Patterico's Pontifications

3/9/2008

Tucker Carlson: Arrogant Big Media Tool (UPDATE: Who Has Lost His Show)

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 12:34 pm



Here’s Tucker Carlson, in a stunning display of Big Media arrogance: “It’s a little much being lectured on journalistic ethics by a reporter from The Scotsman.” Watch the video here.

I personally don’t like to play “gotcha” with people I interview. But the fact of the matter is that you can’t just say something stupid in an on-the-record interview and then immediately try to take it back by claiming it was off the record.

I think it’s a little much being lectured on journalistic ethics by Tucker Carlson.

UPDATE: Tucker has lost his show. (H/t steve.)

It’s a little much being lectured on journalistic ethics by a guy with no show.

18 Responses to “Tucker Carlson: Arrogant Big Media Tool (UPDATE: Who Has Lost His Show)”

  1. I’ll see your Tucker Carlson, and raise you Ana Marie Cox being on a panel discussing journalistic ethics on CNN’s Reliable Sources this morning.

    gahrie (5ae14f)

  2. The fact of the matter is that the reporter stated a rule that American reporters actually follow: a source must ask in advance if they can say something is off-the-record.

    As a former reporter, I was taught to say “nothing is off” because the source usually was going to tell you anyways.

    But of course, Tucker Carlson is not a real reporter.

    Alta Bob (13384e)

  3. On this morning’s Reliable Sources, CNN’s Howie Kurtz asked a panel about the Scotsman interview, with two interesting responses. First, from Ana Marie Cox (yes, the Wonkette):

    COX: I’m going to be utterly transparent and say it would depend on the situation. And I also have to say, it’s very easy for someone who writes for “The Scotsman” to make the decision to make that on the record.

    Like, she doesn’t have — she’s probably never going to interview Samantha Power ever again. And she probably isn’t going to cover the Obama White House should there be one.

    I think that a journalist who wants to continue working, I mean, you can call it a sad truth, but it is a truth that you need to keep — you need to maintain relationships with your sources. And part of maintaining a relationship means having some kind of contract with them that you’re not going to do anything unfair. And…

    So, the “you’ll never work in this town again” threat is what guides these paragons of journalistic ethics. Next, Jake Tapper had a more insightful critique of the Samantha Power interview:

    TAPPER: She did something stupid. You don’t — you don’t — you don’t tell a reporter — you don’t trust something like that. But I thought what was even more revealing from that interview was the elitism, the disdain that she talked about, Ohioans concerned about job losses, and they’re obsessed with NAFTA. That just kind of betrayed — and that was on the record. That betrayed a sort of university elitism that we have seen before in the Obama campaign that I think is very dangerous if that develops as a narrative out there, that this is just a bunch of wonky liberals in university settings.

    So lost in the “poor Samantha got stabbed in the back and lost her job” meme was this recurring admission from the Obama campaign that it has an elitist attitude toward the blue collar voters.

    BTW, someone should ask “Chatsworth Osborne” Carlson if he thinks the press would have given Karl Rove a mulligan during the 2004 campaign if he had called John Kerry an effete, gigolo poseur (notwithstanding the truth of the statement).

    capitano (03e5ec)

  4. Semi-great minds, eh gahrie?

    That’s what I get for trying to watch the Longhorns close out the Big 12 with a win over Okla. State while working on a comment for half an hour.

    capitano (03e5ec)

  5. Go Horns.

    DRJ (8b9d41)

  6. Apparently, Tucker Carlson’s show has been cancelled.

    In its 33-month run, Carlson’s show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats.

    steve (eb120d)

  7. Tucker canceled? Your posts are more persuasive than I realized, Patterico.

    DRJ (8b9d41)

  8. Tucker canceled? Your posts are more persuasive than I realized, Patterico.

    Yup, MSNBC saw this post and cried, “We have angered the Great Patterico! We must appease him! Cancel Tucker Carlson!” 🙂

    Paul (d4926e)

  9. It’s funny to see all the bootlickers at HuffPo pile praise onto Tucker Carlson, Embodiment of A More Gentle, Caring Form of Journalism.

    Of course, that’s only Obama supporters who are doing that. It’s not like they would extend similar courtesy to a Clinton aide.

    Daryl Herbert (4ecd4c)

  10. Personally, I was just glad he had long since ditched that damned bow-tie…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  11. my ancestors were scottish, on my paternal grandfather’s side, and any kind of disrespect toward a publication called the scotsman isn’t going to go over well in my quarter.

    assistant devil's advocate (b7349f)

  12. Yeah, but I can understand how being lectured on ethics – a concept that seems quite foreign to many modern journalists and reporters – might rise there ire…

    /sarcasm.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  13. I’m also a little astonished at the Huffpo crowd. Here is a perfect example of an arrogant American, and they’re suggesting that he is a great representative of what they’re thinking. Oh, wait a second…

    Carolynp (89f3fa)

  14. In its 33-month run, Carlson’s show has had two names, four time slots and multiple formats.

    And one big zero.

    Wow, Jake Tapper and Ana Marie Cox were opining on journalistic ethics? What, they couldn’t get Perez Hilton?

    Jim Treacher (592cb4)

  15. Or Greenwald?

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  16. I think MSNBC is just getting worse and worse these days. If they give Matthews or Olbermann any more air time because of this they will be making a huge mistake. They are more likely why MSNBC is losing ratings than Tucker.

    Kevin (c7077b)

  17. Yes, Tweety Mathews is next to get the axe. Rumor has it that rising star and incredibly articulate, smart radio host Rachael Maddow will get Tucker’s slot. Good move.

    Bob Dobbs (3069e0)

  18. Something about Wonkette’s candid statement from my earlier comment (#3 above) seemed familiar.

    I think that a journalist who wants to continue working, I mean, you can call it a sad truth, but it is a truth that you need to keep — you need to maintain relationships with your sources. And part of maintaining a relationship means having some kind of contract with them that you’re not going to do anything unfair. And…

    This morning I remembered. It was CNN Chief Eason Jordan‘s 2003 NYTimes editorial, The News We Kept to Ourselves, about how CNN suppressed facts about Saddam’s brutal regime in order to maintain access to the dictator. Jordan spun the rationale, but it was clear that CNN played along because they were given almost exclusive access among Western news outlets. Eason Jordan:

    I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein’s regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

    Quite a legacy for the MSM — quid pro quo — not just a legalism, but the guiding journalistic principle.

    capitano (03e5ec)


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