Monday night on the Fox News Channel, FNC host Tucker Carlson and The Hill’s Joe Concha hammered the liberal media for their criticism-free coverage of the anti-gun, controversial Parkland students, the March for Our Lives, and their obsessive coverage of Stormy Daniels having little effect on President Trump’s poll numbers.
Carlson started his eponymous show with a monologue about the March that lambasted “the media” for having “dutifully amplified” the pleas to ban guns by “form[ing] a protective ring around the activists” from fact-checking or opposing viewpoints solely because of their age and awful circumstances.
“As Politico reporter Ben White put it: ‘The sickening efforts to slime, undermine, defame and dehumanize these young people betrays an enormous amount of fear.’ In other words, shut up, America, don’t ask questions, the kids know what they are doing. But do they know what they’re doing,” Carlson added before citing a Vox story proposing mass gun confiscation like in Australia.
By essentially deferring to “letting children write news stories,” Carlson opined that the coverage has “tend[ed] to be inaccurate and dishonest” and “reinforce the fantasy that complex problems have simple solutions because that’s what most children believe.”
Carlson later led into Concha by observing that “media coverage of the weekend’s anti-gun marches...was overwhelming, it was deeply one-sided” and that believing in the Second Amendment made you “evil.”
The Hill writer observed that liberal media coverage “slid” in its duty to challenge the students “because it is somewhat normal if you’ve listen to the rhetoric on college campuses over the last couple of years” and not shocking that speakers wouldn’t focus on how a school resource officer confronted a Maryland school gunman on March 20.
“So, that’s — that’s obviously, a solution that wasn’t allowed to be presented because, in the minds of many of the people that were organizing this event, there is only one solution. That’s an assault weapons ban,” Concha correctly noted.
Concha also told Carlson that “I didn’t really see” the students slamming the Broward County Sheriff’s office but “I saw a lot of David Hogg.” As for Hogg, Concha exposed his emphasis that there can’t be any division when it comes to stopping school violence, but his conduct has shown quite the opposite by, among other things, hanging up on the White House.
“So, I’d like to see journalists more when he is — he wants to be treated as an adult and he has every right to his opinion, you need to challenge some of the things that he’s saying,” he continued.
Thankfully, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota did on Monday morning’s New Day after having admitted two days earlier to mischaracterizing Republican Senator Marco Rubio (Fla.) as having done nothing in response to the Parkland shooting. Hours later, Brian Stelter admitted that he’s refused to fact-check Hogg when he spread falsehoods on his Reliable Sources program.
As for Stormy Daniels, Concha astutely compared the liberal media’s obsession with the porn star to “2014 and the Malaysian jet that went missing” before citing the President’s rising approval ratings.
“So, [if] this is so damaging and it’s such an important story, it appears to be handing the same kind of boomerang effect that perhaps happened with President Clinton,” Concha added.
To see the relevant transcript from FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight on March 26, click “expand.”
FNC’s Tucker Carlson Tonight
March 26, 2018
8:00 p.m. Eastern
TUCKER CARLSON: If there is one lesson of this weekend’s March for our Lives, it’s that ending violence in America is easy. So easy that even children know how to do it. All that stands between the broken, chaotic country we live and the peaceful utopia of the future is a very small group of very evil people, mostly Republicans. As Parkland student David Hogg noted the other day, there are “sick effers” out there who want to sell more guns, murder more children and, honestly, just get reelected. Well, on the stage on Saturday, his classmate Alex Wind agreed with this. “If you take money from the NRA,” Wind told the crowd, “you have chosen death.” So, it’s all pretty straightforward. If the NRA wasn’t so blindly committed to killing children, if they didn’t enjoy murder for its own sake, we wouldn’t have school shootings in the first place. It’s that simple. Speakers of the march told us that repeatedly and the media dutifully amplified that message and formed a protective ring around the activists. As Politico reporter Ben White put it, “The sickening efforts to slime, undermine, defame and dehumanize these young people betrays an enormous amount of fear.” In other words, shut up, America, don’t ask questions, the kids know what they are doing.
But do they know what they’re doing? This weekend, Vox.com ran a story with this title: “I’ve covered gun violence for years. The solutions aren’t a big mystery.” The piece was written by someone called German Lopez whom Vox.com identified as “a senior reporter.” Lopez graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Cincinnati in 2012. He is still in his 20s. “I’ve covered gun violence for years” may be an over-statement. Nevertheless, Lopez approached this subject with all the self-confidence of an eminent research scientist wading in data. “What America likely needs," Lopez concluded, “is something more like Australia’s mandatory buyback program, essentially a gun confiscation scheme, paired with a serious ban on specific firearms, potentially including all semi-automatic weapons.” All semi-automatic weapons? Hmm. There are more than 100 million of those in the United States right now and the overwhelming majority of them are sitting in the bedroom closets of law-abiding Americans who’ve done nothing wrong and don’t have plans to do anything wrong. So, how exactly would we confiscate all those guns? Somebody would have to go door to door to take them by force, arresting anyone who resists. In the name of ending gun violence, people would be shot to death. There’s no question about that. So, who exactly is going to do it? Local police? The FBI? Delta Force? German Lopez of Vox did not volunteer for that job himself. Instead, he blamed the NRA for blocking the whole idea. “The Supreme Court and US lawmakers — backed by the powerful gun lobby, particularly the NRA — widely agree that the Second Amendment does put barriers on how far restrictions can go.”
