Tucker Carlson is now at the helm of what he calls a show on Twitter, where he has been posting unsurprisingly bizarre monologues including rhetoric like a comparison of the current president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, to a rat. Zelenskyy is Jewish, and Carlson’s rhetoric directly mirrors historical anti-Semitism that has often been used as an excuse for deadly violence.
If you go on Twitter, the first two so-called episodes of Carlson’s new so-called show have absolutely massive viewership stats… but these numbers, which have flown past a combined 150 million, do not meaningfully reflect the number of people who’ve actually sat and watched the videos. Under the leadership of its new owner Elon Musk, Twitter has made view counts public alongside totals on every tweet of likes and retweets, but viewing a tweet — which is tabulated when essentially anyone just scrolls past it — is not the same as watching the video in full. Even Twitter’s own metrics for actual video viewership, which have proven liberal in the data they capture, aren’t public anymore. No numeric total for the people who’ve watched Carlson’s rants is actually available, no matter any claims.
These details were adeptly outlined in a recently published article from Mediaite. Further, Carlson has now received a legal missive known as a cease-and-desist letter from Fox News that covers his Twitter commentary. Carlson, though he was not too long ago booted from the cable giant’s airwaves, is under contract to the end of next year. Fox’s letter presumably carries the at least implied threat of legal action if Carlson refuses to, well, cease and desist as sought. Predictably, Carlson’s corner has turned to First Amendment claims as he further develops his online presence.
Carlson remains widely popular on the far-right, but the simple fact is that he’s just another conspiracy theory-peddling online bozo who seemingly thinks he’s some kind of savior for American integrity.
