It’s a Saying
My English mother had a saying: “that’s the pot calling the kettle black.” It’s from a time so long ago, that many don’t even “get” the expression. Cooking in my mother’s house in 1920’s England was done over a coal-stoked stove. The flames would coat the cookware with carbon. Both the pot and the kettle were black.
On Fox News
I watched Fox News for a bit last night. That’s not a common occurrence in my household, but I wanted to see Tucker Carlson. I remember Tucker as a much younger man: he was the “conservative” voice on MSNBC a decade ago. It was a different time, when CNN and MSNBC tried to have conservative voices balancing their more progressive “stars.” At the time, Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann were the liberal lights on MSNBC. Former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough and Carlson were the “balance” on the other side.
MSNBC seemed “smaller” then. They were closer to “mother” NBC News during the daytime, mostly “hard” news. It was in the early morning and the evenings that it’s “Progressive” flag flew. But it was in the late afternoon that Tucker got his time, and he tried to present a “reasonable” conservative view.
The White Nationalist “Hoax”
I turned to Tucker last night, because the night before he claimed that the “white nationalism” issue in America was a “hoax, not a real problem.” It shouldn’t be surprising, Fox as a whole claims that lots of things are “hoaxes” including Russian involvement and the Trump campaigns’ cooperation in the 2016 election. But I wanted to see how the murder of 22 people in El Paso by an avowed white supremacist was somehow a hoax.
Carlson’s logic last night was quite contorted. His argument: that “white nationalism” is a “straw man” presented by MSNBC to distract from the real issue of, wait for it; economic inequality! Carlson argued that the rich commentators of MSNBC were defending their “class” against changes that would make economic improvements. This, about the same network that Fox claims is “in the pocket” of progressives, like Sanders and Warren who absolutely want changes to reduce inequality.
Let’s start with this: Tucker Carlson makes $6 million a year. His direct MSNBC competitor, Chris Hayes makes about the same. MSNBC’s star Rachel Maddow makes about a million more than that, while Fox’s Sean Hannity outdistances everyone at $36 million a year. Looks like everyone, on both networks, are in a class way above that of the “average worker.”
So the argument that somehow Carlson and Fox are representing the “common man” while MSNBC represents “rich elites” is a little hard to swallow.
Distractions
But it is a distraction, something that Fox, and the President they represent, desperately need. The Presidential tweets and statements that were racist and incited violence are too clear. The violence of El Paso is too real. It is hard not to draw a straight line from one to the other. The President, and Fox, needs to somehow blur that line, and make someone else at fault.
So MSNBC is a great candidate.
Carlson used one commentator of MSNBC as an example of their “craziness.” Frank Figiluzzi is a former FBI Assistant Director for Counter Intelligence. On MSNBC he has often expressed his concerns about the dismantling of the Countering Violent Extremism program in the government. That program had in-depth knowledge of the white supremacist movement.
Figiluzzi pointed out that white supremacist’s have a known symbolic “code” around the number 8. “88” to them stands for “HH” which are initials for the Nazi salute, “Heil Hitler.” The White House ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff because of the Dayton and El Paso shootings, then raised back on August 8th, or 8/8.
Figiluzzi didn’t say that the White House was intentionally signaling white supremacists. His point was that they blundered into an action that supremacists will take as a “dog whistle” of support. If the programs with that in-depth knowledge were still active, the White House would have known better.
But Carlson cherry-picked Figiluzzi’s comments, claiming that the former FBI agent was saying the White House was intentionally calling out to the supremacists. He used that to buttress his claim that MSNBC was inflaming America against the President.
On Both Sides
Carlson called on MSNBC to “calm down. His words:
This is not a white supremacist country, plotting the slaughter its own people. It’s a kind country, full of decent people of all races who, like all people everywhere, make bad decisions from time to time, but mean well and generally try their best. Going forward, give them the benefit of the doubt, even when you disagree. Maybe especially when you disagree. These are your fellow Americans. Cut them a break. They deserve it. And remember: The alternative is disaster.
Isn’t that sweet: Tucker says that everyone is well meaning. It’s just like the President:
“…there are good people, on both sides.”
Guess I’ll go back to Chris Hayes.
