Even for die-hard Fox supporters, Trump might have finally crossed the line

Did Tucker Carlson just have a Walter Cronkite moment?

For those of you too young to remember, Walter Cronkite was once the most trusted name in news. Back when there was still such a thing as news; before 24/7 cable networks, social media and infotainment.

From 1962 to 1981, Cronkite hosted the CBS Evening News, covering everything from the Kennedy assassination through the Iran hostage crisis.

He anchored the very first 30-minute nightly news program starting in 1963, when somebody had the crazy idea that there might be an audience for more than 15 minutes of news a day.

He reported on Vietnam, the Apollo moon landings, Watergate and all those other things you’ve hopefully been taught in your high school history class.

Cronkite was trusted because he came on the air for 30 minutes every day and presented facts to the American people — something the American people aren’t used to getting these days. Because today we get our “facts” from the news channel we prefer to get them from, which will tell us the facts we want to hear, regardless of whether there’s any truth to them.

Then, in 1968, Cronkite had his own Cronkite moment – one of the few times he stepped out of his news anchor role to offer an editorial comment — and, in a special report on the Vietnam war, questioned whether it was winnable. (Spoiler alert: It wasn’t.)

Legend has it that then-President Lyndon Baines Johnson lamented, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

There is some debate about whether Johnson actually said that, or believed that. If we had Twitter back then, maybe he would have gone online and posted a nasty response to Cronkite and called him a loser and a Pinko. On the other hand, even if we had Twitter, he might have had too much self-dignity to debase the presidency that way. We’ll never know.

In any event, it was a turning point for the country, for the country’s attitude toward the Vietnam war and for President Lyndon Johnson, who a few short weeks later chose not to run for reelection.

So, why am I bringing Tucker Carlson into this?

Carlson, like so many others on Fox News – Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro – have spent the last three years carrying water for Donald Trump; sometimes tying themselves in knots to keep up with his sudden changes of policy and positions and rationalizing them the best they can.

Even so, Donald Trump has not always felt sufficiently loved, if such a thing is even possible.

His Twitter feed will always tell you when someone at Fox News has disappointed him. Or when the entire network lets him down by doing something incredibly treasonous like allowing a Democrat to be interviewed on the air,

Recently, he expressed his outrage on Twitter that Fox News was not doing enough to get him reelected.

OK, here’s a news flash for Donald Trump. It is not the media’s job to get you reelected. Or even to run you out of office, as much as some would like to do.

That would be the job of a propaganda channel, of the kind you might find in Russia or North Korea, but not in a free Democratic Republic where there’s such a thing as a free press.

Trump went as far in his Twitter outrage to suggest he might have to find a new outlet to replace Fox News.

Well, you might try Pravda. I’m sure Vlad would let you make use of it.

But anyway, I want to get back to Tucker Carlson (which is not a sentence I ever expected to have to write).

Carlson on Monday actually criticized President Trump for his handling of the demonstrations that have swept the country over the past week in the wake of the death at the hands of police officers of George Floyd.

Carlson noted Trump’s decision to hide out in a bunker during the height of the protests last weekend.

“On Twitter the next morning, the president reassured America that he and his family were just fine. The federally funded bodyguards had kept them safe. He did not mention protecting the rest of the nation, much of which was then on fire. He seemed aware only of himself,” Carlson said.

The first word that comes to mind is, “ouch.” The second is “duh,” like where you been the last three years, dude?

As I write this, I have not yet seen Trump’s inevitable Twitter response. By the time you read this, Tucker Carlson may well be in chains at Guantanamo Bay. I don’t know.

Things are moving pretty fast these days. And I’m not even sure whether Tucker Carlson had the time to consider that his president on Monday used the military police to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at peaceful protesters to clear the street so Trump could cross it and hold up a Bible for a photo-op.

I’d like to hear Tuck’s take on that if he still has a job, or hasn’t yet been “redacted” or anything.

On the other hand, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear Tuck dial back his comments and defend the president on his next broadcast. That’s just the kind of thing you do these days if you want to keep getting invited to Mar-a-Largo.

But you’ve got to think, there must have been a moment – even for someone as incapable of personal introspection as Donald Trump – where he must have thought, “If I’ve lost Tucker Carlson, I’ve lost Middle America.”

Tim Ryan is a Leader reporter and intermittent columnist. Readers can contact him at tryan@newmedia-wi.com.