Angelo Carusone: Jesse Watters’ promotion is “proof that Lachlan Murdoch is really bad at his job”
Carusone: “Watters is going to be an irritant in our discourse, but he will not have any meaningful influence or power”
Published
Angelo Carusone: Jesse Watters’ promotion is “proof that Lachlan Murdoch is really bad at his job”
Citation From the July 12, 2023, edition of Sirius XM's The Dean Obeidallah Show
DEAN OBEIDALLAH (HOST): So Jesse Watters is going to take over for Tucker Carlson. There's no way in the world Jesse Watters becomes the conductor of Tucker Carlson --
ANGELO CARUSONE (GUEST): No. Not a chance.
OBEIDALLAH: Or am I wrong on that? Is there a chance -- no, there's not.
CARUSONE: No. He can't.
OBEIDALLAH: He's a silly, dopey guy who doesn't really have an ideology, I don't think.
CARUSONE: No, he does not. I mean, yeah, he's basically a troll. And he was trained by Bill O'Reilly, you know.
OBEIDALLAH: Bill O'Reilly. Yeah.
CARUSONE: And he's, you know, he's not really subtle or sophisticated in how he projects a message.
No, what Tucker's talent was was in storytelling. He was a narrative builder. So Jesse Watters doesn't give narratives. He doesn't -- you know, that's what makes you influential in the right-wing media space.
He's a seat filler for the 8 p.m. hour and he's a pretty -- to me, he was the best decision if I care about, like, Fox being weak. If Fox was going to leverage power and try to reassert themselves, then what they would have done was put a Christian nationalist in that seat.
OBEIDALLAH: I know, you talked about that to me. That would be the worst case. That was your fear.
CARUSONE: The worst case. Yeah, it was my fear and they didn't do it. So, it's just proof that Lachlan Murdoch is really bad at his job and that Fox is going to continue to weaken in its position of power.
And yes, so Jesse Watters will be -- he will be annoying. Like, it is going to be an irritant, but we are going be very irritated by Jesse Watters in ways that we were not irritated by Tucker. We were annoyed and frustrated, angry, furious by Tucker, scared sometimes, because that guy could drive violence.
But Jesse Watters is going to be an irritant in our discourse, but he will not have any meaningful influence or power.