In his new extensive interview on Mediaite’s Press Club podcast, CNN’s Chris Wallace reportedly discussed Tucker Carlson, a former colleague, with Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin. Wallace, a steadfast member of traditional media, expressed his opinion on the liberal press’s responsibility to communicate their version of ‘the truth’ rather than “attract attention.”
Carlson, who was terminated from Fox News in 2023, currently hosts a program on Twitter/X and has established partnerships with prominent far-right figures, such as Alex Jones.
In 2021, Wallace himself resigned from Fox News. He stated on Press Club that the alleged conspiracy theories that persisted after Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election were the catalyst for his departure from the network. Since then, Carlson has frequently criticized Wallace in interviews.
Wallace was queried by McLaughlin regarding the direction that his former Fox colleague has taken.
“I think it’s amazing what people will do to find an audience. And I think it’s sad that you try to be reasonably straight, and you don’t succeed at that, and fame, attention, notoriety, whatever it is, some people, unfortunately, are willing to do a lot.” Wallace said.
“And at a certain point, it really becomes, because this isn’t some magical thing, you know, if you’re at all intelligent and an observer of the business, you know ways to feed people’s interest, attract eyeballs, clicks, click-bait, all of that stuff, it ultimately becomes a character test of what are you willing to do, and what are you in this business to do and to be?” he added.
“And to me, it’s never been a question that I want to tell the truth. I want to inform people. I want them to know at the end of watching or reading something to be better informed, more accurately informed than they were before they spent some time with me. And there are other people, obviously, who are just trying to attract attention. There’s a lot of ways to attract attention. I mean, fire engines, nude photographs, there’s all kinds of stuff. You have to decide what your standards are.” Wallace concluded.
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