If you surf through cable news channels at any hour of the day, on any day of the week, more likely than not, you’ll find coverage of impeachment.
It’s entirely understandable, seeing as this is largely what people want to read and watch right now. But Tucker Carlson is offering a breath of fresh air on his prime-time Fox News show.
The host has largely stayed away from covering the ins-and-outs of the impeachment developments. Although, of course, he’s covered the impeachment investigation to some extent, his focus is largely elsewhere. As the Washington Post put it, “While fellow Fox host Sean Hannity will be running the network’s anti-impeachment war room, Carlson will simply be talking about why viewers should care about something — anything — else.”
They frame this as if it’s some malicious pro-Trump strategy, but I think it’s viewers who truly benefit. It’s exhausting for everyday Americans to be inundated with endless, extremely specific coverage about hyper-partisan political drama.
Here’s how Carlson opened a recent show:
He continued: “Just kidding. That’s [CNN CEO] Jeff Zucker’s channel. On this show, we’re opting for actual news, things that matter.” In an interview with the Washington Post, Carlson said: “I think impeachment is not only dumb, it’s boring.” Clearly, he’s committed to backing up those words with action.
The host has a point about impeachment, too. At this point, everybody pretty much knows what happened. President Trump engaged in some shady behavior — whether it was a “quid pro quo” or not is semantic — toward Ukraine to get them to investigate his political opponents. Whether it constitutes an “abuse of power” or “impeachable offense” is entirely a matter of opinion, as impeachment is a political, not legal, process.
The ins and outs of this saga, with each new development and line of transcript testimony, is going to change approximately zero people’s minds. Those who think Trump is unfit to be command-in-chief and want him out will emphatically condemn his behavior, and the president’s supporters will explain it away. No amount of coverage will really do much to change this outcome.
Frankly, Carlson is entirely right that outside of Washington, people have bigger things to worry about, even if you might not agree with what he personally deems as important to cover.
California has literally been on fire due to out-of-control wildfires, thanks to government mismanagement. The national debt just hit $23 trillion. The Supreme Court is taking up extremely important cases. Last week’s off-year elections had dramatic results. All of this has been poorly covered, and so much more has been entirely ignored in the pursuit of obsessive, partisan impeachment coverage.
The USMCA trade deal currently languishing in Congress has drastic implications for the financial fate of American agriculture, trade, and the economy, for instance. But have you heard anything about it? Most people haven’t. But they have all probably read about Ambassador Gordon Sondland by now, and all the other obscure characters in the impeachment drama.
Carlson is right: No one cares what some random diplomat has to say, or about the latest partisan statement by some congressman from Team Blue or Team Red. More cable news hosts should follow his lead, and attempt to cover more things that actually matter, in addition to indulging in their fanatic coverage of impeachment.
