JENN TAYLOR-SKINNER (HOST): This is also very consistent with the direction of anti-intellectualism that conservatives have been going in for years now, right? In regards to Tucker, Tucker Carlson, he does this thing where he takes a legitimate issue, something with a legitimate, provable outcome, that warrants -- something that needs to be addressed, like higher suicide rates among men for instance. But just before he reaches a fact-based or a science-based conclusion, he does this kind of bait-and-switch, right, and he uses it to indict the other side. You know “it’s the fault of the left” or “it’s the Democrats' fault; the Democrats did it.” 

PARKER MOLLOY (MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA): No I mean, I would have a very hard time disagreeing with that because that’s very clearly what he’s doing. He will point to something and say “look this is a real problem” and people acknowledge, “Yes it’s a real problem.” He acknowledges the problems but then he makes up his own solutions. 

TAYLOR-SKINNER: Yeah and it's usually “Democrats did it.” So I know your piece is centered around Fox News and around Tucker Carlson but one of the things that surprises me is how consistent the messaging is across with all of their contributors. And it amazes me as to how consistent they are and how they’re on the same page about this and I'm not really sure how that happens, right? Do they have a meeting offline? ... How do they get on the same page? 

MOLLOY: I think that one thing that happens a lot of times just in conservative media generally is that they feed off of each other. You sort of see this sort of cycle of coverage, something might pop up on a far-right blog, or it might emerge somewhere like 4chan or Reddit, and then that idea will make its way onto a kind of a fringy, right-wing blog like InfoWars or Gateway Pundit, and then from there you might see Breitbart pick it up, and then once Breitbart picks it up, enough people in this little ecosystem are talking about the issue that it ends up on Fox. And then Fox talks about it and it goes back to the blogs, who all write about that same things. At Media Matters we’ve had some videos where we’ll compare the way that Tucker Carlson talks about a certain issue with the way that Gavin McInnes or Paul Joseph-Watson or any of these other kind of fringy right-wing commentators will discuss something. And a lot of times there is that overlap, and it’s really interesting to watch. And I think that that’s mostly as organic as it can be. It’s not that anyone is sending out a list of bullet points. It’s that they all sort of exist in this little ecosystem.

To listen to the full interview, click HERE.

Previously:

The social science explaining why Fox News wants you to believe masculinity is under threat

Tucker Carlson and guest agree that colleges are “literally destroying the country” and pushing us to a “real civil war”

Tucker Carlson's descent into white supremacy: A timeline