“…we should stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates…and take 10 minutes to pray for this nation, every day!”
This year has been one of the strangest in broadcast news as well as in politics. Perhaps the biggest earth-shaking moment was when Fox News abruptly fired Tucker Carlson, the network’s, as well as television broadcast news, highest rated show and personality. Not since the late Rush Limbaugh has a media personality garnered such a gigantic following, and in particular younger demographics who normally do not spend too much time watching network news. But they did (and do) watch Carlson 8:00 pm show.
What makes a person like Tucker Carlson believable to the younger demographics? Like the late great Rush Limbaugh before him, he is a great communicator, and he has managed to reach a segment of the world which was ignored or browbeaten by the pundits in the press as well government. Like anyone who is involved in network news, and especially on cable news channels, Tucker needed to be tough and genuinely relevant-not something easily achieved for America’s under 35 crowd.
The 24-hour news industry that was started by Ted Turner’s Headline News (which later morphed into CNN) in the 80s is a business that needs viewers who are attached to personalities, not necessarily the news. Tucker needed to distinguish himself from his peers and rival in the 8:00 p.m. time slot quickly if he was going to survive.
Did he play the “attack dog”? Certainly. That is part of his job. But he was fair-he gave the liberals and kooks on the other side to make and/or prove their point on his show before he went into “attack mode”. What’s more, he possessed a common sense and a sense of morality that many in the media as well as in power centers (indeed I would say the majority of them) no longer have.
For instance, if a man felt he was a woman, Tucker would not genuflect at the altar of wokeness and sacrifice his sense, integrity, or credibility. Rather he would ask: “How do you know?” “When did you find that out?” “How did you come to that conclusion?” And so on. And God help the person who tried to make their point without evidence of their claims, or by sentimentality, or some other foolishness.
Some thought he was obnoxious and high minded. Others thought he was a shill for the Trump Administration (and God forbid if anyone said that about the rest of the media and their allegiance to the political left). But somewhere down the line, he took a choice with regards to the Truth, and combined with his other talents and skills, he became the biggest name in cable news programming as well as in the whole of conservative media (including talk radio). The first 15 minutes of his show pulled one of the biggest audiences on a regular basis. No one in any of the other channels came close. And that is what Fox News was willing to throw away without any explanation.
It was April 24, 2023, Monday. I remember that I had just come to church for a morning prayer service that we have from 9:30-11, and that was the moment an email alert came on my phone from Todd Starnes Radio Show saying that Tucker Carlson and Fox News had parted ways. It was the biggest story in the media for that week. The previous two weeks, Carlson had shot through the rating stratosphere after he interviewed former President Donald Trump and the Tesla/Space X CEO Elon Musk. He already had the number one show on cable, but those last two weeks propelled him to heights that shook the rest of the media world.
There is a standing rule in the world of media; you never shoot the personality who brings in the money. Which makes the decision by Fox mind boggling. Some theorized that Carlson was fired because of the Fox News settlement on the defamation case with the Dominion Voting Systems-something that is a ridiculous move on the part of Rupert Murdoch and his family (the CEO of News Corp-Fox’s parent company). According to several defense attorneys, defamation is one of the most difficult civil offences to prove in court. All that the accused would have to do is just repeat the words “I do not recall” in regard to questions that they get from the plaintiffs, and most of the time such cases will be won by the defense. But apparently the Murdochs felt threatened by New York City courts and its crazy judges and leftist juries. Some insiders allege that Dominion specifically demanded Carlson’s head, but this allegation makes no sense. Carlson’s reporting during the 2020 election and its aftermath was even tempered and one in which he demanded and pursued facts and proofs. He had his angle, but he was not throwing baseless opinions or diatribes for which such outlets as CNN and MSNBC are famous.
Carlson made enemies for revealing the truth on many volatile issues, for asking questions and finding answers that many in high places could not control or stomach-in other words, whatever was not part of the narratives that the ruling class was pushing.
With the footage provided by former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, he revealed the truth about the January 6, 2021 “insurrection”-something for which both Senate Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both demanded his firing by Fox. What was the problem? Far from the “insurrection” narrative pushed the last two years in which “white racists Trump supporters” were trying to take over the government, attack police officers, and other nefarious actions, Carlson released the footage (received from Speaker McCarthy) which showed Capitol Police officers opening the doors of the Capitol and quite literally ushering people throughout the building! Even praying with them as some of those people began to pray in the House and Senate chambers!
There were people who came there to cause trouble as anarchists or double agents. Some who were purposely planted by intelligence or security agencies (most notably the FBI, possibly the CIA-the name of Ray Epps comes to mind), and yes, they do deserve the full extent of Justice for their actions. But that said, the proof in the footage reveals beyond the shadow of a doubt that the vast majority of those people who entered the capital as well as those who were protesting outside, were not violent or trying to overthrow the government.
