They both blow it.

He’s an anti-vaxer.  He’s the face of white grievance! He was a rich kid; white privilege!! He’s insensitive!!!

Well, you can read it fall or yourself. Here’s the Washington Post’s “deep dive” into the popular Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.

Illinois Democratic Sen.Dick Durbin took to the Senate floor to nail Carlson for being against the Covid-19 vaccine here. 

Of course, the story got a rave review (here) from Tom Jones, senior media writer for Poynter, the reliably rubber stamp for all things liberal in the media.

All right on schedule.

Let’s take a look at the worst of the accusations that’s described in the story’s opening, where the most shocking stuff usually goes.

He didn’t cry.

Oh, dear.

It happened in 2003 in an historic African dungeon that was the holding pen for people heading for enslavement in America. Carlson was there with civil rights leaders who, prayed, sang “We shall overcome” and broke into tears.

One of the civil rights leaders, the Rev. Albert Sampson, then described “the tragedy of Carlson:

He did not cry. He did not have any intellectual response. He didn’t give any verbal response. It was a total detachment from the reality of the event.

Carlson’s supposedly sterile response to the great tragedy of slavery thus, according to Post reporter Michael Kranish, was

an early sign of sentiments that he had been expressing for years — and that would ultimately help transform him into the preeminent voice of angry White America. It is that role that Carlson, 52, now plays every weeknight from his prime-time perch on Fox News.

Actually, Kranish’s interpretation presages the loopy, emotional and irrational emergence of the woke culture. Characteristically, the wokesters believe they can read minds and judge someone’s worth not by the quality of his argument but by his emotional response. Crying included. It is a pitiful excuse for journalism.

I’m not afraid to “admit” that I’ve watch Carlson’s nightly hour-long show—enough to know that Kranish’s summation of Carlson’s positions is an exaggeration. Contrary to the assertion that Carlson is anti-vaccine, he, in fact, doesn’t oppose the vaccine or its efficacy. But he does support the right of Americans to not get it. There’s a vast difference that Kranish and Durbin fail to understand.

Then there’s the story’s declaration that, “But on many nights, it is Carlson’s White grievance that dominates the show.” Kranish poisons the discussion by labelling Carlson’s position as “White grievance.”

Carlson’s argument, as is so many conservative’s, is as clear and easily understood as the Rev. Martin Luther King’s dream pronounced at the 1963 March on Washington: “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

Carlson is challenging the far left’s assertion, as enunciated by progressives and Black Lives Matter, of a principle that defies King’s dream. That the color of your skin announces your beliefs. Your skin color drives your actions. Defines whom you are.

I’ll leave for readers to decide the conflicting story of Carlson trashing the reputation of his first grade teacher, the poisoning of his character by his “elite upbringing,” the consistency of his beliefs, his character flaws and other items.

But what I see and hear from Carlson are deep dives—if I can borrow that term—into legitimate public policy issues. Illegal immigration. Racism. Public health and Covid-19. Freedom of speech. Religious and other liberties. Crime. And more. 

The far left, as reflected so well by this story, too often accuses people who take one side—the conservative side—of being irrational, uncaring and deeply flawed. It deflects legitimate disagreement. It focuses on the messenger instead of the message. It relies on argument from authority instead of logic and facts.

Profiles of people who have emerged as visible leaders is legitimate journalism. Profiles intended to knife someone because of his policy positions is a weak and failed response. Not surprising, coming as it is from the Washington Post. 

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