Near the end of the President’s just concluded prime time address to Americans, focusing on the new Administration’s response to the Covid-19 Pandemic, I peeked on my laptop to check to see if the Faux News Channel was even airing the official live telecast. To my slight surprise they the FOX eye was, indeed, pointed at the Presidential lectern. To my complete absence of surprise, a banner beneath the President proclaimed that Tucker Carlson was standing by to answer President Biden.
I have a note from my doctor excusing me from ever watching Tucker Carlson. He makes me sick. Really! But I thought I might be able to withstand just a few seconds of exposure, so I risked it. Tucker was really worked up, and not in a good way. He was furious that Joe Biden should even think that the federal government could have any say on how Americans chose to celebrate Independence day, especially given the almost nonexistent threat from a pandemic that isn’t really all that dangerous, at least not to people Tucker gives a shit about. ‘
So, while most Americans watched their President deliver a message of hope and achievement, FOX is paying people like Carlson to accuse the President of trying to cancel the Fourth of July, while ignoring the primary message signifying the need for universal vaccination in order for America to return to normal.
The only conclusion from this? FOX, and presumably other media in the right wing news vacuum bubble, want to kill their own viewers and readers by prolonging the pandemic. They want to prolong the pandemic’s unavoidable drains on the American economy.
This isn’t news or new to me, but watching even a few seconds of it live scares the bejeebus out of me. I just reminded my spouse that she should call her kin in rural Oklahoma to encourage them to get vaccinated, especially her 90+ yo, still lives in own home, mother. Will they trust us city folk more than the paid liar on their TV? I’m not sure I even want to know, but suspect I’ll learn, eventually.
The good news is that exposure to Tucker Carlson. in small enough doses, did not destroy my capacity for critical thinking. I’m still going through with my 2nd COVID vaccine dose later this month. I’m still following all CDC guidelines. I know that this can help prolong the demise of Tucker’s viewers who won’t do those things, who will get sick and die from following his advice, but I’m going to do it anyway, for my own sake. I hope and expect everyone here will do so as well.
/rant
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