“Tucker has taken Trump’s place as a right-wing leader, as an outrage generator as a fire fire-starter, and it’s all taking place on Fox, just as Trump’s campaign did,” Stelter said. “Every day, Carlson is throwing bombs, making online memes, offending millions of people also delighting millions of others, tapping into White male rage and resentment, stoking distrust of big tech and the media, generally coursening the discourse, never apologizing for anything and setting the GOP’s agenda. Sounds like a recently retired president, right?”
“He lies strategically and carefully,” Erik Wemple, media critic at the Washington Post, said of Carlson.
These “us vs. them” stories mirror the conversations that Trump had with his supporters during his presidency.
In February 2020, the Washington Post published an opinion piece titled, “Trump’s address proved he is a genius entertainer. Democrats ought to worry.” And in 2018, late-night talkshow host Seth Meyers called Trump a “fantastic entertainer.”
Similarly, April Ryan, White House Correpsondent for The Grio, said Tucker is “not a news reporter; he’s an entertainer.”
Tucker knows what he’s doing, CNN political commentator SE Cupp told Stelter.
“I can’t decide if he’s the rich man’s Trump or the poor man’s Trump,” she said. “In some ways, he’s smarter than Trump.”
“The Murdochs are relieved that the GOP no longer wants to tackle substance and policy and just wants to live in culture wars,” Cupp said.
Source : Nbcnewyork