Tucker Carlson is heading to Twitter. Why he and Elon Musk are a good fit in the worst way

Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk are a match made just a few feet below heaven.

In its own twisted way, it’s perfect.

Carlson took to Twitter Tuesday to threaten, er, announce in a video that he will be bringing a new version of his Fox News primetime show to the platform, now owned by noted troll Musk. Carlson will announce more details later, he said, but “for now we’re just grateful to be here.”

He’s grateful to be anywhere, probably. Carlson parted ways with Fox News in April in what was by all accounts not an amicable divorce. His exit came the week after Fox News settled a defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million.

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Tucker Carlson can't be trusted

In the meantime Carlson was revealed to have texted a racist and bizarre comment to a former producer after the Jan. 6 insurrection. Previously reported texts found him lying to his audience, promoting things on the air he clearly didn’t believe in private, and calling for a reporter to be fired for daring to fact check Donald Trump’s election lies.

In other words, Carlson can’t be trusted.

This didn’t stop him from spending most of the 3-minute video he tweeted raving about things like, “At the most basic level the news you consume is a lie. A lie of the stealthiest and most insidious kind. Facts have been withheld on purpose, along with proportion and perspective. You are being manipulated.”

Who would know more about lying than Carlson? And is manipulation not leading an audience to conclusions that you in fact do not believe yourself to boost your ratings? Or is that just contempt for the people who watch?

Carlson yammered on about the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to free speech.

“Amazingly, as of tonight, there aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” he said. “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter.”

Musk tweeted, "I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever."

Remember when Musk blocked the accounts of several prominent journalists? Carlson didn’t mention that. (Most of the bans were later lifted.)

Musk's Twitter is right for Carlson for all the wrong reasons

Musk has claimed to be an advocate of free speech on Twitter, which evidently meant welcoming back Trump, who had been permanently suspended after Jan. 6 “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”

Hate speech increased almost immediately after Musk took the reins of the platform. (Trump hasn't tweeted since the reinstatement, preferring his own Truth Social as a vehicle for spreading misinformation.)

This makes Twitter perfect for Carlson and his hectoring, bullying style, his white-nationalist leanings and his overall obnoxious manner. And if he can throw in a few lies about vaccines or downplay the Jan. 6 insurrection, so much the better from his point of view.

This is not to say that Twitter should keep Carlson off the platform. It’s Musk’s railroad now, and he can run it however he wants to. For the same reason suspending Trump was not a violation of the former president’s right to free speech — Twitter is a private company, not a government entity — Musk can welcome anyone he wants.

That said, anyone in their right mind who believes in responsible free speech — “responsible” being the key — wouldn't want to watch Carlson’s show anywhere.

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Will Tucker Carlson fans follow him to Twitter?

But alas, a lot of people do. Carlson got great ratings at Fox News, and its primetime ratings have suffered since his departure. Clearly he has an audience. Surely a sizable chunk of it will follow him to Twitter, where he has almost 7 million followers.

Who knows what he’ll say when he finally gets going there? Fox News didn’t exercise much control over Carlson, but the idea of a completely unfiltered version of him — like what we see in his texts — is enough to make you shudder.

Or log off of Twitter altogether.

Carlson and Musk deserve each other. The rest of us don’t deserve this.

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Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tucker Carlson and Twitter are a twisted match made heaven. Here's why