Admittedly, I haven’t paid much attention to Tucker Carlson since he got booted from Fox News a year ago. Actually, I had pretty much stopped watching him on Fox because his whole schtick was nothing more than saying, “Hey, I’m just asking questions” with a quizzical look on his face, all while knowing full well that he was dishonestly stirring up trouble.

Other than an embarrassingly inept interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Carlson really hasn’t done anything worth paying attention to of late.

So why bring him up now?

Because a well-known Republican lawmaker finally had enough of Carlson’s act. Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw blasted Carlson in a post on X on Wednesday. Crenshaw was responding to Carlson’s interview with Palestinian Christian Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac for Carlson’s online show, as well as comments online about the interview. Carlson was disapproving of Christian leaders in the United States for not being more critical of what’s happening in Gaza.

There’s a lot to unpack about Carlson’s view of what’s happening and for having Isaac as a guest. There’s plenty online about all that if you’re interested. (Here’s how the right is reacting, according to this story from Mediaite’s Alex Griffing.)

What I wanted to get to was Crenshaw seeming to have an excellent handle on how Carlson operates, regardless of the subject he’s talking about at any given moment.

Crenshaw tweeted:

This is who Tucker is: a click-chaser.

Tucker’s MO is simple: defend America’s enemies and attack America’s allies. There isn’t an objective bone left in that washed up news host’s body. Mindless contrarianism is his guiding principle, buttressed by his childish tactic to “juSt aSK quEsTiOns!”

But any educated adult, especially one with such a long career in journalism, should occasionally try *answering* some of those questions objectively.

But he never does. Instead, he uses his platform to sow doubt and paranoia and false narratives.

He does this for one simple reason: clicks and engagement, which of course translate to monetary benefit. He wants you to believe he is the last place you can go to for truth, that he’s the ONLY one brave enough to reveal the elitist lies being told.

This nonsense about Christian mistreatment in Israel is just the latest example.

Tucker will eventually fade into nothingness, because his veneer of faux intellectualism is quickly falling apart and revealing who he truly is: a cowardly, know-nothing elitist who is full of (expletive).

Wow, with commentary like that, Crenshaw might become a media critic.

Another round of layoffs at The Wall Street Journal

Another day, more grim layoff news at a noted news organization.

According to several reports, The Wall Street Journal had more cuts Wednesday. The Daily Beast’s Corbin Bolies reported that the video and social media desks were most impacted.

The number of layoffs was 11, according to Bolies: four producers on the visuals desk, two social media editors, two video journalists, a senior video journalist, a video producer and one reporter.

Boiles wrote, “Some of the video staffers laid off include those in the Journal’s Journalists as Creators program, a partnership with Google to develop YouTube channels centered around individual journalists and subject matters. Staffers were told that the agreement was not renewed and the funding for those staffers had lapsed, a Journal staffer told The Daily Beast.”

These layoffs come less than two months after 20 staffers were let go from the Journal’s Washington bureau.

Boiles added, “The newspaper has since laid off various foreign correspondents and standards and ethics editors in recent months, including veteran editor Christine Glancey and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Dion Nissenbaum, who covered the Middle East.”

From the inside

I wrote in Wednesday’s newsletter about internal drama at NPR that has media followers on the outside paying attention. Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, blasted the news organization in a piece for The Free Press: “I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.” Berliner criticized NPR for a variety of things, including the suggestion that NPR has become an activist organization and sacrificed journalistic integrity in the process.

NPR editor-in-chief Edith Chapin responded in a memo to staff defending the news organization, saying in part, “I and my colleagues on the leadership team strongly disagree with Uri’s assessment of the quality of our journalism and the integrity of our newsroom processes. We’re proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik weighed in on his own company in “NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public’s trust.”

Folkenflik gave the story fair treatment but also noted, “Some of Berliner’s NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner’s critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR’s journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner’s concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.”

Alfonso told Folkenflik, “As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry’s long-standing lack of diversity. These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done.”

Folkenflik wrote that Berliner declined comment originally, saying his essay spoke for itself. But after Folkenflik’s story was first published, Berliner addressed Alfonso’s comment by saying, “I never criticized NPR’s priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not ‘denigrated’ NPR’s newsroom diversity goals. That’s wrong.”

Meanwhile, not surprisingly, Donald Trump jumped all over this story, especially the part in Berliner’s essay where Berliner wrote, “Like many unfortunate things, the rise of advocacy took off with Donald Trump. As in many newsrooms, his election in 2016 was greeted at NPR with a mixture of disbelief, anger, and despair. (Just to note, I eagerly voted against Trump twice but felt we were obliged to cover him fairly.) But what began as tough, straightforward coverage of a belligerent, truth-impaired president veered toward efforts to damage or topple Trump’s presidency.”

On his Truth Social, Trump wrote, “NO MORE FUNDING FOR NPR, A TOTAL SCAM! EDITOR SAID THEY HAVE NO REPUBLICANS, AND IS ONLY USED TO ‘DAMAGE TRUMP.’ THEY ARE A LIBERAL DISINFORMATION MACHINE. NOT ONE DOLLAR!!!”

Trying too hard

The New York Post is sometimes going to, well, New York Post, if you catch my meaning. Part of their appeal is gossip — gossip about celebrities, politicians, athletes and what have you. They turned Page Six — once the page where all the juicy gossip could be found — into its own signature brand.

