Tucker Carlson made his triumphant return to public commentary this past week — and Fox News wasn’t happy about it. Adam Baldwin and I discuss why we like Tucker in the mix, even when — and maybe especially when — we don’t agree with him. So why did Fox News threaten legal action in a cease-and-desist letter? That’s a complicated situation, but Adam wonders if ESG efforts haven’t gotten the better of Fox News’ board and executives. “Who has the power to force Rupert Murdoch to do anything with his company? Who is more powerful than he is?” That kicks off a lengthy discussion of ESG, activist capitalism and the reach of powerful elites, and a declaration from Blackrock’s Larry Fink about the intent of such projects to “force behaviors” on people and businesses.
Editor’s Note: Join HotAir VIP today and use promo code SKEPTICS to receive 25% off your membership!
Welcome back to our VIP video series “The Amiable Skeptics,” featuring my friend Adam Baldwin! Adam is well-known for his long and storied Hollywood career, starting with My Bodyguard, and especially for his roles in Full Metal Jacket, Firefly, its film sequel Serenity, Chuck, and The Last Ship.
Highlights from today’s episode include:
- The dispute with Tucker seems strange to me, and I argue that Tucker’s not competing with Fox by essentially self-publishing on Twitter. “Why does Fox car,” I ask, “whether or not Tucker’s doing Twitter videos? That’s not going to compete with [Fox’s] cable access, which is 100% or close to 100% across the country. It’s not even competing on a time element.”
- Fink “comes right out and says,” Adam points out, “we want to force people into changing their behavior. And they’re using these ESG scorings and these corporate equity indexes scoring from the Human Rights Campaign to force fealty from corporations.”
- I’m skeptical about this being an ESG issue with Fox, but I suspect it might be another kind of pressure. As Clarence Thomas once told me years ago at a dinner, judges and justices tend to “grow in office” by moving to the Left for one reason. “He said [it’s] because they like getting invited to cocktail parties and they liked being invited to commencement speeches. And if you’re going to do that,” Thomas told me, “if that’s what you want, you’re gonna have to move in that direction to get to it.”
- All of this, I argue, is why conservatives need to care more about anti-trust. The more consolidation we see in markets, the more economic and political power gets concentrated into fewer hands.
- Adam agrees: “The Antitrust Acts have to be enforced by by the Jim Jordans, by the DeSantises of the world, by the Trumps,” Adam says. The World Economic Forum agenda gets more power through that concentration of economic resources, and “America has to realize it — otherwise we end up with Animal Farm.”
There’s plenty more in the discussion, including a brief tangent on Russia and Ukraine. Enjoy the show and join the discussion in the comments!
