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April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
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22, 2003
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Said
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Stew
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April
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April 25,
2003
All About Tucker
A
Splendid Performer, Not a Journalist
by STEVEN HIGGS
I wasn't quite sure what to expect when Tucker
Carlson approached the podium on the IU Auditorium stage last
Tuesday evening. I knew that he was one of the shouting heads
on CNN's Crossfire. But since I have come to view post-9/11
cable news as an insidious virus infecting the body politic,
I didn't know if he played a liberal or a conservative.
I was fairly certain, however, that I
would leave the experience secure in my professional judgment
that Carlson, a symbol of the corporate TV news biz, defames
the term "journalist" when he claims to be one. I didn't
expect to exit the Auditorium gratified. But, on balance, I did.
It wasn't that Carlson, who put on a
splendid performance, persuaded me during his lecture on "The
Political Landscape" that he is a practitioner of the honorable
craft of journalism. To the contrary. During one of his Democrat-bashing
segments, he said: "Part of this is unfair, not that I've
ever had trouble being unfair. Indeed I do it for a living."
Journalists seek the truth. Carlson seeks
ratings. That the two are mutually exclusive was underscored
in a Wednesday New York Times piece headlined "Cable
War Coverage Suggests a New 'Fox Effect' on Television."
It read in part:
"This was supposed to be CNN's war,
a chance for the network, which is owned by AOL Time Warner,
to reassert its ratings lead using its international perspective
and straightforward approach.
"Instead, it has been the Fox News
Channel, owned by the News Corporation, that has emerged as the
most-watched source of cable news by far, with anchors and commentators
who skewer the mainstream media, disparage the French and flay
anybody else who questions President Bush's war effort.
"Fox's formula had already proved
there were huge ratings in opinionated news with an America-first
flair. But with 46 of the top 50 cable shows last week alone,
Fox has brought prominence to a new sort of TV journalism that
casts aside traditional notions of objectivity, holds contempt
for dissent and eschews the skepticism of government at mainstream
journalism's core."
Imagine CNN as the responsible media.
Imagine, as Carlson said at Tuesday's lecture, that cable news'
leading personalities Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Chris
Matthews, James Carville, etc. actually tone down their
personalities for their shows. Imagine that.
My gratification didn't stem from the
fact that, on occasion during his performance, Carlson did deliver
some truth. For instance, he was particularly on point when he
skewered the Democratic Party for its lack of ideology. Healthy
political debate is critical to a democracy, he said. Likening
an argument with a Democrat to an argument with a drunk or a
child, Carlson said it's worse than unpleasant: "It's also
bad for the country."
But Tuesday's speech-goers had to endure
prodigious quantities of nonsense in between such nuggets of
truth.
Carlson characterized arguments that
Bush War II is over oil as "majestic dumbness." Never
mind that American troops aggressively secured the oil fields
but retreated when banks, hospitals, museums, and every other
institution in Iraqi life was looted and destroyed. Never mind
that everything the United States does in the Middle East, except
its commitment to Israel, is about oil. If Iraq didn't have oil,
the U.S. government would still be selling Saddam Hussein deadly
chemicals to use against his own people.
He brushed off campaign finance reform
as the driving force behind John McCain's early electoral success
in the 2000 primary elections, positing instead that McCain had
no ideology and couldn't explain his own success. Never mind
that McCain, like Al Gore, achieved electoral success espousing
populist ideology directed at the chasm between the rich and
the poor, the imbalance between the powerful and the disenfranchised.
Never mind that the McCain-Feingold bill, the long-stalled legislative
proposal to reform campaign finance, became law shortly after
McCain's campaign on the issue.
Nonsense was a commodity in great supply
Tuesday evening, at least on the stage. Since it was tax day,
Carlson told the crowd that if they were self-employed, they
would hate the IRS. For the record, I am self-employed. I paid
three tax bills last Tuesday. I do not hate the IRS.
The crowd, however, provided intellectual
relief from the onstage babble, witty and entertaining as it
was.
When the predominantly student audience
got its chance at the microphone, questioner after questioner
dispelled the notion that today's students are self-indulgent,
Real World twits. Steady lines six to eight deep formed behind
two microphones until time ran out. And they ignored Carlson's
repeated requests to hit him hard, to be rude, like he is. Instead,
they asked thoughtful, reasoned questions.
Their questions, about conservatives
and gays, motivations behind the war, the need for a United Nations'
role in Iraq's future, broader military excursions in the Middle
East, and the impacts of the war on the American economy, to
list a few, suggested deep skepticism about the Bush administration
and its right-wing agenda.
Many prefaced their questions by telling
Carlson they disagreed with his politics. One told him: "I
think all my friends are nervous because I'm such a liberal."
I found that gratifying.
Steven Higgs
is the editor of the Bloomington
Alternative, where this article originally appeared.
He can be reached at: editor@BloomingtonAlternative.com
Today's
Features
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
Desolation Row: Bush's Barbarians Teach
by Example
Marjorie
Cohn
Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
The Fourth Generation of Modern War
Dave Marsh
Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
Binoy
Kampmark
Malayasia's America: the War on Iraq
David Vest
Who's Looting Whom?
Standard
Shaefer
Super Imperialism: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Andrew
Rodman
Lawn Poem
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/23
Website
of the Day
Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Middle East
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