment took charge following the death of his father Rupert Murdoch – might have given cable news’ highest-rated show host Tucker Carlson his “Howard Beale” moment: To succumb to apparently greater interests of Fox News or steadfastly defend his principles.
Tucker’s worth at least $30 million, has a large following and was rumored to have made $6 million a year while at Fox, so (as my Mom would say) “He won’t starve.”. Tucker, like fellow Conservative firebrand James O’Keefe, formerly of Project Veritas, will land on his feet. In fact, Tucker’s already been offered jobs at One America News, Newsmax, The Heritage Foundation, Lindell TV…even Russia’s State News Agency RT, so he’s bound to survive the Left’s attempt to silence him.
Here’s my take on what I suspect Liberals imagine when they dream about Tucker’s “Howard Beale” moment – it’s only a minor rewrite of Scene 153 from that awards-winning movie (my emphasis, of course):
TUCKER CARLSON (ON AIR): [ I sat here and talked about how you stood up and fought ] for your heritage, and you did and it was beautiful… It was a radiant eruption of democracy. But I think [this is] it, fellers. That sort of thing isn’t likely to happen again. Because, in the bottom of all our terrified souls, we all know that democracy is a dying giant, a sick, sick dying, decaying political concept, writhing in its final pain.
[The] United States is finished as a world power. The United States [was] the most powerful, the richest, the most advanced country in the world, light-years ahead of any other country. And I don’t mean the Communists are going to take over the world. The Communists are [smarter] than we are [- they've already taken over].
What’s finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It’s the individual that’s finished. It’s the single, solitary human being who’s finished. It’s every single one of you out there who’s finished.
Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. This is a nation of [three] hundred odd million… bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods…
Not to worry, though: It’s not as if Liberals have ever conveniently silenced a conservative media personality with a Trumped-up charge at a critical point in a Presidential election cycle… just ask Jeff Jacoby about his July 3rd Boston Globe editorial on the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence.
Thanks for reading!
