Tea at Trianon: Fox Commits Suicide

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Fox Commits Suicide

From Front Page Mag:

Fox News intensified its spiral into irrelevance on Monday when it fired Tucker Carlson, the top-rated host on network television and a key figure of the resistance against the Leftist political and media establishment. On Wednesday, Carlson released a video explaining what happened. Without naming Fox, he explained what could possibly lead what is supposed to be a profit-making enterprise to cut off its chief source of profits.

Carlson began on an encouraging note: “One of the first things you realize when you step outside the noise for a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country. Kind and decent people—people who really care about what’s true. And a bunch of hilarious people, also. A lot of those. It’s gotta be the majority of the population, even now. So that’s heartening.” Carlson didn’t say it directly, but this seemed to suggest that there are a lot of people out there who don’t buy the Left’s increasingly nonsensical view of the world, and refuse to be intimidated into silence. That would be heartening indeed.

That said, Carlson noted that the really important things that are happening in the U.S. today are going virtually unnoticed and undiscussed amid a general fascination with minutiae and trivia: “The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who has participated. And then at the same time, and this is the amazing thing, the undeniably big topics, the ones that will define our future, get virtually no discussion at all. War. Civil liberties. Emerging science. Demographic change. Corporate power. Natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time. Debates like that are not permitted in American media.”

Indeed they aren’t, and yet the country is being transformed before our eyes, with most people still not realizing exactly what is happening. Carlson suggested that this was by design: “Both political parties, and their donors, have reached consensus on what benefits them, and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly, the United States looks very much like a one-party state. That’s a depressing realization, but it’s not permanent. Our current orthodoxies won’t last. They’re brain dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone’s life is improved by them. This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue. And so it won’t.”

Carlson still hadn’t mentioned Fox or his firing, but this was coming close. “Suddenly, the United States looks very much like a one-party state” carried the implication that Fox was falling into line with the rest of the establishment media, and silencing voices that spoke about the deeper and more important issues the nation faces today. As Carlson continued, this implication became stronger: “The people in charge know this; that’s why they’re hysterical and aggressive. They’re afraid. They’ve given up persuasion. They’re resorting to force. But it won’t work. When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars, who have been trying to silence them, shrink and they become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe. True things prevail. Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left, but there are some. And that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon.”

Fox has indeed begun to shrink and become weaker. Fox lost $800 million in market value after firing Carlson. If it continues to drift into becoming a pale copy of CNN or MSNBC, it will continue to hemorrhage viewers. Carlson, meanwhile, is being inundated with offers and will certainly make good on his promise to “see you soon.” While his firing at Fox was a setback for patriots and a victory for the Left, as he himself emphasized in his statement, the game isn’t over. The firing itself appears to have backfired. Carlson’s firing has awakened numerous people who were previously unaware of how much the media endeavors to control what we see and hear, so that we only think that thoughts that they consider permissible. (Read more.)

From Washington Examiner:

Former television host Tucker Carlson received higher views on his Twitter video Wednesday than the prime-time slot on Fox News. The conservative network announced Carlson's departure Monday after nearly six years as its second-most popular program. Carlson responded to the news in a video that went on to receive 16.5 million views, with 1.8 million viewing it within the hour it was posted, about an hour before his former program began, in a tweet viewed by 53.5 million. Meanwhile, Fox News saw just over 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday night with Brian Kilmeade in Carlson's place. The night before, viewership dropped by 21% since Carlson drew in 3.3 million viewers over the previous eight Mondays, according to cable news ratings. (Read more.)