Tucker Carlson and Donald Trump, Source: Los Angeles Times

The “traditional” family that wasn’t:

Tucker Carlson was born in 1969 in the progressive city of San Francisco, California. Son of a distinguished news anchor and later ambassador to the United States, Tucker enjoyed a privileged and happy childhood. However, at the age of 6, his life took an unexpected turn when his mother left him to move to the cosmopolitan city of Paris. This departure left an indelible mark on young Tucker. At 14, he was sent to a boarding school on the other side of the country, where he was educated while his father focused on his diplomatic responsibilities. 

From his high school days, Tucker Carlson already showed a fervent interest in conservative ideas, actively participating in debate clubs where he distinguished himself as a formidable speaker and skilled communicator, capable of capturing the attention of audiences—a skill he would later put into practice on the other side of the  screen. 

This interest led him to be accepted at Trinity College in Connecticut, where he staged one of his most notorious acts of rebellion. During a CIA visit to the campus to recruit students, a group of left-wing students initiated a protest. In this tense atmosphere, Tucker, maintaining his now-typical countercultural style in the new rights of our time, walked out of the event, accusing his peers of “being a bunch of greasy sons of bitches.”

After graduating in 1992, Tucker Carlson applied for a position at the CIA, the organization he had previously supported. However, he was not accepted by the agency. In light of this rejection, his father suggested he consider a career in journalism, commenting that "they accept anyone!"

A Dream Media Career:

Tucker Carlson began his career in the editorial world as a member of the Policy Review team, progressively moving up in the journalistic field. He eventually became the youngest anchor in CNN’s history, ironically, a network perceived as leaner to the left. Carlson remained there until 2005, when he had a notoriously tense exchange on his own show with comedian Jon Stewart. During this appearance, Stewart harshly criticized the show’s approach, accusing Carlson of undermining American public discourse by saying: “You have a responsibility to public discourse, and you are failing miserably.” Following this incident, Carlson was fired from CNN.

After the incident at CNN, Tucker Carlson worked at various media outlets, including MSNBC, another left-leaning network, and in the program “Dancing with the Stars”, the American version of Bailando por un sueño. Eventually, after several low-rated shows, Tucker landed at Fox News, the media outlet that propelled him to success.

Tucker Carlson on the show “Dancing with the Stars” Source: Entertainment.

The show "Tucker Carlson Tonight" launched in 2016, a week after Donald Trump was elected president. Airing in prime time on Fox News, the show allowed Tucker Carlson to tackle controversial topics such as racial diversity, immigration, and identity crisis in the United States, topics that resonated significantly during its run.

Controversies were a constant on "Tucker Carlson Tonight," particularly due to the invitations to controversial figures like David Duke, a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, and Richard Spencer, a known white supremacist. However, Tucker Carlson, a Trinity College alumnus, proved to be an expert at managing debates and navigating public controversies with skill.

One of the fake news that marked this television cycle was when Carlson claimed that the South African government was massively expropriating land from white farmers. This program caused such an uproar that then-President Donald Trump reacted on Twitter, informing that his government was investigating these alleged violations of property rights by the South African government.

After the Capitol riot in 2021, Dominion Voting Systems, the company responsible for the voting machines in the elections where Joe Biden emerged victorious, sued Tucker Carlson. The lawsuit alleged that statements made on his show after the 2020 elections were defamatory. According to case documents, internal messages between Carlson and his team indicated that they were aware of the falsehood of the claims that Dominion machines had been used to manipulate election results in favor of Biden. Thus, Fox News fired its star to prevent the escalation of the lawsuit.

The Cultural Battle:

Since April 2023, Carlson started his YouTube channel to battle against media that, in his view, were clearly fraudulent companies serving political power. Through his YouTube channel, he skyrocketed to global fame when he became the first Western journalist in many years to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, amidst the conflict with Ukraine and facing criticism from all his colleagues in the media.

Tucker Carlson has interviewed figures such as Nayib Bukele and Argentine President Javier Milei, becoming a connecting point for what some consider the new international wave of the far-right. His views, always controversial and in line with his provocative style, have challenged the narrative of "Western liberalism." His viewpoints range from a nationalism that denounces a supposed "white genocide" to a harsh critique of the United States and its role as a global police.

This perspective has led him to be a fierce critic of the war in Ukraine, arguing that the millions of dollars allocated to support the Ukrainian army against Russia are a waste while Americans face an economic crisis with wages that do not keep up with inflation experienced during the Biden administration. Carlson often describes the U.S. and NATO support for Ukraine as a scam, backed by a “propaganda campaign designed to convince Americans to take sides in a conflict that, according to him, strictly speaking, has nothing to do with them.”

This latest critique from Tucker Carlson regarding the role of the United States as a global police ironically echoes historical criticisms against American imperialism, traditionally held by the international left. 

The new ideological wave that Tucker Carlson helps to lead, characterized by its criticism of the media, science, universities, and liberalism, is gaining momentum not only in the United States but also in various parts of the developed world. What is concerning about this situation in what has traditionally been known as the world’s superpower is the apparent willingness to move towards a direction of public policies that favor ignorance, unscientific alternative health, and the management of a democracy where citizens are misinformed or, at best, informed exclusively by the ideology they profess.

Just as Tucker Carlson has used his unique perspective to create content that resonates globally, the courses offered by Fingurú on content creation share how anyone can leverage their own experiences and viewpoints to influence and connect with an audience.

A Broken Militant Journalist:

Tucker Carlson is an individual whose childhood was marked by his mother’s departure at the age of 6, an event that sometimes deeply moves him during interviews, especially when discussing traditional family, a model he did not have but promotes as the ideal choice. Throughout his career, Carlson has been fired from various media outlets where he worked, and today he criticizes those same media, claiming they are mere instruments of political power, despite having spent much of his professional life in them.

He harshly criticizes intelligence agencies, accusing them of being persecutory and operating in favor of Democrats and the political establishment. These statements are ironic considering that in his early professional days, he aspired to be part of these agencies.

This frustration that Tucker Carlson expresses in the face of persistent rejection resonates deeply with a part of American society that also feels marginalized by traditional politics. This has made Carlson a figure with whom many Americans can empathize. His successful dispute for common sense has made him a reference point internationally. This frustration has birthed in the United States a new first-world version of something that in Argentina we know very well, which is the figure of the 'militant journalist.'