I have recently become a fan of Tucker Carlson. His interviews on Fox News are contentious and often hilarious. Carlson was a print journalist, but got into TV as co-host of CNN's "The Spin Room" in 2000, then on "Crossfire." During his tenure at CNN, he wrote Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, which is as funny and insightful as Carlson himself.
Carlson's politics are on the right, and his positions on TV has consistently been so. If you've ever seen him do an interview, that much is clear. But Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites does not spend much time on issues. His concern is experiences and personalities. The business itself is weird. He says "I became a talk show host in about twelve hours." Of course, as he learned, it takes much, much less than that to stop being a talk show host!
Weirder than the business itself is the people. With politicians, he learned that sanity is often only skin deep. With TV networks, he learned that ratings are the only barometer of a show's success. With show guests, he learned that there are plenty of people willing to drop everything to be a guest on a TV interview show, but that the quality of the guests is sometimes in inverse proportion to their availability.
Whatever your political inclinations, you will enjoy Carlson's insights and insider stories. He's had a front row seat and a backstage pass to political events and personalities of the last couple of decades. As much as I continue to enjoy his segments on Fox News, I hope he has another book or two up his sleeve.
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