And, hey, who doesn’t like some good gossip now and then? Like who was seen “canoodling” with whom at some low-lit bar? Which actors are feuding? Who’s getting married and who’s getting divorced?

But sometimes in pursuit of something hot, you look silly. Take this week. The Post tweeted out two photos of legendary actor Gene Hackman, now 94 and retired, outside of a gas station with a cup of coffee and a little box of apple pie. The tweet said, “Gene Hackman, 94, spotted in new photos wearing nearly identical outfit from weeks earlier.”

The tweet linked to a story about a rare public sighting of Hackman.

But about that tweet, which showed two photos of Hackman wearing the same thing: gray pants, a flannel shirt with a sweater vest and a white ball cap.

OK, a few things about this. One, is there really no other celebrity news that Hackman’s perfectly respectable clothes are worth talking about? And, I don’t know about you, but I don’t throw away my clothes after wearing them once. I do wear the same pants and shirt combinations repeatedly,

But here’s the kicker. X put this context note on the Post tweet: “The two photos shown with the headline about ‘identical outfits’ are misleading because they are images of Hackman taken during the same day. The outfit worn ‘weeks earlier’ that is referred to involved a completely different shirt and pants; only the vest and hat are the same.”

The Post took a beating on social media, as Mediaite’s Zachary Leeman noted.

Making a difference

Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark, playing in the NCAA Championship game last Sunday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

We’ve already seen the power Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark had on women’s college basketball, with TV records for the women’s game being smashed thanks to her presence and play. Will she now take that following to the next level of the WNBA?

Well, the WNBA is hoping so.

Consider this: Clark will assuredly be the first pick in the upcoming WNBA draft, going to the Indiana Fever. Last season, the dismal Fever, with a record of 13-27, had one game broadcast nationally. One.

This upcoming season, which starts in May? The Fever will be on national television 36 times. That’s 36 out of 40. The breakdown: Indiana will play two games on ABC, five games on ESPN, one game on ESPN 2, two games on CBS, one game on CBS Sports Network, eight games on ION, four games on Prime Video and 13 games on NBA TV.

I saw someone on social media say the WNBA has found its LeBron James — that is, a superstar who was a household name before even entering the league.

I think a better comparison might be the combination of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, who entered the NBA after big college careers that culminated with the 1979 NCAA Championship as Bird’s Indiana State team took on Magic’s Michigan State squad. At the time, the NBA’s popularity was down and games, even the finals, were routinely shown on tape delay.

But boosted by Bird and Johnson’s transition from huge college careers to the NBA, as well as the arrival of Michael Jordan a few years later, the NBA started to pick up momentum and eventually became big-time.

Can Clark do the same for the WNBA? Can her must-see TV performances in college carry over to help the WNBA find the big success that has pretty much eluded the league in its 27 seasons of existence? We shall see.

But it’s smart to see a TV schedule built around, arguably, the biggest name the sport has ever seen.

Meanwhile, I enjoyed this piece from Mediaite’s Colby Hall, who mocked Clay Travis and others for obnoxiously brushing aside suggestions that the women might outdraw the men in this year’s NCAA Tournaments: “NCAA Women’s Final Crushes Men’s Viewership — Making Fragile Haters Look Like Buffoons.”

The ManningCast continues

(Courtesy: ESPN)

ESPN and Peyton Manning’s Omaha Productions have agreed to a contract extension through 2034.

The deal means the popular “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli” — better known as the ManningCast, featuring Peyton and his brother Eli, with occasional celebrity guests, loosely commentating on “Monday Night Football” games — will carry on. So will original content such as “Peyton’s Places” and “Eli’s Places.”

The sides originally signed a three-year deal in 2021 and added an extension in 2022. But this nine-year extension shows just how pleased both sides are with the arrangement.

Media tidbits

• Fascinating reading from The New York Times’ David Enrich in “How a Case Against Fox News Tore Apart a Media-Fighting Law Firm.”
• A follow-up on the story Tuesday first broken by The New York Times’ Michael M. Grynbaum that ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News and NBC have drafted a letter urging President Joe Biden and Donald Trump to participate in debates before the election. NewsNation also signed the letter, as well.
• My Poynter colleague Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise, with “AI is already reshaping newsrooms, AP study finds.”
• Anastasia Nyrkovskaya has been named CEO of Fortune Magazine. The New York Times’ Katie Robertson has the details.
• The International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter put out a statement on proposed legislation before the Georgian parliament.
• The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio with “Richard Leibner, pioneering agent of TV news stars, dies at 85.”
• Sports Illustrated’s Jimmy Traina with “End of an Era: Legendary CBS Broadcaster, Verne Lundquist, Is Set for His 40th and Final Masters.”

Hot type

• The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson with “The 67-Hour Rule. Married couples are working as much as ever.”
• The Wall Street Journal’s Andrew Beaton with “The Merchant Banker Who Could Win the Masters.”

More resources for journalists

• Work-Life Chemistry newsletter course: Ditch work-life balance for a more sustainable approach. Sign up for this six-week email course.
• Poynter Producer Project, June 4-Sept. 10: Apply by April 14.
• Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative, fellowship for public media journalists, Sept. 30-April 13, 2025. Apply by April 22.
• Got a story you’d like to write for Poynter? Email pitch@poynter.org with your idea, approximate timeline and word count.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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