Tucker Carlson clearly wants to come across as thoughtful and independent as host of the new MSNBC show, The Situation.
But Carlson has a nasty habit. He's a control freak. When presented with facts that don't fall into his pre-conceived presentation of the news, he gets nervous and a little defensive, tossing out a quip before moving the show along.
You might recall what happened back on CNN's Crossfire, when Carlson was confronted by Jon Stewart of The Daily Show, who told Carlson and co-host Paul Begala that they should "Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America" with their pointless, partisan debates. "(Y)you're not too rough on them. You're part of their strategies. You are partisan, what do you call it, hacks. ...What you do is partisan hackery."
Carlson unable to handle Stewart not following a script (comedian = funny), made a couple of unfunny quips — "What's it like to have dinner with you? It must be excruciating." — and then sent the show to commercial.
***
And that brings us to Tuesday's edition of The Situation. The topic was PBS. Carlson discussed it with liberal Rachel Maddow and conservative Charlie Gasparino. What was supposed to be a light discussion — as close as Carlson and Gasparino can come to a stand-up routine — became contentious in a hurry, after Maddow made the mistake of injecting a "fact."
First, the "comedy routine" of Carlson and Gasparino:
CARLSON: Nickelodeon and PBS want to tell your kids what to eat. Both networks are kicking off campaigns to teach children about healthy foods and exercise. Meanwhile, the Republican plan to slash the budget for the Corporation For Public Broadcasting by 25 percent brought about this dog-and-pony show in Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Keep your hands off of PBS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Senator Hillary Clinton and Congressman Ed Markey, alongside some of the characters who will be teaching health tips at a news conference supporting PBS today.
GASPARINO: It takes a village.
CARLSON: I love this.
GASPARINO: It takes a village.
CARLSON: So, PBS is trying to convince people they're not liberal. So, they're telling your kids to eat only, I don't know, organic, free-range, cruelty-free vegan products raised in Seattle?
MADDOW: Oh, come on.
CARLSON: I'm serious.
MADDOW: Come on.
GASPARINO: This is why liberals are so boring.
MADDOW: Are you going to blame Nickelodeon for this, too, that they're trying to convince people they're liberal? I mean, children's TV has always had do-gooder stuff in it.
CARLSON: But it's a stereotype of — of lifestyle liberalism. Don't eat this. Do eat that. Stop propagandizing my kids. They'll eat what I ask them to eat or tell them to eat.
Article comments
1 - Steve S
One of the better 'frisks' on punditry that I've read in a long while.
I watched Carlson the other day, it was painful, I don't really care for the guy, but wanted to see what his new show was like.
I was amazed at how exactly the 'same' it was as what John Stewart called him a name for. It's like he just changed networks but is still the same garbage-output that is harming America (like John says). Nothing's really changed beneath that bowtie, it's still all garbage.
I haven't seen you post here before at BC. I like your style of writing as well as your perspective.
2 - Dave Nalle
This is exactly why all federal funding should be removed from PBS. If you take away the federal funding then you can't have the government screwing with the programming. Right now federal funding is only a tiny fraction of the total revenues of PBS. They could function fine without it. Just end the farce and set PBS free.
Dave
3 - David R. Mark
This is the MSNBC show, Dave, not the PBS show.
4 - David R. Mark
Steve -- thanks for the compliment. I joined Blogcritics about two weeks ago, and have made just a few posts.
5 - Eric Berlin
Nice job with this piece, David.
MSNBC is the only cable net that I receive. I find it disturbing that its political news programming is dominated by conservative hosts and panels.
I actually find Carlson to be mild mannered and generally harmless in the sharky (no offense intended, Shark) world of cable punditry. But it pisses me off that two hours of evening coverage are dominated by Carlson and Scarborough.
Even Hardball has a penchant for conservative-tilted panels, though this phenomenon hasn't shown its head as much since the election.
Why not give a bright, opinionated, TV savvy guy like Eric Alterman his own show? Or at least match him with Scarborough, as has been argued in his (Alterman's) column...
6 - Dave Nalle
>>This is the MSNBC show, Dave, not the PBS show.<<
Yes, I know. But the argument they had shows how stupid having PBS as a government funded organization is. It would never generate any kind of controversy if it were private.
>>MSNBC is the only cable net that I receive. I find it disturbing that its political news programming is dominated by conservative hosts and panels. <<
Are you watching MSNBC while suffering from the paranoid aftereffects of too much weed? MSNBC is relentlessly, laughably left wing. It's so far left that most people can't watch it without bursting out laughing. It gives CBS's late night news shows a run for their money on loony leftist imbalance. They added Tucker Carlson specifically because they were aware of how alienated people were by their one-sided presentation.
Dave
7 - David R. Mark
This has been my complaint for some time -- and I've written about it quite a bit on JABBS.
MSNBC decided to become "Fox Lite" at some point. Phil Donahue got ratings, but was dumped in favor of lower-rated Scarborough. Hardball has taken a noticeable shift to the right. Now Carlson has been added to the lineup.
So, in truth, MSNBC has two hours of conservatives, one hour of Hardball -- which I would argue leans right, not left, as conservatives attest -- and Keith Olbermann's left-leaning show.
Why not give a show to Eric Alterman? It doesn't fit in with the philosophy of NBC and its parent, GE. And it doesn't fit in with the gimmick that MSNBC can appeal to Fox News viewers, while still holding onto mainstream viewers who tune in to watch "NBC News."
