Tucker Carlson and the Right's perpetual self-victimhood

[Enrique]

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/10/23/carlson/index.html

The number one rule of American politics: the greatest, most insatiable need of the standard conservative is to turn themselves into oppressed little victims. In the Daily Beast today, Tucker Carlson devotes his entire column to complaining that Obama is "bullying" Fox News, absurdly claiming that the White House and liberals are trying "to use government power to muzzle opinions they don't agree with." Needless to say, Carlson doesn't say a word about the endless -- and far worse -- attacks by the Bush White House on a whole array of media outlets, ones that went far beyond mere criticisms.

But far more delusional is Carlson's central complaint: that "the press decide to go along with all of this" -- meaning Obama's criticisms of Fox. He echoes the typical, woe-is-us conservative whine: "Why is the press corps giving the White House a pass for behavior it would never have tolerated from other administrations?" He righteously condemns what he calls "the press corps' shameful silence" on the Obama/Fox conflict and alleges that "hardly anyone in the press says a word" about this matter.

Is Tucker Carlson lying or just completely ignorant of the subject matter on which he's opining? The press has been anything but "silent" about this. It's been a virtual consensus from establishment pundits and journalists of every type that the Obama White House is doing something terribly wrong by criticizing Fox. And as usual for the vapid, group-think, script-repeating, mindless wind-up dolls who compose the Beltway press corps, they even have their own endlessly repeated platitudes for condemning Obama's criticisms of Fox: it's Nixonesque. Enemies List. Also as usual, they are echoing the theme propounded by Karl Rove on Fox: "We heard this before from Richard Nixon. And we have this White House prone to that kind of attitude. . . . This is the White House engaging in its own version of the media Enemies List."

The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus wrote two items condemning the Obama White House, saying it has "a Nixonesque -- Agnewesque aroma" and that the Fox criticisms were "dumb" and "weak." Intoning underneath a photo that read: "President Obama's ENEMIES," CNN's Anderson Cooper said: "this White House is starting to look like another White House" -- meaning Nixon's -- "and the comparisons are not flattering." Just yesterday on NPR, NPR's Ken Rudin condemend the Fox criticisms as "Nixonesque" and accused liberals of cheering on an "enemies list," while The New York Times' David Carr sat beside him and said the President was being "heavy-handed." CNN's David Gergen urged the White House to cease attacking Fox, and "even on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe' Monday, the panelists largely came out against the White House's war against Fox News." Frequent Fox News critic David Zurawick of The Baltimore Sun condemned the criticisms and "compared the current administration to the White House of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew." Numerous other media figures have sung the same tune.

(...)

[tularetom]

1. Tucker Carlson? I thought he was a greeter at Wal Mart by now

He seems to have become persona non grata even on fox these days.

[chemp]

2. Which Tucker Carlson is this?

The one that was on CNN, a conservative voice criticizing Fox's lack of objectivity?
Or the one that was on MSNBC, a conservative voice criticizing Fox for its lack of objectivity?

Just curious...

[emulatorloo]

3. Another VERY IMPORTANT Paragraph from this excellent piece:

All that hand-wringing rhetoric: why?

Because the Obama administration threatened to criminally prosecute Fox? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/21/AR2006052100348.html

Or because the adminstration surveilled its reporters' telephone calls? http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/05/federal_source_.html

Or illegally obtained their telephone records? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/08/AR2008080803603.html

Or shot misslies at hotels in which they were staying? http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83503,00.html

Or dropped bombs on their offices? http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/apr/02/broadcasting.iraq1 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2001/nov/17/warinafghanistan2001.afghanistan

Or imprisoned them for years without charges? http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/11/journalists/

Or barred Fox reporters from riding on administration planes? http://mediamatters.org/research/200910210028#3

Or conspired to "weed out" any critical voices from being heard on network and cable news programs? http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/10/analysts

No, those are all things that the Bush administration did to reporters (see the links) --

all well above and beyond the numerous, constant rhetorical attacks from the Bush White House on media organizations they perceived to be hostile. http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=28553

Where was Tucker Carlson when that was happening, or Ruth Marcus, or Anderson Cooper, or David Carr?

[Laelth]

5. +1. Well done. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

4. Tucker Carlson was sort of a Luke Russert IMO

employed because of his family, not for anything he has done.

I always thought he was a bit of a dim bulb on Crossfire. He just didn't track well in his arguments. He always seemed stopped at 10th grade debate squad level.

[TomCADem]

6. K & R

[RepublicanElephant]

7. someone call tucker a waaaambulance. nt