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Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Mike Hosking: Authenticity trumps all in media


We touched on authenticity before the school holidays.

I said that one of the more damning aspects of the Dominion and Fox news scrap was not whether Fox was at fault over claims around the election, but rather the revelation in depositions that Tucker Carlson lied about Donald Trump.

As we know, as of last week, a bit over a billion dollars is heading Dominion's was after the settlement.

A lot of people who hate Fox wanted the thing to go to trial. The reason Fox didn’t is kind of exemplified by the Carlson sacking.

Officially they say they parted ways. But they parted ways because Carlson is a fraud. And that is worse than saying stuff that isn't true

You can defend yourself, especially in America, if you truly believe that what you say is the truth. The fact you are wrong can be penalised, but it's not nearly as bad as knowingly saying one thing, while thinking the other.

Tucker Carlson, if you have missed all this, texted about his hatred of Donald Trump. This was a shock to many, given he appeared on the television saying something very different.

Fox was willing to defend its position using the free speech argument. But they couldn’t defend a bloke who publicly said one thing but privately said something very different.

It doesn’t work in law and it doesn’t work in broadcasting. And I said a couple of weeks back that I wasn’t sure how a revelation like this could surface and he survives.

Turns out, he couldn’t.

Ironically Don Lemon, who works for CNN, also got sacked yesterday. But that isn't nearly as important because Lemon is not in Carlson's league and CNN is a troubled network anyway with nowhere near Fox's audience.

And he got fired for basically being an arrogant, sexist prat, which although not a trait to aspire to, is hardly the end of the world.

Carlson's sacking isn't the end of the world either but it’s a major dent. The audience will suffer, the share price suffered and advertising will suffer.

He was the biggest of big deals on a big deal network. They don’t sack people like him unless they have to.

But that’s the point - they had to.

All you have in this game is your reputation. You have to be authentic and the audience have to believe that what you say you are, you are.

And Carlson wasn’t. Fraud, in broadcasting terms, is the greatest crime of all.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings


9 comments:

Robert Arthur said...

For career and cancellation considerations, probably several million NZers profess to be pro maori (ie pro Treaty reinterpretation) whereas thay actaully have very considerable reservations about maori and matters maori. Are they all frauds?

Anonymous said...

The fraud in all this is the MSM where Hosking is a paid up member. His outburst is predictable and in-line with the un objective rants that plague the airwaves.

JamesA said...

Hosking has just predictably granted himself Saint status. I wonder how many people get through life never expressing one view privately and another view publically.

Ross said...

If you think that is why he was sacked Mike, well I think you should read more than just the rubbish in the MSM.

How can you say he is a fraud and then say "..but it’s a major dent. The audience will suffer, the share price suffered and advertising will suffer." ?
I cannot see how you can hold both positions at once.

I suggest you look up and watch / listen to his recent speech at the Heritage Foundation event.

Anonymous said...

Tucker saw the light and came over to the right side where he will wake up thousands of his fox followers on alternative platforms with truth bombs.
What side are you on Mike?

Phil said...

I tune into Tucker Carlson occasionally and have heard him to be very critical of Trump and I also recall him once saying that people saying that the voting machines are rigged need to front up with evidence. It seems he has also said the opposite but his style was to my mind was that of an opinion piece rather than factual journalism.

Rob Beechey said...

Hosking’s factual credibility is torn to shreds when he invites Richard Arnold onto his show. A more fraudulently biased promoter of the Democrat party would be hard to find. These two shock jocks ( Arnold and Hosking ) obviously approve of the Biden government’s weaponising of the FBI and DOJ to attack their political rivals. The real fraud here is obvious and it ain’t Tucker Carlson.

Ewan McGregor said...

Agree with you all the way on this one, Mike.

TJS said...

Didn't he say he was fired because he wanted to interview Putin? Well that's what I heard. Don't think it was fraud.