There’s No Good Reason to Harass Tucker Carlson’s Family
By Reihan Salam
November 8, 2018 2:35 PM
Perhaps it’s the soft bigotry of low expectations, but it has been heartening to see a range of media figures denouncing the harassment of Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s family at their home by a group of self-described “anti-fascists,†which NRO’s indefatigable Jack Crowe covered last night.
Carlson is one of the most widely known opinion journalists in America, and he’s not one to shy away from controversial subjects. What I’ve found, though, is that he is deeply interested in opposing views. He routinely hosts guests with whom he vehemently disagrees. Critics note that he can be hard on said guests. Yet it is also the case that his aggressive interviewing technique often turns out rather well for the guests with whom he’s parrying — it is not at all uncommon for his left-liberal or libertarian guests to share on social media clips of their exchanges with Carlson, as if to celebrate the fact that they had entered the lion’s den and, perhaps, scored a point or two in the process. One old friend of mine, an experienced liberal journalist and a staunch believer in increasing immigration levels, had just such an experience a year ago. My friend came on Carlson’s show swinging, and he was quite satisfied with how it all turned out. Is this because Carlson somehow made a miscalculation? Not at all. He recognizes that when you’re having a spirited exchange, you’re not always going to come out on top, and that’s okay. That is the high-wire act that can make short-form televised debate so compelling.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/theres-no-good-reason-to-harass-tucker-carlsons-family/
