The Left may have won its battle to terrorize big-name advertisers out of sponsoring Tucker Carlson’s show, but the Fox News host and his 4 million viewers are winning the war. Carlson is now the most watched cable news host on television, and it isn’t close.

Carlson’s detractors have chalked up his success to what they view as racist dog-whistling for a conservative base that craves hate. His fans view him as uniquely representative of a more nationalist, populist strain of conservatism. But the truth is actually much simpler. Carlson is a fine pundit but an even better journalist. His secret is that unlike so many others, he does more than just pluck his stories from Twitter trends. He does original reporting. Throw in the fact that he’s an intellectually honest conservative, both aligned with President Trump’s strain of the movement and willing to criticize him, and it’s an obvious formula for success.