Just asking questions—yes, that is what I’m doing.” ------ Tucker Carlson | Jon Allsop writing in Columbia Journalism Review

The Media Today

Just Asking Questions

How the Sunday shows—and Tucker Carlson—have handled the Iran story.

June 23, 2025 By Jon Allsop

. . .And of all the interviews I’ve seen in the past few days, Carlson’s clearly did the best job of puncturing the ignorance that so often lies behind calls for regime change abroad; yes, he was asking gotchas—and yes, these can be crude and distracting—but sometimes it takes a stupid question to expose the stupidity of a position. 

(And, following the weekend strikes, regime change may be what we’re dealing with here: after sending out his officials to dutifully say the US is not trying to effect as much yesterday morning, Trump posted on social media that while the term is not “politically correct,” it may be justified if “the current Iranian Regime is unable to MAKE IRAN GREAT AGAIN.”) 

As Hasan and Lennard suggested, there’s nothing to stop mainstream interlocutors asking questions like this. 

• But the consensual codes of elite US media being what they are—and the horror of appearing to be partisan or rude being what it is—it’s unlikely that they’ll start doing so anytime soon, and so we might sometimes have to rely on scoundrels (or, worse, comedians) to do it instead. 

Following the heated exchange on Israeli influence that led Cruz to suggest Carlson was an anti-Semite, Cruz suggested that they ratchet down the temperature, leading Carlson to respond, “You’re the one who went to motive; I’m asking honest questions.” 

He then affected a pious voice:  

“Just asking questions—yes, that is what I’m doing.” 

 

The conversation then cut to an ad for a wireless company that’s giving away American flags that are actually made in America.

 

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