Tucker Carlson’s Firing Reveals How Afraid the Media Is of Independent Journalists, by Jonathan Cook

It’s a lot easier to tell the truth when you’re not bought and paid for by a mainstream media outfit. Ultimately, isn’t credibility a journalist’s primary asset? From Jonathan Cook at unz.com:

The TV host paid the price because he tried the impossible: straddling the divide between corporate media and critical journalism

While the left is busy hating on Tucker Carlson, and not without reason, it is missing the bigger picture. Carlson was a genuine aberration in US corporate media. Which is why he is gone – sacked by media “titan” Rupert Murdoch.

Yes, over the years Carlson played on white fears, placing him firmly on the right. But he also gave over his massive corporate platform at Fox News to some of the most critical and thoughtful independent journalists and pundits around – from Glenn Greenwald and Aaron Mate to Jimmy Dore.

Carlson not only brought them into the living rooms of Main Street, but he undoubtedly helped them grow their audiences and influence.

In that way, he exposed ordinary Americans to critical perspectives, especially on US foreign policy, that they had no hope of hearing anywhere else – and most certainly not from so-called “liberal” corporate media outlets like CNN and MSNBC.

And he did so while constantly ridiculing the media’s craven collusion with those in power.

But all that is being ignored. Media analysis of Carlson’s departure has focused so far almost exclusively on his clashes with Fox News management, and a series of disrespectful tweets, that have come to light as a result of the recent Dominion court case, in which Murdoch was forced to settle with a massive payout.

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