Q&A: What Tucker Carlson’s path reveals about where journalism is headed
New Yorker staff writer Jason Zengerle, author of a biography on the former Fox News star, breaks down why Carlson may run for president
Tucker Carlson’s career is “a good cautionary tale,” says The New Yorker’s Jason Zengerle, author of “Hated By All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind,” a riveting, sharp-eyed biography of the political pundit’s rise from acclaimed magazine writer to cable news mainstay to leading MAGA shriek.
His path also represents the crumbling of journalism and the growing, troubling influence of a man who increasingly lives in an echo chamber.
Related Knowledge Center: Inside the newsroom
As newsrooms struggle with rickety business models and precarious finances — as well as new technologies — they are deploying an array of editorial responses.
The Times and its critics | Washington Post mortem
Related Knowledge Center: State of the business model
The traditional journalism business model has long since collapsed, and news organizations have shrunk or disappeared entirely. While a number of promising experiments are under way, the public has not shown a willingness to buy what news organizations are selling.
Related Knowledge Center: Democracy and politics
News organizations are scrambling to find a coverage approach that adequately informs the American public about the country’s slide from democracy to authoritarian rule.
Related Knowledge Center: Information integrity
In an increasingly fractured media landscape, truth has been a casualty in the public discussion. Coverage has been warped by the business needs of struggling news organizations, and a significant segment of the public relies on bad-faith outlets that are little more than propagandists. While fact-checking has become routine, some organizations are exploring other ways to combat the trends. And misinformation spewed by AI-driven chatbots has become more of a feature than simply a bug.
Fact-checking and its detractors