Jason Zengerle on Tucker Carlson

Your Fellowship project will be a book that focuses on former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Why was Carlson the ideal entry point for discussing the rise in popularity and influence of conservative media?

Carlson is interesting to me for several reasons. One, he’s become the most powerful conservative media figure in the U.S. at the very moment when conservative media has become, arguably, the most powerful force in American politics. Two, his career—from his early days as a writer for The Weekly Standard to his time hosting CNN’s Crossfire to his founding of The Daily Caller website to his huge success at Fox News—tells the larger story of how conservative media (and conservative politics) have changed over the last 30 years. Three, he’s just a fascinating character study—someone who lays bare the incentives that exist in media and in politics today. Whenever two or more political journalists get together for drinks these days, it seems that they inevitably start ruminating on the question of “What happened to Tucker?” I do want to try answer that, but I also want to answer a bigger question: What happened to us?

What does Carlson’s recent firing mean for your project, and for conservative media at large?

It’s certainly a plot twist—one that I (and, I’m fairly certain, he) didn’t see coming. But I think it raises the stakes for both my book and for conservative media as a whole. The conventional wisdom has long been that Fox News, rather than any particular Fox News host, is the actual star. Glenn Beck, Megyn Kelly, Bill O’Reilly, and others all attest to this. Once they left Fox, they largely disappeared from the public consciousness. But I would argue that, in the last few years, Carlson became bigger than Fox itself. Just like Donald Trump upended Republican politics, Carlson has upended conservative media. Now, as he strikes out on his own, he’s going to test that proposition. Is Fox still the 800-pound gorilla of conservative media? Or has conservative media—and conservative politics—changed so much in the past few years that someone like Carlson can maintain his power (and influence) without Fox’s platform?

Your planned release for this book is in 2024, a presidential election year. What role do you hope your book will play in 2024?

Tucker Carlson envisions himself as a kingmaker in Republican politics, beginning with the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. He has a clear vision of the direction he wants the GOP—and, by extension, the country—to take. It’s hard to imagine the 2024 Republican presidential nominee—whether it’s Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, or someone else—being a candidate who hasn’t kissed Tucker’s ring and checked his ideological boxes. I hope my book will elucidate Carlson’s agenda and reveal the stakes for the Republican Party, and the country, should it prevail in November 2024.

Subscribe here to receive next month’s issue of The Fifth Draft.