The latest blow up involving conservative pundit Tucker Carlson shows why the conservative media can often times seems so dysfunctional.
Last week we had a nice edition to the annals of “there is a lot of sexism in the media world” or maybe just “men behaving badly” when emails surfaced on Buzzfeed showing a pretty offensive media exchange between long time conservative pundit Tucker Carlson, Tucker Carlson’s brother Buckley Carlson, and one of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s spokespeople named Amy Spitalnick. Buzzfeed summed up what the dispute was over pretty well:
Spitalnick had reached out to Daily Caller writer Peter Fricke to ask for a correction on a story about de Blasio that claimed the mayor had said that the president’s $80 billion transportation proposal was not enough. After a back and forth between Spitalnick, Fricke and editor Christopher Bedford, Bedford told Spitalnick that if she “annoyed” him “with another whiny email before then, I’m muting this thread, thanks,” prompting Spitalnick to contact Tucker Carlson directly.
Tucker then responded like so:
Dear Amy,
Thanks for your email. You believe our story was inaccurate and have demanded a correction. Totally fair. We are going over the transcript now.
What Bedford complained about was your tone, which, I have to agree, was whiny and annoying, and I say that in the spirit of helpful correction rather than as a criticism. Outside of New York City, adults generally write polite, cheerful emails to one another, even when asking for corrections. Something to keep in mind the next time you communicate with people who don’t live on your island.
Best,
Tucker Carlson
So that’s kind of rude, but not horrible. But then Buckley decided to class things up by most likely accidentally hitting the “reply all button” and sharing these thoughts:
Great response. Whiny little self-righteous bitch. “Appalling?”
And with such an ironic name, too…Spitalnick? Ironic because you just know she has extreme dick-fright; no chance has this girl ever had a pearl necklace. Spoogeneck? I don’t think so. More like LabiaFace.
So that profoundly sexist, offensive, and completely unprofessional, but it makes me want to ask, why are the Carlson brothers acting like this?
On one level it could just be that they are not very nice people, but I think it’s helpful to think about this in terms of incentives. The unfortunate reality is that one way to get ahead in the world of political media is to just be a giant jerk and do things like peddle conspiracy theories and just say offensive things in interviews as a way to try build your own personal brand. It’s the same principle that applies to the old joke in TV news that “if it’s bleedin’, it’s leadin’.” In other words just throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and see what sticks.
A similar thing happened back in 2013 when some conservative media types decided that making really offensive anti-Obamacare advertisements was a good strategy. Those ads made no sense in terms of actually convincing people of anything, but as Jonathan Bernstein noted at the time they made a lot of sense in terms of making money and advancing careers:
But for the people putting together the ads, unless they are incredibly stupid and naive, it’s almost certainly about raising money from those donors. And, perhaps, making a name for themselves (or a bigger name—I’m not looking to see who is responsible) within the conservative movement.
Liberals can of course also be sexist and engage in media irresponsibility too, but this whole sad episode illustrates one of the most frustrating things about the internal dynamics of the conservative oriented media: the totally inability of that social movement to figure out a way to silence offensive and ridiculous voices inside it. Nobody is helped by the Carlson brothers rampant sexism or media sensationalism, that is to say other than the Carlson brothers themselves who get the reap the rewards of all the web traffic these sorts of controversies brew up. Meanwhile the whole conservative political movement is stuck with deeply dysfunctional people who contribute nothing to our national conversation and crowd out the conservative writers and thinkers who actually might have something interesting to say. Or to put it another way, if you can’t vote someone off your media island for behaving as Buckley did, can you remove anyone?
It’s a self-created trap for conservatives that they seem unable to escape.
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