In a 2009 speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Carlson lamented the lack of a right-wing alternative to The New York Times and warned the audience that “a news organization whose primary objective is not to deliver accurate news” will be doomed.
“You will fail. You will fail,” said Carlson. “Conservatives need to build institutions that mirror those institutions. That’s the truth. You don’t believe me?”
Carlson had correctly identified “the hardcore political right didn’t have its own rigorous journalistic institutions that could just produce reliable, trustworthy information for people,” said Hayes.
Carlson’s answer was to create The Daily Caller website.
But it didn’t work as a mainstream outlet, explained Hayes, because there wasn’t an appetite for it from conservatives.
“That video right there, Tucker getting booed at CPAC for having the temerity to say this obvious truth, might as well be his villain origin story,” said Hayes.
Carlson learned his lesson and later leaned into fringe conspiracy theories on Fox News, said Hayes.