Nonetheless, the Justice Department-with the assent and instigation of Joe Biden himself has pursued and persecuted these people in unbelievable, unthinkable ways. One unfortunate soul committed suicide after being ruthlessly harassed by U.S. District Attorney in Washington DC. Former Air Force servicewomen Ashli Babbitt was shot to death by Capitol Police officer-the facts of that death have never made the light of day in most of the media. Nonetheless, that police officer was promoted. Tucker Carlson on the other hand asked the question and brought the truth out. And there were powerful people who did not like it and were going to do everything in their power to destroy him. He knew that and yet, he did not back down.
The days after his firing, I happened to see a speech he made that previous weekend at a dinner for the Heritage Foundation-a conservative think tank in Washington DC. It was the first place where Carlson (who was a college dropout) started his career as a journalist. That speech which initially came out in snippets on YouTube and social media is well worth watching. In fact, I would say it is one of the most significant speeches made in this nation and about its moral/spiritual conditions that I have ever heard in recent memory.
He spoke extemporaneously and yet he made his points very clear and accentuated with outbursts of self-deprecating humor and personal anecdotes. But the speech surprised me in that it had the kind of spiritual overtones and themes that would be found in a sermon from the pulpit of a theologically conservative church on Sunday morning. A Catholic priest had opened the Heritage event with an invocation-a prayer-which Carlson mentioned had moved him deeply. “It reminded me of something that I haven’t done in a long time, I haven’t taken time to pray for this nation.”
Carlson then went on to share how since the mid-term elections in 2022, he has been in a time of self-reflection and introspection. All his hopes and predictions in the mid-terms had just about failed. The Republicans had acquired the majority in the House of Representatives, but overall, the outcome was disappointing. The Democrats retained control of the Senate. Several races throughout the country which the Republicans was predicted to win, did not turn out that way. “I felt as I am sure that many of you do that this nation is going in the wrong direction at a hundred miles per hour,” said Carlson.
Carlson confessed that he felt such a wave of pessimism/cynicism/foreboding for the longest period of time-so much so that he neglected to pray for this nation. It was like a confession of a Sin! (No, that word does not mean some kind of moral crime alone, but rather not doing what God wants His people do, and which they have neglected.) He then went on to talk about the terrible leadership in power in this nation presently, both in politics and within the Church world. “Weak leaders make weak, angry nations. Just like weak husbands make angry wives.”
What really surprised me most was when he talked about the Spiritual attack on this nation (“Something is coming over this nation”) as he talked about the impossibility of debate and rationality with purveyors of the LGBTQ… agenda as well as that of abortion. The purveyors of abortion have never called it a positive good but rather demanded the right to commit the act. But (Carlson pointed out) within the last few months abortion has been passed off in public as a “positive good.” “The treasury secretary tells everyone that is they want to help the economy; they should get an abortion. What else should we call that but child sacrifice?”
Tucker made his ultimate summation by saying that we should stop using old debate rules these days and honestly, forthrightly call these people and the ideas that they are pushing evil. “We then should take 10 minutes and pray for this country which we dearly love.”
In my opinion, Tucker Carlson would make an exemplary preacher. Along with his communication skills, he possesses spiritual insights that many pastors/evangelists/teachers do not have in the Christian world today. I think about the leadership of the Anglican/Episcopalian church, the United Methodists, the Presbyterians, and a variety of Protestant churches-many of whom have surrendered to the LGBT mafia in the name of “love” without the slightest bit of discernment and thereby have destroyed the Christian witness of their respective churches. That he discerned that the only way to address a nation whose political leadership were rotting this nation by bowing down to hideous god the people of this nation never bowed down-by utterly rejecting them and their ideologies- is what made this speech akin a grand slam home run in baseball to me.
It may surprise some folks out there, but I was strangely reminded of a college student who found a similar spiritual wakening that led to moral clarity which most of the people in her nation, in the churches of that nation, or other institution in that nation did not have. Her name was Sophie Scholl and the nation that she lived in was Nazi Germany. Her life and that have of her co-conspirators in the White Rose movement reveals the falsehood in the people of Germany in that time, knew nothing. They did know.
Scholl almost did not graduate from high school in Germany at the time because Nazi indoctrination had become so much a part of learning that she lost interest in her education. She and her family were practicing Lutheran Christians, meaning that their Faith was not a matter of mere social gathering. They understood that anyone following Hitler and his regime and the ideas they dogmatically espoused and enforced was contrary to their Faith and would eventually destroy their nation which was at war. It took a while, but as the casualties and death counts from the war fronts began to mount and the facts of the death camps and the plight of the Jewish people, could no longer be ignored. All she and her group did was print out and pass out leaflets that quoted the Bible and Greek philosophers and German writers and calling out for the toppling of the Nazi government. Eventually they were caught and brought before the infamous Judge Roland Friesler where she made the statement that begins this essay: “Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did.”
Friesler sentenced her to death-just as he did with virtually anyone who was brought before him who was accused of being an enemy of the state. Before she was beheaded, she said to a fellow inmate: “How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause.” Many try to downplay her sacrifice, calling it a waste or questioning whether it mattered against the juggernaut of the Nazi regime. It did matter. And it does matter. She was a witness against the times and the people of her times who preferred to go with the flow into destruction. But Truth still has power, a point that Tucker Carlson has repeatedly made.
