News/Commentary

Russell Brand shreds! Tucker’s departure is ‘the beginning of the end for the mainstream media’

April 27, 2023 | | Print Article

Following former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s abrupt termination, left-of-center commentator Russell Brand predicted that it could just signal the beginning of the end for the legacy media if Carlson chooses to reboot himself independently.

His theory was well met by Twitter users.

“Tucker Carlson has left Fox News, and I see this as a great harbinger — the beginning of the end for the mainstream. A mainstream media that’s been reduced to packaging and selling your data. They do it more than even porn sites. Check those facts for yourself,” Brand began.

“A mainstream media that siphons us off into silos, turns us against one another, plays to the gallery, preaches to the converted, has got nothing original to say, and serves the government rather than the public they were set up to inform,” he added.

He was just getting started.

Listen to his full analysis below:

“The media is obsessed with itself. It’s in a sort of narcissistic spiral, reporting on its own perspectives, its own heroes, and its own villains. What is the mainstream media supposed to be for? Just for a moment, remind yourself that it’s actually about giving you information about important stuff like how the government are governing, about how corporations are behaving, the information that you need to live your life efficiently and effectively so you’re informed politically,” he continued.

“It doesn’t do that. You know it doesn’t do that. You know that the mainstream media is owned by certain corporate interests. You know that it gets all of its revenue from, like, the pharmaceutical industry. You know that they’re tied up with the military industrial complex. And you know that they support the state with only partisan distinctions between this party or that party defining their output. They do not serve in your awakening. They do not serve your empowerment.”

Turning to Carlson in particular, it’s at this point that Brand predicted that if he goes independent, it will signal the beginning of the end for the legacy media.

“Where Tucker Carlson goes next will inform us a great deal about our political landscape. If he joins an independent news organization, that’s going to be fascinating. It will demonstrate where the power is moving,” he said.

“And it will show us why authoritarian centralized systems of power are doubling down on trying to censor control, surveil, prohibit, smear, destroy any alternative voices, because they recognize that now we can all communicate instantaneously and challenge any narratives that they put forward. That’s why they’ve become ultra propagandists,” he added.

His theory was very well met by Twitter users:

As of Thursday morning, it was still unclear what route Carlson intended to pursue. What’s known is that he’d posted a short video of his own late Wednesday.

In the video, he didn’t really announce anything. But he did start a discussion — one that he presumably intends to keep going.

“Good evening. It’s Tucker Carlson. One of the first things you realize when you step outside the noise for a few days is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country. Kind and decent people. People who really care about what’s true. And a bunch of hilarious people also,” he began.

“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember that we had them. Trust me as someone who’s participated,” he added.

Listen:

Continuing his video, Carlson then took an ax to the media, just like Brand.

“The undeniably big topics — the ones that will define our future — get virtually no discussion at all: war civil liberties, emerging science, demographic changes, corporate power, natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time. Debates like that are not permitted in American media,” he said.

“Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them, and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it. Suddenly, the United States looks very much like a one-party state. That’s a depressing realization, but it’s not permanent. Our current orthodoxies won’t last. They’re braindead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anyone’s life is improved by them,” he added.

Concluding his impromptu video, Carlson reminded his viewers that the good guys always eventually win.

“This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue, and so it won’t. The people in charge know this. That’s why they’re hysterical and aggressive. They’re afraid. They’ve given up persuasion. They’re resorting to force. But it won’t work. When honest people say what’s true calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful,” he said.

“At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe: True things prevail. Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places, left but there are some, and that’s enough as long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
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