joining me right now a person who knows
the inside of washington and liked it so
much he left he does not want to know
tell us exactly where he is but i know
the vicinity and i know he's happy he is
tucker carlson author of the long slide
30 years in american journalism just
came out a couple of days ago and we're
for for one of the first on his list
parker welcome back
you were the best introducer of guests
in the world yeah it's unbelievable but
you know what i talk about my problem is
once the interview starts i really don't
know where to go
you know you know what struck me a
couple of things struck me allison uh
it's our fantastic producer here
oh
i can't believe alice how long has she
been your producer allison how long have
you been doing this
a very long time right
she's old enough to have three children
uh this is amazing yeah that's amazing
you gotta want you i must be paying her
so much how much am i paying a thousand
that's not what i heard but okay
so she pointed this out right away she
said go to this page it's your
acknowledgement i'd like to acknowledge
jonathan carp of simon schuster whose
descent from open-minded book editor to
cartoonish corporate center mirrors the
decline of america itself it's been a
sad education watching it happen
and he still published the book
well i don't think they had it you know
they felt they didn't have a choice i
mean
they
you know if they canceled my book for
writing about how they canceled somebody
else's book i guess they calculated that
would be a bigger pr disaster than
allowing my book to be published but
trust me they didn't want they didn't
want to publish it and i didn't want to
publish with them because i so deeply
disapproved but i was under
contract and you know for a book with
simon schuster when they shut down josh
hawley because he
cast a vote that annoyed the democratic
party and then they paid off the biden
administration by sending his son you
know millions of dollars for a book
nobody read i mean the whole thing was
so disgusting that i felt
implicated in it because i was taking
money from simon schuster and i and i
thought i don't know i have a moral
obligation to say something about this
so i did
uh it's pretty brave as usual um so so
tucker this is a a a trip to a memory
lane for you with magazine stories it
brought you back to the time in ameri
not only the time in interviews that you
did in articles you wrote but what
america was going through
the what perspective do you have on
today by going back to the years in
which you worked now you're in your 50s
you've been doing this since your 20s
what does it tell what perspective did
you gather from
collecting all your past work
well i mean it was just bewildering i i
entered journalism 30 years ago this
week actually weirdly the soviet union
had just collapsed like five days before
and i had you know i'd grown up in
journals my dad was a journalist and i
thought
you know i i thought it was a very
honorable thing to do so i mean a couple
of the big changes
journalism is not an honorable
profession american journalism has
collapsed the people practicing it are
contemptible disgusting i would never
have dinner with them that's a huge
change the country is completely divided
in a way that it never was going back
through these pieces i was shocked by
the number of liberals and democratic
office holders who i really liked and
had you know i didn't agree with them
i've never been a liberal i've never
supported the democratic party but i had
a million friends who were liberal and
it didn't divide us it wasn't the most
important thing
you know and now it is i mean i i
couldn't have dinner with the people i
eat dinner with 20 years ago and a lot
of the pieces in the book were published
in the new york times and esquire and gq
and places that
you know would never publish a story by
me ever now but it didn't seem weird
then i mean it just wasn't as partisan
and polarized to country not even close
so that was really a shock for me a
couple of things
so i i have an interesting perspective
here because i've been at fox now over
20 years and i know in the beginning i
would tell people i'm on fox and and
even though pop fox was always popular
there's a lot of people that just aren't
interested in the news a lot of my
friends are athletes and will follow
sports and they're like oh bro how was
work you know just to keep passing the
time now i can't go anywhere without
everyone thinking they know everything
about everything or at the very least
have an opinion so how did have you
picked up that change
i mean it was such a profound change
that i had to leave the city that i
lived in for 35 years which was
washington you know we came to
washington when i was in high school
my dad left journalism went to work for
the reagan administration for the
federal government was there a long time
and we lived in a very non-partisan
world i mean it was partisan by
definition but i mean we lived in
georgetown you know right next to a
left-wing
senator democratic senator who had gone
weirdly to the same high school i went
to
there i i never felt you know like
yelling at him on the street or it was
just normal you know you you knew people
who disagreed with you
because it wasn't an entirely
politicized country
you don't want a country where
you know the outcome of elections
determines everything that's really
scary first of all it gives way too much
power
to politicians you know you want a
country where the big decisions have
nothing to do with politics you know who
do you marry how do you raise your kids
what do you do for work
where do you go to church how's your
team doing things like that so so in in
these stories that you're writing about
other people you move out of the way and
you tell the story and i believe in my
humble opinion that's reason why this
book works and why you work as a host is
because you're willing to let somebody
else be the story i think so many times
host thinks it's about them
and you had no problem moving over and
letting someone shine in a segment
