In their efforts to flog the tired old ‘War on Christmas’ trope, Fox News and Tucker Carlson, the person vying to be the worst person on it, reached new lows, combining immigrant-bashing with gender stridency. Stephen Colbert tries to understand the silliness.
Carlson’s show has already lost more than 20 advertising sponsors following his remarks.
Cue the right-wing outrage over ‘censorship’. These ardent supporters of capitalism and the market don’t seem to quite get that businesses protect their brand image, and not wanting to be associated with someone as odious as Carlson is a business decision.
I even saw some left-of-center outrage (can’t remember who now) griping about how advertisers should not have such power over journalists. I could sort of get where they were coming from,* but to suggest Carlson is a journalist was downright disingenuous.
* The charitable take, then, is that if advertisers can “censor” Carlson, they can censor actual journalists. I find that a slippery slope fallacy. Again, Carlson is not a journalist. He’s not even close to being one. It’s an “apple to oranges” comparison.
Leo,
This is not new. As soon as publications began to depend upon advertisers more than subscribers for their revenue, they gave the advertisers the power. All the major news organizations kowtow to their major advertisers. They just do so discreetly, practicing a form of pre-censorship. What is somewhat new is public outcry and demands for disassociation.