The following opinion was written by Charles Ellis of Westbrook.
Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox News was surprising to me. Not because it happened but because it hadn’t happened sooner. I have been a conservative for most, if not all, of my life and despite that, over the years I’ve come to dislike Fox News. In my opinion, they appear more like controlled opposition because in general, they appear to be more exaggerated if not extreme and I have felt like they are a poor representation of conservative views and as such seem to be actually making fun of conservatives more than reporting the news from a conservative perspective. Couple that with the fact that just like the liberal news outlets who don’t report the fact but instead cherry-pick the facts, if they use any at all, and use them to spin a narrative Fox News largely does the same thing. Maybe they use more facts than the liberals or maybe conservatives just think that because Fox is speaking from their perspective and they’re thankful that at least there’s one mainstream news organization doing that. Either way, they are more spinning a narrative either to make money or as controlled opposition but they’re not really reporting the news.
And then during Covid, I discovered Tucker Carlson and because of my disdain for Fox News always used a caveat when quoting Tucker by saying “I don’t like Fox News…but Tucker Carlson…he’s alright…” because Tucker has been the one anomaly in mainstream news who was actually reporting the facts that no one else seemed to want to talk about, either on the right or the left, and he was “getting away with it.” Which is why I was more surprised that he didn’t get fired sooner.
That being said outside of Tucker, who I didn’t listen to daily or even weekly, I don’t get my news from the mainstream media because they’re not trustworthy. And most Americans agree with this. Recent polls suggest in excess of 80% of Americans, regardless of political party, don’t believe traditional news outlets actually report the truth and yet if you look at their patterns of beliefs and voting record it appears they are still making decisions off of their bad information.
Personally, I hope Tucker leaving and potentially teaming up with Elon Musk with his new show on Twitter will cause more people to walk away from the propaganda of the mainstream on both sides of the aisle and realize that people like Russell Brand the comedian turned video podcaster on Rumble who has amassed about 5 Million followers and with the help of his team is a more objective journalist than anything you’ll find in the mainstream. I’m concerned too many people will out of laziness, because being informed and thinking for one’s self is hard work, just keep watching the propaganda and continue to allow their opinions to be formed by those hacks in the mainstream media. But maybe just maybe Tucker's exit will cause more people to see the game for what it is and seek out truth wherever they may find it including from those like Russell Brand who is not a conservative from a traditional Republican perspective but he is a friend spreading a lot of truth in these dark days and we need friends in all shapes and sizes if we’re to effect positive change in our world.