Someplace back on this blog, there may be a real old comment in which I wrote something nice about Tucker Carlson. If there is, I should have retracted it some time ago. He said something wise and reasonable every once in a while back when he was the Conservative Voice on the old CNN series, Crossfire.
I once thought that was evidence he had some smarts and decency but in hindsight, he probably hadn't learned yet how to pander to the kind of folks who watch Fox News. Or maybe it was that he wasn't on Fox then or maybe they just weren't as bad then.
He's been out there speculating — "just asking questions" as folks often say when they want to spread fibs but be able to deny culpability later — that the vaccines are a big hoax. And here is the sane response to that, much of it from Dr. Fauci.
There are people in the media who say insane things and seem to actually believe them. There are also folks who say insane things and don't necessarily believe them but, you sure get the feeling, believe that saying those things is good for their careers. The size of the audience and therefore the paycheck is all the justification they need.
There are also people who start in the second category but something in them steers them into the first. I remember when I worked with the famed wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper. Offstage, out of the ring, Roddy was a very nice, smart guy who would tell you frankly that he was out there talking trash and participating in scripted events because for him, the alternative was working on a loading dock somewhere for minimum wage. Apart from a lot of physical abuse, he lived quite well.
And one thing he said that stayed with me was that all too often, he found himself believing his own bullshit. He spent so much time in the ring and in interviews yelling about how much he hated Hulk Hogan that he actually started hating Hulk Hogan.
I dunno if Carlson has gone from the second category into the first yet. I just know he's never convinced me he'd be saying that stuff if he could get more take-home pay somewhere by saying the opposite.