Tucker Carlson and the Hydra of Fox News
Tucker Carlson and the Hydra of Fox News
Hercules and the Hydra
Hercules rides in the chariot beside Iolaus, arriving at the swamps of Lerna for his next labor. The path to redemption is long and difficult but he faces his task sternly. The marsh is foul and the many headed creature dwelling within is deadly. Wielding his bronze sword, he begins his assault on the hydra’s many heads while managing to avoid her poisonous breathe. With clean blows, heads fall to the ground and, for a moment, Hercules celebrates with a path to victory in hand. He quickly sees however that where one head sprang, two more are already writhing forth just as deadly as the last. The battle goes on, increasingly dangerous. He calls to Iolaus for help and his nephew rises to the occasion. With torches, he cauterizes the stumps as Hercules cuts each head off. They whittle down their opponent and emerge triumphant.
Tucker Carlson: One of Many Heads
If you’ve been even remotely tuned into the American news this last week, you’ve likely seen the departure of Tucker Carlson from Fox News. I’ll leave it to far more experienced journalists to discuss the reasons and implications of him leaving the station. What I’d like to discuss here is the reaction across the left celebrating.
I recall long evenings as a teenager spent watching Bill O’Reilly with my grandfather. He would eat dinner and nod along with O’Reilly’s every word, making sure to emphasize particularly anti-LGBT talking points to me as O’Reilly droned on about the alleged evils of gay marriage. I sat quietly, probably like most LGBTQ+ kids in the south, knowing I had no power in this dynamic and could only dream of moving out one day. When O’Reilly went off the air, there was a temporary pause in hearing vitriolic rhetoric, but the focus merely shifted to other talking heads like Sean Hannity. Other times, it was radio personalities instead like Rush Limbaugh or Don Imus, but the rage baiting and hatred never ceased to echo in my childhood home.
What does all this have to do with my paraphrasing of the second labor of Hercules? When one person disappears from a conservative network, it’s only a matter of time before another head springs up to replace them. The rhetoric spewed will be just as vile or even more so. Celebrating is premature when the conditions that gave rise to the hydra’s head haven’t been cauterized. So what are we left to do? The myth of Hercules and the Lernaean hydra offers some answers.
Lessons From Myth
1. Cauterize the problem or it will grow. In the case of Fox News, it’s allowed to skirt by fact reporting by classifying itself as entertainment. Networks like this have been allowed to proliferate since the Fairness Doctrine dissolved under the Reagan administration. I don’t know what a version of the Fairness Doctrine would look like in the 21st century with distributed media but we need to strive for accuracy in reporting.
Support small journalists and newspapers doing the work of more accurately reporting the news. As best you’re able, stop shopping with vendors that advertise on networks like FN. Double check information before sharing it and leaping to your gut reaction, particularly on social media infographics that are designed to farm rage reactions.
2. You can’t do everything alone. Hercules had to call on Iolaus for help in his labor to use fire while he cut off the heads. One person advocating for truth isn’t enough to turn the tides of disinformation may not amount to much, but a group of people can have a great effect. I recommend checking out Jessica Craven's Chop Wood Carry Water for daily concrete action steps you can take rather than staying in feelings of fear. Participate in mutual aid efforts. Build the world you want to see.
3. Remember this is just one step in the journey. This was just the second of Hercules’ labors. He still had many tasks ahead of him. It would have been easy to see the immense amount of work ahead of him and give up. But without continuing his journey, he would never have been cleansed of his guilt and been able to ascend to Olympus. Keep going even when the work ahead looks immeasurable.
As always, thanks for reading. Let me know if you have any thoughts.