and that's one thing that comes across
on your show it's like hey this is what
i think
now this is what they think and you'll
let them finish
was that intentional or is that instinct
that is uh a conscious effort not to
become a talk show host
you know they're the worst people in
america they're so insecure and boorish
they never shut up about themselves and
it just comes with the job i mean you've
been doing it for decades you know after
a while you can't stop talking you're
always untransmitted never on receive
and so i just really try every morning
to remind myself shut up once in a while
listen to other people there are other
people in the world it's not just about
you like you you become a narcissist
over time unless you really fight
against it and by the way with aids you
become a narcissist you know old people
only talk about themselves and i just
don't want to be that person i'm trying
to become that person anyway but i
really want to let other people talk
just for the sake of my own soul you
know
how much in retrospect in putting this
book together do you appreciate the
right swath of experiences and travel
you've done it allows your opinions to
feel more natural and organic because
you could do it from human experience
right you're not getting reading
somebody else to find out how you feel
well you were in ghana you know you were
in europe you were in
afghanistan excuse me in pakistan
you you travel these places so when you
come back and you react you go well this
is this is what i think and it's not
where
you have to depend on another source how
much did your first-hand experience make
you better on tucker carlson tonight
tucker carlson today your fox nation
series everything tucker carlson
originally i think a lot better i mean
i think it's really important to go see
stuff that's not why i did it though i
didn't get into you know i don't i
didn't do stories or get you know we
just got back from hungary this week and
i i
i really have done everything in my life
purely because i want an interesting
life i didn't go into journalism to
become powerful i never thought i would
make any money i have i'm really
grateful for that but that was certainly
not what i expected at all i didn't go
in to influence policy or to you know if
i would have run for office if i wanted
that i only went in because i wanted to
see interesting stuff and at the end
to have
you know an interesting life that's
honestly what i wanted it's what my dad
had and i remember as a kid my father
was such an interesting person is such
an interesting person who's seen
everything been everywhere known
everybody
seen all this drama and i remember as a
kid i was like oh i want that you know i
never thought i want to be rich i always
thought i want to be the kind of person
who's got something interesting to say
at dinner and so yeah that's why i did
it but it's had a
you know a hugely helpful effect on
the day journalism because you need to
get the you need to get the hell out of
your your house once in a while you know
yeah and i think that do you feel as
though in a way
uh the success you've had has hurt that
ability to do it in the climate that
we're in yeah i mean that's the sad part
i i mean the other you know
i'm not a magazine writer anymore i'm gl
i love my job i'm so grateful for it but
i really miss just getting on a plane
and going somewhere and listening to
people for a week seeing new stuff
um and you know i can the problem is you
know the downside everyone wants to be
rich and famous making more money is a
good thing not being in debt not having
to worry about your credit cards that's
a really good thing
but being famous man there's no upside
to that at all i've i've never seen an
upside to it i don't know why anyone
would want to be famous it makes you
know you don't it doesn't make you feel
good about yourself it doesn't
make you more secure and it certainly
eliminates your ability to go anywhere
and to be inconspicuous and to listen
i mean now i'm whining i don't mean to
whine but that is my question one thing
i regret about my life is i can't just
go to an event and stand there and
listen because i loved that tucker what
i'm doing is i'm willing to use my
influence because i am on air i am a
talk show host and i do want to be
famous i'm going to use that influence
to get you back on fox and friends
weekend make you less famous and get you
on cooking segments and do obstacle
courses would you like that no
i would except the axe throwing is just
too dangerous
and throw them at people and
it doesn't always work out you know
right once in a while you have to ignore
your producer when he says turn around
and throw the axe and pete said didn't
so he tossed that the insurance umbrella
necessary for that sorry
i just think about when to have a
perspective and paging through your book
of what you've been through and the next
thing you know you're you're asked to do
all these crazy things on fox and
friends weekend and you must be like
what's going on with me how did i end up
here
i've always had a high tolerance for
weirdness though so i can i can kind of
turn off
whatever part of your brain is asking
questions like why am i here why am i
doing this and just roll with it i mean
it was super fun yeah and i know you
love your streaming shows and long form
interviews too so go check out his fox
nation series it's i cannot believe the
volume of work that's there the volume
work you did is on the long slide 30
years in american journalism pick it up
you get a real perspective especially if
you're coming out of school in your 20s
and you want to have an understanding of
what you're about to do travel
experience the world talk to people
listen more and that's some of the
takeaways from tucker's new book uh and
kind of like kind of a cool cartoonish
character uh leaning on a lot of
magazines on the cover tucker thanks so
much good luck tonight at eight
i appreciate it brian i went to brian
kilmeade i want you to do me a favor i
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