On Monday, Fox News shocked the world by announcing that it had fired Tucker Carlson, host of the most popular show on cable news. Then, on April 26, Tucker broke his silence and released a video, as PJ Media’s Matt Margolis reported. That video, as shared on Twitter, has since garnered a whopping 66.9 million+ views. Joy Reid and Joe Scarborough can only dream of that viewership. Not only that, but Fox News’s viewership dropped faster than Joe Biden’s approval rating. In other words, Americans are truly fed up with traditional mainstream media and ready for alternative, independent media to take its place.
Tucker’s tweet with the video has 182,000 retweets, 23,300 quote tweets, 833,000 likes, and 28,000 bookmarks (as of 5 p.m. Pacific Standard Time Thursday). That doesn’t even include other people’s tweets, social media posts, and YouTube clips of Tucker’s video. Something tells me Tucker’s career is far from over and his voice anything but silenced, despite what leftist media hacks claim.
Some of Tucker’s message was non-political, such as praising “how many genuinely nice people there are in this country.” But mostly he slammed the “unbelievably stupid” TV debates, the lack of coverage for truly important stories, and the “hysterical and aggressive” people “in charge” — the donors and politicians who make the U.S. look “very much like a one-party state.” Tucker insisted, “They’re brain dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone’s life is improved by them.” And the stunning number of views Tucker’s video garnered compared to the sudden crash in Fox News’s viewership seems to validate Tucker’s argument that “nobody actually believes” the establishment media and politicians anymore.
Americans are done being manipulated and lied to. They are increasingly more willing to listen to voices not affiliated with mainstream media or institutions, while being increasingly disinterested in what the institutional voices have to say.
This trend isn’t just on the right, though (understandably) far more conservatives than leftists distrust the media. When Elon Musk decided to release the Twitter Files, he chose independent journalists like Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger. Those independent journalists are leftists, but because they really believe in free speech, they broke with institutions. Thus, they ended up being chosen to break internationally important stories to which left and right alike paid attention. Andy Ngo is another non-conservative independent journalist whose content garners thousands of views. The point is, people are more likely to trust independent journalists now than individuals affiliated with institutions and mainstream media.
But there are plenty of conservative examples too. As of December 2020, Steve Bannon’s War Room was the number one political podcast in America, and it is still very popular. Podcasts from Steven Crowder, Donald Trump Jr., Jason Whitlock, and others draw hundreds of thousands or even millions of listeners and subscribers. Many people, from journalists to doctors to commentators, are turning to Substack and similar platforms to publish content. Social media influencers are increasingly just that—influential (especially with young people).
From the Los Angeles Times:
“Fox News Tonight” — the program temporarily filling the slot long occupied by Carlson — pulled in 1.7 million viewers with “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade, according to Nielsen data.
The number is 47% below what “Tucker Carlson Tonight” delivered in the 8 p.m. Eastern hour a week earlier on April 16. Carlson averaged 3.2 million viewers in the first quarter of 2023…Without the tentpole that Carlson’s program provided, the ratings for other Fox News shows were down as well.
As Tucker Carlson’s break with Fox News shows, Americans are beginning to rely more on alternative news sources like independent journalists, Substack, social media, podcasts, and smaller news sites. While not all Tucker’s videos in the future will garner over 65 million views, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to predict that, wherever he goes in future, he’ll get almost as many views—perhaps even more views in all—for his content as he did on Fox News. The heyday of cable news is over. If CNN didn’t play in airports and conservative pundits didn’t mock MSNBC, how many Americans would even remember they exist? And, sadly, Fox is going down the same self-destructive path.
Fox News might need Tucker Carlson, but Tucker Carlson doesn’t need Fox News. It’s a lesson journalists and media personalities would do well to profit from, before they find themselves failing along with mainstream media.
As mainstream media becomes increasingly dishonest, it’s important to turn to reliable news sources that are willing to tell the hard truths. Subscribe to a PJ Media newsletter for all the most important breaking news every day!