8 - Silas Kain
Wait a minute? Doesn't Tucker have a show on PBS as well? Oh and by the way, did you know that Tucker Carlson is a favorite among Log Cabin Republicans? Tucker Carlson - an icon in the gay community. That's as bad as Jerry Falwell being an icon at Planned Parenthood. Oh, but back to the original post...
I'm with Dave. PBS funding from the government isn't as great as it used to be. I think PBS has a place on America's airwaves and the government funding it receives now should be weaned away over a 4 year period. PBS is comprised of plenty of intelligent, creative people who can come up with ways to generate revenue.
Insofar as conservative criticism of PBS is concerned especially when making fun of Big Bird and Sesame Street, I think that people should check their facts. In particular I would like to address the comments of two Congresspeople.
Ernest J. Istook, Jr., Republican Congressperson from District 5-OK:"Big Bird and his friends can fly on their own. This will not jeopardize any program or any station because they have ample resources already on hand to make up that difference."
Ginny Brown-Waite, Republican Congressperson from District 5-FL pulled out a poster of Big Bird standing before a pile of cash. "What PBS doesn't want you to know: Big Bird is a billionaire..."
With all due respect to these esteemed members of Congress but their statements are not telling the entire truth. I have to ask if they or members of their respective staffs actually read the 2004 Annual Report of Sesame Workshop. It's quite inspiring, folks. Our government is one of many governmental contributors to Sesame Street. It's time we started breaking out the sound bytes and doing research. That's my mission for this remaining Congress. Before I am done I will cite a quote from every member of Congress and let's see where they stack up. Maybe then the voters back in their districts will wise up and start doing their own research to see if they are truly being represented.
9 - David R. Mark
Tucker does have a show on PBS -- part of the current CPB's efforts to bring on more conservatives.
There's nothing wrong with having liberal and conservative on PBS and NPR -- and in fact, that's been the case for years.
What's silly is when Tomlinson essentially wants to rid PBS and NPR of any liberal presence. The "unbiased review" from Fred Mann highlights this.
10 - Dave Nalle
David: "MSNBC decided to become "Fox Lite" at some point. Phil Donahue got ratings"
Donohue was consistently the lowest rated cable show in his time slot. He was losing to reruns of "Eight is Enough" on TVLand. His actual Nielsen number was lower than the statistical error figure in the Nielsen ratings.
>>So, in truth, MSNBC has two hours of conservatives, one hour of Hardball -- which I would argue leans right, not left, as conservatives attest -- and Keith Olbermann's left-leaning show. <<
I guess I stopped watching MSNBC before its shift to the right. The only show I ever found there worth watching was Matthews and he became more and more irritating the more you watched him.
Silas: "Wait a minute? Doesn't Tucker have a show on PBS as well? Oh and by the way, did you know that Tucker Carlson is a favorite among Log Cabin Republicans? Tucker Carlson - an icon in the gay community. "
If nothing else Tucker is one damned good looking guy. Nice suits too.
"Insofar as conservative criticism of PBS is concerned especially when making fun of Big Bird and Sesame Street, I think that people should check their facts."
From the link you gave I note that Sesame Workshop only gets 9% of its funding from the government. That's similar to the overall percentage PBS gets. Sesame gets 68% of their revenue from merchandising, and that's some huge business for them.
As I understand it Sesame kicks little or none of their revenue from merchandising to PBS which got them started. In fact, PBS currently pays them to run their programming. Something's screwed up there.
Dave
11 - david r. mark
I think you're wrong on the Donahue ratings. I know I've read this somewhere. I'll do some digging and post when I find it.
12 - DrPat
Nice to see your posts here, David!
(But I think maybe your italics got a bit over the top there...)
And regardless of where THIS show was aired, Dave Nalle is right - PBS should use viewer donations and endowment funds, not taxpayer dollars. They're not needed any more.
(The tax funds, not PBS, that is)
13 - miriam
The Children's Television Workshop makes big bucks on licensing Big Bird and the others--but it doesn't give any of the money to the government. Those shows could easily be, and are, self-supporting.
14 - Dave Nalle
It's also been aptly demonstratd that there's an enormous market for quality childrens programming. Look at Noggin and Nickelodeon and the many other kid-oriented cable channels which offer stuff which is at least somewhat educational and often quite PBS like.
If PBS fans are concerned about government interference in PBS then they are the ones who should be clammoring to take the system private. That's the only way to preserve it the way they like it.
Dave
15 - Steve S
Look at Noggin and Nickelodeon and the many other kid-oriented cable channels which offer stuff which is at least somewhat educational and often quite PBS like.
We enjoy Noggin, it's quite good. But those are cable channels, not everybody can afford cable, for some free tv is the only tv, that's what it's about for me.
And technically, Noggin and Nickelodeon are owned and operated by MTV. When you look at the 'many other' kid-oriented channels, what you're really looking at, is just two corporations, Disney or Viacom.
16 - Dave Nalle
PBS has a cable network now, and they plan to add another as well. There's also FoxKids - which is weak, but in there. And as for the number of channel-owning companies, that's less relevant than the number of production companies making kids fare which they're picking up, and there are a zillion of those.
Dave
17 - Temple Stark
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