NYT’s Ross Douthat: ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ Was Both ‘Farthest Right’ and ‘Farthest Left’ Show on Cable

AP Photo/Richard Drew

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat suggested in his column on Tuesday that Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show was both the “farthest right” and the “farthest left” show in all of cable news before its cancellation this week.

In his article titled “The Tucker Realignment,” which was published following news of Carlson’s firing from Fox News on Monday, Douthat claimed that Carlson wasn’t like other conservative personalities on the network “who surrendered to Trumpism reluctantly” at the behest of their audience and was instead “a Trumpist only insofar as Trump went where he himself was heading anyway — toward a rejection of everything the Western political establishment stood for.”

Douthat argued that Carlson’s opposition to the political establishment and major institutions resulted in his show Tucker Carlson Tonight not only being “the farthest right on cable news but also sometimes the farthest left.” He pointed to Carlson’s opposition to US conflicts in the Middle East, his decision to frequently host anti-war commentators like Glenn Greenwald, and his oftentimes left-leaning economic stances.

Douthat also suggested that while suspicion of institutions was previously a trait most prominent among left-wing figures like Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, and Oliver Stone, the realignment following President Donald Trump’s election in 2016 had resulted in it becoming more common among those on the right such as Carlson.

The New York Times columnist concluded that while, thanks to the network’s strong “boomer foundation,” Fox News would have no trouble replacing Carlson with someone who would do “fine” in the ratings, a replacement would likely not be able to embody the “alienated future” of conservatism like Carlson was able to.