The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg Tucker Stopped Believing in Lines | Interview: Jason Zengerle
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Jan 26, 2026 
John McCormack, The Dispatch journalist with a long Tucker profile, and Jason Zengerle, New Yorker staff writer and author of Hated by All the Right People, dig into Tucker Carlson’s media rise. They trace the Daily Caller’s clickbait turn, Fox-era influence on Trump, ties to Breitbart and Nick Fuentes, and how fringe ideas were normalized in conservative media.
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CPAC Speech As Calculated Provocation
- Jason recounts Tucker's 2009 CPAC speech as a provocation designed to reach an outside audience rather than please the room.
- The speech helped recruit staff, investors, and built early goodwill that propelled The Daily Caller launch.
Reality Of Market For 'Serious' Conservative News
- Tucker's fact-based, New York Times–style vision failed because the conservative audience for that product didn't exist at scale.
- He pivoted toward more sensational, tabloidy content to chase traffic and financial viability.
The Listserv Trick That Broke The Site
- Jason tells how Tucker accessed a liberal journalists' listserv by impersonation and used its messages for a viral Daily Caller series.
- That series crashed the site, earned Drudge links, and shifted the site's trajectory toward tabloid traffic.