Wait, we’ve got news here. The Supreme Court, according to Vox, is also in the pocket of the NRA. Is there evidence of that? Which justices are taking gun money exactly? Or is Vox just throwing out that claim because all decent people who live in big cities already know the NRA is evil, so why get hung up on details? This is the problem with letting children write news stories. The articles tend to be dumb and, intentionally or not, they tend to be inaccurate and dishonest. Worst of all, they tend to reinforce the fantasy that complex problems have simple solutions because that’s what most children believe. In real life, nothing is simple. We don’t really know why the incidence of school shootings has risen even as the proportion of households with firearms has dropped. We ought to do our best to find out. The self-righteous kids screaming at you on television over the weekend aren’t helping at all.
(....)
CARLSON: Well, media coverage of the weekend’s anti-gun marches was a lot like what you just saw. It was overwhelming, it was deeply one-sided. You think the Second Amendment still applies to Americans? Well, then you’re, obviously, evil. That was the message. Watch.
[NEWS CLIPS]
CARLSON: Joe Concha writes about the media for The Hill. He watches a lot of television as a result of his job. He joins us tonight. So, Joe, there are people on the stage over the weekend who said, and we repeated some of what they said, if you disagree with me on gun control policy, you’re on the side of killing children. You’re for — you’re in effect sympathetic to murderers. That’s a pretty extreme thing to say. Did anyone covering this point that out or did it just slide like that was normal?
JOE CONCHA: Oh, it slid because it is somewhat normal if you’ve listen to the rhetoric on college campuses over the last couple of years. You’re either with us or against us or we’re going to shout you down or even not allow you to speak if you differ from our point of view. I didn’t hear a lot of talk about Grand Mills High School in Maryland where an officer — or at least a resource officer took out the shooter before there could be any further loss of life. One girl, unfortunately, did pass away last week. So, that’s — that’s obviously, a solution that wasn’t allowed to be presented because, in the minds of many of the people that were organizing this event, there is only one solution. That’s an assault weapons ban and, you know, you could agree or disagree with that, but you’ve got to allow other ideas to be presented to such a comprehensive problem. We’ve had 25, 26 mass school shootings at elementary schools — fatal ones — or high schools since Columbine in 1999. So, let’s hear some other ideas or let’s hear about also the failures of law enforcement and if our police officers — they weren’t in Broward County — ready to engage when these sort of things happen.
CARLSON: Were the — were the four armed deputies standing outside of the high school in Parkland and who allowed this massacre to happen, were they mentioned at all? Did you hear anybody make reference to them?
CONCHA: I — I didn’t really see that. I saw a lot of David Hogg who, when he first came on to the scene, Tucker, and I saw him on my television, I tweeted out how impressed I was in terms of how articulate and intelligent and composed he was. I said that’s going to be a big star in this business and since then, he’s — he’s gone off bit of the rails and no journalists have actually challenged him. Let me give you can example. He told this to Fox News at the rally over the weekend: “We want this be to a community discussion. We can’t have debates between Republicans and Democrats. We need to have a discussion as Americans.” Okay, that’s fair enough, but just a couple of weeks ago, he was on Bill Maher’s show, bragging that he hung up on the White House and he said: “Look, we don’t need to listen to President Trump.” The White House had called to invite him to ironically a listening session. “We don’t need to listen to President Trump. President Trump needs to listen to the screams of the children and the screams of this nation, which is why, you know, he held a listening session at the White House.” Okay, so you’re not going to attend a listening session, but you are telling us that we have to listen to each other. So, I’d like to see journalists more when he is — he wants to be treated as an adult and he has every right to his opinion, you need to challenge some of the things that he’s saying or else it’s just going to be — go ahead.
CARLSON: No, you can’t do that. No, you can’t because as Ben White at Politico reminded us, that would be dehumanizing the children. So, you have to sit back obediently and pretend that they are wise. So, the anti-gun coverage moved pretty briskly into the coverage of Stormy Daniels, the porn actress. This is now dominating cable news for how long would you say and to what end?
CONCHA: Well, it reminds us a lot of 2014 and the Malaysian jet that went missing. It seems to be the only story that’s out there, but I’m telling you, this doesn’t move the needle one bit, Tucker, because I looked at the RCP average for President Trump’s approval ratings and now it’s creeped up to 42 percent. Fox News had a poll out. He’s at 45. CNN has him at its highest in 11 months, 42. So, this is so damaging and it’s such an important story, it appears to be handing the same kind of boomerang effect that perhaps happened with President Clinton where people were saying, you know what? Presidents have had consensual relationships, affairs going back to Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Bush 41, Clinton. They’ve either been accused of having affairs or they actually had them and with Donald Trump, people know what they got. They got a thrice- married guy, New York City, who was in the tabloids on a regular basis. New York Post, Daily News. I grew up here. Trust me, I read about him and there’s nothing to see here —
CARLSON: So, let me just ask you since —
CONCHA: — as far as Trump supporters are concerned.
CARLSON: — you cover TV — yeah, I don’t think they’re too surprised. You cover TV. You know the people who work in our business. Do you think they’re in a good place to lecture the rest of the country about personal moral standards? Do you think they’re the people to be giving that lecture? Just kind of throwing that out there.
CONCHA: Based on what I’ve seen in this business, it’s — we’re probably some of the last people, with some exceptions, of course, to be talking about that, but one more point and I know you’ve got to go. Anderson Cooper conducted this interview and I thought he did a pretty good job, but the optics going into it, and I asked your producers to grab this photo, it was of him and of Stormy Daniels and of her lawyer and they’re all arm in arm and this was taken either right before or after the interview and I think if you’re a Trump supporter, you saw that and you said, boy, I don’t remember Mike Wallace or Bob Simon ever posing with the person that I’m about to interview, arm in arm, along with the lawyer to the side. So, if I was Anderson, it wasn’t his photo, I would have asked out of that situation.
CARLSON: Hilarious. Joe, thank you. Good to see you.
CONCHA: Oh, sure. No problem. See you soon.
