Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s prime time show is pretty close to racist, neo-con Bill Kristol recently told CNBC.
The founder of The Weekly Standard lamented his former reporter’s shift to a more far right perspective, claiming Carlson went from paleo-conservatism to what’s “close now to racism.”
“I do feel now we’re in a different world. I mean, now you look at — Tucker Carlson began at The Weekly Standard. Tucker Carlson was a great young reporter. He was one of the most gifted 24-year-olds I’ve seen in the 20 years that I edited the magazine. His copy was sort of perfect at age 24,” Kristol told CNBC’s John Harwood in an interview published Thursday.
“He had always a little touch of Pat Buchananism, I would say, paleo-conservativism. But that’s very different from what he’s become now. I mean, it is close now to racism, white — I mean, I don’t know if it’s racism exactly — but ethno-nationalism of some kind, let’s call it. A combination of dumbing down, as you said earlier, and stirring people’s emotions in a very unhealthy way.”
Kristol also blamed Obama’s second term for Fox News’ newfound “birther-like coverage.”
“I was on Fox for 10 years really, 2002 to 2012. I think it was pretty good. It was a little tilted right? Sure,” he said.
“Now Fox is sort of — 75 percent of it seems to be birther-like coverage of different issues. That’s been, I think, bad. And you put that together with the social media and the segmentation of everyone into bubbles, and I think there’s some truth to that criticism.”
In a Wednesday tweet Kristol also bemoaned the “normalization of Trump” and “conspiratorial thinking.”
The problem isn’t merely the normalization of Trump. It’s the normalization of reckless demagoguery, of angry paranoia, of conspiratorial thinking. And those now have a life of their own on the Hill and on the airwaves almost independent of Trump.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) January 25, 2018
Days after President Trump’s inauguration, Kristol expressed he was aligned with the Deep State over Trump.
Obviously strongly prefer normal democratic and constitutional politics. But if it comes to it, prefer the deep state to the Trump state.
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) February 14, 2017
Carlson took over former Fox host Megyn Kelly’s 9PM prime time slot last January, nearly doubling his predecessor’s ratings in his first month due largely to his pro-Trump views.
Carlson has yet to respond to Kristol’s statements.
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