Reviewer: Paul Leslie
Who is Tucker Carlson, really? The answer to that question seems dependent on what your political views are, but one thing is certain. Whether he makes you smile, smirk, guffaw, or grimace, Tucker Carlson has made his mark on the media and the popular culture.
Averaging 3 to 4 million viewers per episode, his nightly program Tucker Carlson Tonight is the most-watched in all of cable news. In 2020, the current affairs show broke the record for being the highest-rated in the history of American cable news. Viewers on television and listeners on satellite radio tune in every weeknight to the show he touts as “the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink.”
At the heart of the show is Tucker Carlson, a man who is perhaps not fully understood, by even his fans. His seminal work in the media was writing magazine stories. His stories have appeared in prominent publications, many of which are on display in his newest book The Long Slide published by Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.
The Long Slide features articles published over 30 years
If you were expecting an assessment of the controversies and political climate of the day, you may find yourself surprised. The pieces presented cover quite a variety of topics spanning 30 years, described by the publisher as “a collection of nostalgic writings that underscore America’s long slide from innocence to orthodoxy.”
Carlson shares flashes of his experiences—whether he’s writing about something from his own life or the most investigated and documented world affairs, it’s always personal and most of the time a tad folksy. The pieces presented in The Long Slide originally appeared in periodicals like Esquire, The New Republic, Forbes, The New York Times, GQ Magazine, and most of all the now defunct Weekly Standard.
Carlson’s passion as a journalist is evident
One thing Tucker Carlson captures in his first-person accounts is the thrill of chasing stories. He’s a man who knows about the adventure found in unknown parts, in search of real characters so you can write about them.
His favorite pieces take you to many places: there’s Iraq and the John McCain campaign’s raucous, boozy campaign bus. Tucker knows the thrill of venturing out with a few changes of clothes, his notebook, and a digital recorder.
Carlson is respectful and curious of the people he writes about
The Long Slide has a great bit of humor in it. I found myself laughing out loud more than a few times, like in “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” In this story, Tucker documented his travels to West Africa with Al Sharpton, Cornel West and members of the Nation of Islam to try and stop the civil war in Liberia. You’ll just have to read it.
The people Carlson has encountered throughout his career range from Hunter S. Thompson to George W. Bush, and of course Joel Surprise, one of the biggest names in the potato cannon industry. You get a sense Carlson approaches all of the people that appear in the book with equal respect and curiosity. He strives to be nonjudgmental.
There is a nostalgia and softheartedness in The Long Slide
On the other hand, I didn’t expect to have to dry my eyes as much as I did. Carlson writes about his loved ones and his most cherished memories with a childlike tenderness. Not everyone would necessarily expect that. Tucker Carlson is a sentimental and emotional creature.
Perhaps one of the reasons Carlson was able to write for so many different magazines and transition this into a national TV show, is an evident authentic interest in people. Many of his opponents would prefer to think of him as a partisan talking head. It’s probably easier to believe he’s evil than to see him as a rational, feeling person.
Carlson’s book shows us what has been lost in journalism
“Magazine journalism is worth remembering,” Tucker Carlson wrote in the introduction. “They’re mostly gone now, but for a long time magazines played a significant role in the country.” I felt a bit of magazine nostalgia reading these pieces, and reminisced about the joy of getting monthly reading material by mail.
The reader of The Long Slide may conclude that far more has been lost over these last few decades than journalism and how we receive information. The pieces in The Long Slide aren’t particularly controversial, but as Tucker explained, “many of them couldn’t be written today.”
Frankly, Tucker Carlson the writer is now considered persona non grata throughout most of the media, despite his television program’s success. Diversity of opinion is not on the menu for the establishment. Those not falling in line with groupthink have essentially been driven into the shadows. Values and mores that were held by almost everyone even 10 years ago are considered unthinkable today.
Reading the pieces as a collection, I couldn’t help but wonder. How is American media and entertainment different than 2o or 30 years ago? Has it changed for the better or rather regressed? I didn’t have to think long. You can’t have a debate when the only positions seeing any light of day are empty, echoing repetitions of the dutifully obedient and compliant.
The Long Slide is enriching
The experience of reading some old magazine articles could rarely be described as enriching, but that’s how I felt. The sentiment you get from the writer is that the day of books and magazines being enjoyed and widely read by people of many viewpoints is long gone.
As the introduction establishes, cancel culture has even found its place in the sacred world of books. Nowadays, books don’t need to be burned. Being blacklisted by the proponents of “wokeism” can stop a book from being printed in the first place for the most artificial and contrived of reasons. It seems every fear of censorship or other oppressive action is chalked up as delusional. I found myself thinking that yesterday’s paranoia is tomorrow’s reality.
I’d bet many who would never imagine they’d ever see eye to eye with Tucker Carlson would find more than a few things they agree with. If only they’d read this book.
Much has changed since the 1990s. Tucker Carlson might describe it as a long slide. Carlson’s The Long Slide is a literary relic of the fading art of magazine journalism. There’s something for just about everyone therein.
There’s plenty about America and the press that’s unlikely to come back. We shouldn’t mourn, but instead, compose ourselves and accept the reality of our time. It was nice to read Tucker’s portraits of the many places he’s been and people he met. He admits that many of the events documented are today largely considered irrelevant. But, it didn’t seem that way then. For the writer and the readers, they were everything.
Title: The Long Slide: Thirty Years in American Journalism
Author: Tucker Carlson
Publisher: Threshold Editions, imprint of Simon & Schuster
Publication date: August 10, 2021
Hardcover: 288 pages
Audiobook: 6 hours, 22 minutes
Special thanks to
Julia McGarry, Jennifer Robinson and Jean Anne Rose
