Tucker Carlson in perspective
by Romeo St. Martin

[PoliticsWatch Updated 5:30 p.m. December 22, 2005]

Tucker Carlson, host of MSNBC's lowly-rated The Situation with Tucker Carlson.

OTTAWA  — You know the story. 
 
Some rude, right-wing, know-it all, bow-tie wearing pundit from the USA is using his position as a talk show host to spew anti-Canadian propaganda to millions of Americans. 

The word gets into the Canadian media, it appears on the front-page of all the newspapers and soon the country is up in arms with people calling into radio shows and writing letters to the editor. 

That happened this week, when the Canadian Press reported on Monday about Carlson's comments, comparing  Canada to "your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head."

Carlson has his own show on MSNBC called The Situation With Tucker Carlson.

He made those controversial comments last Thursday, four days before the CP story appeared. 

Why the delay in the story getting out? 

Well, it seems CP got the news from Media Matters for America, a left-leaning organization that monitors cable news channels to find embarrassing comments by Republicans pundits. 

While it may be fun to pretend that Tucker Carlson is the equivalent of Canada's Rex Murphy, the truth of the matter is that now that he's on MSNBC, Carlson does not reach millions of Americans, nor does he reached hundreds of thousands. 

Have a look at the most recent cable news ratings for Carlson's time slot. 

December 20 11:00 pm: 

Fox News -- The O'Reilly Factor (repeat): 1,097,000 
CNN -- Anderson Cooper 360 (2nd hour) 479,000 
MSNBC -- The Situation Room with Tucker Carlson 196,000  

That's right. 

Carlson's audience is 196,000, (actually 195,999 if you don't count the Media Matters VCR). That is one fifth what a repeat of an episode of  The O'Reilly Factor, that aired only 3 hours earlier that evening, receives. The 8 p.m. original airing of O' Reilly receives a rating of 2.8 million viewers -- more than 10 times Carlson's audience. In fact, Carlson's program is the lowest rated evening program on the three main U.S. cable news networks. 

So the reason the story took four days to make it into the Canadian media turns out to be that almost no one was watching Tucker Carlson.

Where's that negative campaign we've all been expecting?

The latest Canadian blogging scoop is about an alleged leak from the Liberal war room of story boards for a negative campaign against the Conservatives after the holidays. 

So far, journalists have been surprised with the tone of the campaign which has become a clash of ideas on taxes, child care and national unity. 

The Prime Minister was asked during a year-end interview with CPAC Thursday to make a commitment that the Liberals would not to be the first party to go negative in the campaign. 

Here's a transcript of that exchange. Take out your decoder ring and decide if the PM made the commitment. 

Peter Van Dusen: It's been, I think to the benefit of a lot of Canadians, a campaign that has been driven by discussion about the issues, including national unity. 

I guess I want to get from you here a commitment, if I can get it, that after the holidays when everybody says the campaign is supposed to turn negative that if it turns negative it won't be because the Liberal party started it.

Paul Martin: Well, I think that if you just simply take a look at the last couple of weeks. The fact is that Mr. Harper has been very negative. I think that there has been a complete lack of a civility, the kind of thing that gives Canadians real concern about politicians. I'm not engaged in that.

Van Dusen: Well, if you ….

Martin: Just a second, Mr. Van Dusen. I feel very good about the country. And I feel very good about the Liberal record. And I'm going to run on the Liberal record and I'm going to run on those issues, which are really going to address the way in which Canada can embrace the future. Now that is my campaign. I've demonstrated it so far and that's the way I'm going to continue to campaign.

Van Dusen: So there will be no demonizing of Stephen Harper after the holidays?

Martin: The differences between Mr. Harper and I are very great. Child care, health care, the way we would approach the economy. And obviously those differences are going to be part of the debate and I'm basically going to fight for my vision and it's a very positive vision, a very optimistic vision of this country.

____________

If you read carefully, you'll notice that in the first paragraph the PM said that Harper "has been very negative" already. Based on that premise then there is no need for the PM to commit to not being the first to go negative since it is his belief the campaign already is negative because of Harper. 

Duceppe wants to gain weight in New Year

Prime Minister Paul Martin trimmed his figure this year after he went on the South Beach Diet. 

While campaigning in Quebec, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said Thursday that he also planned to drop a few pounds in the new year. 

But Duceppe's New Year's resolution has a twist. 

"I'd like to lose weight and I would like for the Bloc to gain weight," he said.

And all signs are pointing to that. 

A poll for CTV News this week released by the Strategic Counsel puts the Bloc at a whopping 60 per cent in the polls in Quebec, higher than it was after Jean Brault's revelations at the Gomery inquiry in April.

"With the current numbers that they are polling in Quebec, the Liberals would be reduced to seven seats and this number would not include Mr. Martin's own seat," Timothy Woolstencroft of the Strategic Counsel told CTV. "Right now, there's a risk that the PM might lose his own seat."

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