I predicted more than a year ago that Tucker Carlson would not last much longer on FOX due to the fact that he was losing advertisers like crazy. That prediction, of course, was based on the naive assumption that FOX viewers were capable of rational thought.
Carlson is STILL losing advertisers - but it really does not matter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/business/media/tucker-carlson-advertisers-ratings.html
In recent weeks, Tucker Carlson, the conservative Fox News host, has challenged the Black Lives Matter movement, dismissed demonstrators as “criminal mobs,” accused a Texas police chief of “sounding more like a therapist than a cop” and mocked a CNN children’s special about racism that featured Elmo, the “Sesame Street” puppet.
His comments have generated a harsh backlash. Critics have called Mr. Carlson’s on-air monologues incendiary and accused him of making racist remarks. Major advertisers, including the Walt Disney Company and Sandals, the vacation resorts, have fled, requesting that Fox News remove their ads from Mr. Carlson’s 8 p.m. hour.
Viewers, however, are tuning in.
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” was seen by 4.2 million people on Monday, making it the most-watched television program in the country that night, ahead of entertainment fare on the major networks. His show was the highest rated on Fox News last week, and he has pulled ahead of Sean Hannity, the network’s usual ratings leader, in total viewers for June.
Fox News has said brands removed from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” typically have their ads run on other programs, and the network retains the revenue. Fox News also earns a significant portion of its income from subscription fees paid by cable providers, rather than spending by individual advertisers.
The reason that I though of the little turd this morning is the Washington Post reported that he had said that Tammy Duckworth (a Purple Heart recipient and a potential Biden running mate) "hates America".
His outrageous comment won't hurt his standing with members of the Trump cult, as evidenced by the fact that Trump himself said that "he liked heroes who weren't captured" early in his campaign - a dig at John McCain - and it didn't cost him a lot of votes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/07/tucker-carlson-tammy-duckworth-patriotism/
Wikipedia has a LONG article about his guy. Buried in the article are a few interesting tidbits:
1) Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American paleoconservative journalist, author, and political commentator, who has hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016.
(Paleoconservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism in the United States stressing Christian ethics, paternalism, regionalism, nationalism, isolationism (or noninterventionism), and traditionalist conservatism. Paleoconservatism's concerns overlap with those of the Old Right that opposed the New Deal in the 1930s and 1940s as well as with paleolibertarianism and right-wing populism)
2) In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of the conservative news and opinion website The Daily Caller. The newsletters' co-founder was Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel
3) In 1979, Carlson's father married divorcée Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to Swanson Enterprises. Swanson is the daughter of Gilbert Carl Swanson and the niece of Senator J. William Fulbright. This was the third marriage for Swanson, who legally adopted Carlson and his brother
4) After college, Carlson tried to join the Central Intelligence Agency, but his application was denied, after which he decided to pursue a career in journalism with the encouragement of his father.
5) In October 2004, comedian Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, appeared on Crossfire, ostensibly to promote his book America (The Book), but instead launching into a critique of Crossfire, saying that the show was harmful to political discourse in the United States. Carlson, who represented the right-wing side on that episode, was singled out by Stewart for criticism, with Carlson in turn criticizing Stewart for being biased toward the left. Carlson later recalled that Stewart had stayed at CNN for hours after the show to discuss the issues he had raised on the air. "It was heartfelt," Carlson said, "[Stewart] needed to do this."In 2017, The New York Times referred to Stewart's "on-air dressing-down" of Carlson as an "ignominious career [moment]" for Carlson.] In the view of the NYT, Stewart's criticism led to the cancellation of the show.
In January 2005, CNN announced that they were ending their relationship with Carlson and would soon cancel Crossfire.] CNN chief Jonathan Klein told Carlson on January 4, 2005, that the network had decided not to renew his contract. Carlson has said that he had already resigned from CNN and Crossfire long before Stewart was booked as a guest, telling host Patricia Duff:
I resigned from Crossfire in April [2004], many months before Jon Stewart came on our show, because I didn't like the partisanship, and I thought in some ways it was kind of a pointless conversation…each side coming out, you know, 'Here's my argument', and no one listening to anyone else. [CNN] was a frustrating place to work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tucker_Carlson
6) Carlson is generally described as a conservative or paleoconservative. Writing for New York magazine's Intelligencer, Park MacDougald called Carlson a "Middle American radical," which he described as someone who holds populist economic beliefs; hostility to corporatocracy; fervent positions on nationalism, race, and immigration; and a preference for a strong U.S. president. MacDougald identified this form of radicalism as the ideological core of "Trumpism.