Since his leaving from Fox News, Carlson has entered a new level of celebrity status. As I listened to his broadcast on the X (formerly known as Twitter), I was amazed by the down to earth commentary, probing questions, and sometimes outlandish sense of humor (his laugh is becoming legendary!); all of which is free from the editors and upper management of Fox News. He reinterviewed President Donald Trump-a broadcast which has become the biggest celebrity interview ever since Oprah Winfrey interviewed Michael Jackson in 1992. Over 200 million people (and counting) saw that interview.
Celebrity influencers Andrew Tate was given a freedom to speak his mind-whether people like him or agreed with him. He was given time to talk from his own viewpoint and make his case. International politicians such President Victor Orban of Hungary and the new President-elect of Argentia Javier Milei made the perspective clear to an American audience, without any kind of leftist push or bias. Even liberal Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was given a chance to speak his mind. The common push from each of these people is the pursuit of Truth. Truth is not relative to every individual opinion. It is real and it can be told. It is something real and not subject to some weird interpretation. At some level, these individuals struck a nerve with pressing issues in America and the rest of the world that was against the narrative being pushed in the western media and academics. And that was what Carlson was (and is) focused on. “The second you decide to tell the Truth about something…you are filled with this power from somewhere else. The more you tell the Truth, the stronger you become.”
What really struck me most is that Carlson later shared how for the first time in his life, he began to read the Bible. He mentioned that he was raised Episcopalian (“the shallowest faith tradition that has ever been invented, it’s not even a Christian religion at this point, I say with shame”) and married to the daughter of an Episcopalian priest, but never took time to read the founding document of his Christian upbringing or find out the significance of the Center of the Christian Faith, Jesus Christ. His reading of the Bible began to make a change in his life and perspectives. One of the prevailing viewpoints is his aversion to War. This is not to say that he is a pacifist-far from it-but rather he, with good reason, does not trust the U.S. government’s push for more international intervention in the form of war, or the business side of war. He has been very much against the Russia/Ukraine war for the simple reason that he felt the U.S. government leaders were not being for forthright about important details of the government of Ukraine, and the corruption that has existed in that government for several years. Furthermore, several people in the US government were part of that corruption (most notably Joe Biden).
From the beginning, Carlson condemned American involvement in that conflict, and the war mongering against Russia. He dared to ask if people have lost their minds after hearing a raging belligerence of American political and military leadership to the point of threatening nuclear attacks on Russia. He attacked the Media of pushing a war narrative with the idea of pushing the world into another World War and working more as a propaganda ministry rather than journalist trying to find the facts and truth of the issue, including about President Zelensky of Ukraine (a man who has made immense profits from this war and is beginning to look like a guy who is just as dictatorial as his Russian counterpart Vladmir Putin). The facts that Tucker brought forward have turned to be right so far-and the Russia/Ukraine conflict is not making it to prime time now. Similarly, conservative podcaster Ben Shapiro had a problem with Tucker’s perspective about the Israel/Hamas war.
Shapiro was angered in essence by the restraint that Tucker (and also Candace Owens later) offered in the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attack. Carlson made it clear that he supported Israel, that he had actually visited there with his family, but he pointed out that his urging of restraint was not a call to ignore the carnage but rather to encourage second thoughts in regard to the U.S. government involvement in another foreign war, a war in which the United States is funding both Hamas and Iran. He did this because of his study of the Bible as well as in many years of investigative journalism regarding the claims of the federal government. One should not fault him for that. If anything, he brings up a viewpoint seldom heard when politicians on both sides of the aisle are calling for actions that could ignite an entire region in a war that would make any conflict before this seem like a mere walk in the park. But that is exactly the most important ability of Tucker Carlson: he can get people to stop and think twice, reasonably.
Tucker is the first to deprecate himself. He admits that he does not have the answers to the issues which he brings up in his broadcasts. But he is one of the few people in the Washington D.C. beltway who is discerning enough to understand that there is a Spiritual dimension about that place, the people who are there, and especially in their politicking and policies that they push forward which is not right. He was honest enough to say that it generated a cynicism-that in fact much of that city is cynical to the point of being totally careless of the freedoms that are rapidly being lost in a country started by and for religious liberty of persecuted protestant believers. The financial centers, banking institutions, academic institutions (not to mention the political world) is seemingly under the ambience of that negative spiritual force that no one care (other than on the surface) that this nation’s future is being thrown away. Rather a mentality of “this is the way it is and I’ve got to keep my job to pay my bills” is the way of life.
And from that world, that mentality, Tucker Carlson is coming out. Dare I say it? I believe God is bringing him out of it. I wish Tucker well and I pray his knowledge and experience with Christian Truth and Power will increase with time. He will find out, Fox News will not have anything like the audience he will have or the effects on this nation and around that he will have by speaking the Truth with Power. May God make it so. Amen.