Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host whose separation from Fox News infuriated many former fans of the network, has once again broken the internet. He did so with his latest Twitter video, one in which he discussed his plans to make a “new version” of his popular Fox News show, ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight,’ on Twitter.
In fact, the video generated a massive 22.9 million views within just 24 hours of being uploaded. And as of the morning this article was written the video had garnered 127.8 million views, blowing, like his last video, Fox News Channel’s ratings out of the water.
Watch the video here:
We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023
In the video, Tucker shredded the irresponsible, lying media nad announced his new show, which will be put on Twitter. He said:
“Hey, it’s Tucker Carlson, you often hear people say the news is full of lies. But most of the time, that’s not exactly right. Much of what you see on television or read the New York Times, is in fact true in the literal sense, it could pass one of the media’s own fact checks, lawyers would be willing to sign off on it. In fact, they may have. But that doesn’t make it true. It’s not true.
“At the most basic level, the news you consume is a lie, a lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind. facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective, you are being manipulated. How does that work? Let’s see, if I tell you that a man has been unjustly arrested for armed robbery that is not strictly speaking a lie. He may have been framed at this point, there’s been no trial, so no one can really say.
“But if I don’t mention the fact that the same man has been arrested for the same crime six times before, am I really informing you? No, I’m not. I’m misleading you. And that’s what the news media are doing in every story that matters every day of the week, every week of the year. What’s it like to work in a system like that? After more than 30 years, in the middle of it, we could tell you stories, the best you could hope for in the news business at this point is the freedom to tell the fullest truth that you can.
“But there are always limits. And you know that if you bump up against those limits, often enough, you will be fired for it. That’s not a guess. It’s guaranteed. Every person who works in English language media understands that the rule of what you can’t say defines everything. It’s filthy, really. And it’s utterly corrupting.
“You can’t have a free society if people aren’t allowed to say what they think is true. Speech is the fundamental prerequisite for democracy. That’s why it’s enshrined in the first of our constitutional amendments. Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech. The last big one remaining in the world, the only one is Twitter, where we are now. Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site, everybody’s allowed here. And we think that’s a good thing.
“And yet, for the most part, the news that you see analyzed on Twitter comes from media organizations that are themselves thinly disguised propaganda outlets. You see it on cable news, you talk about it on Twitter. The result may feel like a debate, but actually the gatekeepers are still in charge. We think that’s a bad system. We know exactly how it works, and we’re sick of it.
“Starting soon, we’ll be bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years to Twitter. We bring some other things to which we’ll tell you about. But for now, we’re just grateful to be here. Free speech is the main right that you have without it, you have no others. See you soon”
Twitter’s outbound CEO, Elon Musk, said, “On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever he or anyone may say. And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes. I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators. Rewards means subscriptions and advertising revenue share (still working on software needed for the latter), which is a function of how many people subscribe and the advertising views associated with his content. I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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