Live from Music Row, Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Mark Pulliam, a retired attorney and Misrule of Law blogger, to the newsmaker line to comment on Fox News firing Tucker Carlson.
Leahy: Right now, we are delighted to welcome once again to our newsmaker line, our very good friend, a retired attorney who blogs at Misrule of Law, Mr. Mark Pullium from Blount County. Good morning, Mark.
Pulliam: Good morning, Michael.
Leahy: Mark, we brought you in to talk about the craziness in public libraries, but we’ll save that for our 6:15 segment. But right now, since last, you and I spoke, weirdness in the cable news. They fired Tucker Carlson yesterday morning.
This happened fewer than 24 hours ago. He was negotiating an extension of his contract from 2025 to 2029. They called him up and said you’re gone, buddy. And 10 minutes later, they announced it. Your thoughts on that, Mark Pulliam?
Pulliam: I’m not the only conservative in America who watched Fox News primarily because of Tucker Carlson, and when I heard this, I was shocked, as I’m sure many people were, and somewhat distraught about how a news platform that pretends or claims to be the sort of the conservative voice could fire its most prominent and its most popular and most insightful host.
I’m sure they had their reasons, and over the course of time, we will learn what some of this backroom thinking was. But it is shocking, but the consolation that all of Tucker’s fans have is that he will emerge on another platform and can resume the truth-telling that has made him such a success in his previous gig.
Leahy: As you look at this Mark, as somebody very much engaged in the conservative movement, how will this alter your own personal viewing patterns?
Pulliam: I’m not going to be watching Fox Nation anymore, and like I said, we would tune in, catch a little bit of Jesse Water sometimes and watch a little bit of Sean Hannity. Basically, what drew us to Fox News was Tucker. I don’t have much of an appetite for a lot of the pablum that they offer. Tucker was insightful and watching him was you would learn things.
Leahy: You would learn things. Exactly. It’s bizarre. If you’re Tucker right now, his expectation is he would be with Fox until 2029 at least. And then he gets a phone call, and 10 minutes later he is gone. Can you imagine? What do you think Tucker’s doing right now?
Pulliam: I don’t think he’s as wedded to this lifestyle. He didn’t live in New York or D.C. I was reading today that he broadcasted shows from either Maine or Florida, where he lived. He’s not a swamp creature.
And I don’t think his ego was defined by having a high-profile position at Fox News. I think he was an outsider, and he used to show to shine a flashlight on what was going on. And boy, that flashlight is more needed now than ever because things just continue to get darker, darker, and darker, and weirder, weirder, and weirder on the national stage.
I’m a free-thinking person, but sometimes you’d listen to Tucker to try to understand these baffling things that are going on and try to make sense of it. And in many cases, he succeeded in that in a way that very few journals of opinion, very few magazines could. He really was one of the leading public intellectuals in America.
Leahy: Absolutely.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Mark Pulliam” by American Institute for Economic Research. Background Photo “Tucker Carlson” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0.
