Top-rated Fox News host Tucker Carlson has lost between 50 and 70 advertisers in less than a year over a host of controversial comments he’s made about immigrants and white supremacy, GQ and Media Matters reported.
Carlson’s prime time show Tucker Carlson Tonight has been the second most-watched show on Fox News for the last eight months, after Hannity. Still, advertisers like Nestle, SteinMart, HelloFresh, Calm, and SoFi have pulled their advertising.
This time last year, Carlson had over 20 paid ads per episode. Recently, he was down to just 11. To fill in, Fox News is running promos for its own shows and public service announcements.
An Unfair Boycott?
Last month, Carlson said that white supremacy is “just like the Russia hoax.”
“It’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power,” he said. Carlson’s comments were widely reported out of context by liberal news outlets, who said that Carlson had called white supremacy a hoax.
Instead, he was comparing the way the left was using white supremacy to the way it used reports that Russia was influencing our elections, especially in 2016. But advertisers apparently didn’t make the distinction — or they were afraid their customers wouldn’t.
Carlson’s white supremacy comments were not the first time advertisers had taken offense at the Fox host. He also lost advertisers in December when he said that immigrants make America “poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.”
While it may be an unpopular thing to say, the numbers would probably show that Carlson was right. But then, the left “chooses ‘truth’ over facts,” as Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden recently admitted.
Carlson’s Dilemma
In the news and opinion business, there is some currency in getting attention. Carlson says things that sound provocative, and he does it on purpose to draw attention to issues he thinks are important.
Certainly, this is a common technique, and one that other Fox News hosts like Bill O’Reilly, Laura Ingraham, and even Sean Hannity have gotten in trouble with in the past, as AdAge pointed out. But foundational advertisers like MyPillow are staying put, which means that Carlson can probably withstand the current decline.
Fox News claims that its overall ad sales are remaining steady in the face of this defection, which seems to indicate further that Carlson will make it through the current slump.
It looks like the days are gone where people respect someone’s right to say something, even if they don’t agree with it. Now, people are all too ready to jump ship when it looks like someone may have said something wrong.
The mob mentality that has invaded social media is spreading to other forms of communication, and the effect has been to tamp down free speech, irrespective of laws against doing so. I doubt society is benefitting from the change.
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