Cut The Cord

You probably think it's impossible to defend Putin's brutal, senseless war in Ukraine. And you're right. But Tucker Carlson is really trying! Let's take a look at last night's show. 🧵 pic.twitter.com/0mr4RcWq9n

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 11, 2022

Tucker Carlson stays on the "air" (is cable='air'?) because of cable fees.

Sometime back people crowed because Carlson lost so many sponsors.  Turns out that doesn't matter; FoxNews makes most of its nut from cable fees.  You pay for cable, cable pays for FoxNews.  Sponsors are a small part of their revenue, v. broadcast TV (which, full disclosure, my TeeVee is on.  I've been on cable, I've been on satellite, now with digital TV and "smart TV's," I'm on broadcast).

So if you really want to hurt Tucker Carlson, ignore him.  Completely.  I know what Carlson's up to because of Rupar and others on Twitter, and no, it's not their fault Carlson is still a household name (so to speak).  But cut cable, you cut Carlson/FoxNews's revenue stream.  Cut cable, you ignore Carlson, too.  Or cut satellite, or however you get FoxNews.  Starve the beast.

I know the conventional wisdom is that if you ignore the beast, the beast jumps you from behind, having grown to mythic tiger size (bigger than a regular tiger, which is bad enough).  Bunk.  Everything the GOP has been doing that led to Trump, they did in plain sight.  Q-Anon is all over Twitter, mostly beceause people report on Q-Anon nonsense.  Or Proud Boys, or whoever.  Keeping up with it may be a worthy job for the Southern Poverty Law Center, but for the rest of us?  What, you think you're attention is magical, and affects the "bad guys" in some way?  Yeah, you're that important.

What’s funny is how important the world is, and how unimportant Carlson is:

About 3.5 million Americans each evening are being exposed to Carlson's brand of anti-anti-Putinism. You can see how people watching this stuff earnestly come away with the impression that *Biden* is doing more harm than the person actually responsible for waging war on Ukraine.

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2022

Which sounds bad (but it's what, 1% of the country?), except which part is the tail, and which part the dog?

Recall that Carlson's big conspiracy theory on Thurs was about the US govt provoking Russia by funding "secret bio labs" in Ukraine. Those claims were quickly debunked by a range of outlets, and surprise! "Biolabs" wasn't mentioned a single time on Friday. https://t.co/UUUJY9nGMr

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 12, 2022

We’ll, that didn’t last long. Conspiracy theories ain’t what they used to be? But we barely had time to be terrified by the falsehoods of that one!

Kill cable.  Kill satellite.  Disney and HBOMax and anything else you want to watch is streaming anyway (the old excuses for having cable).  Save your money, and quit giving it to "bad guys."  Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing anyway?