Cable news ratings; Wemple's stunning mea culpa; Tucker's unhinged, conspiracy riddled week

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple penned a stunning mea culpa on Thursday, admitting his failure to defend New York Times editorial page editor James Bennet after he green-lit an op-ed from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in 2020.
Cotton wrote the op-ed during the summer of civil unrest following the police murder of George Floyd, and called for military use against rioters.
Dozens of staffers spoke out against Bennet’s decision to publish the op-ed. The backlash was also swift online.
The controversy ultimately led to Bennet's resignation in 2020.
In a piece published Thursday, Wemple, not too proud to admit a mistake, explained why the Post's staff did not speak up on Bennet’s behalf: "It’s because we were afraid to."
Wemple wrote that he and others at the newspaper lacked the “courage” to defend New York Times editorial page editor, lamenting that the saga saw Bennet’s three-decade career grind to a halt.
He also said Bennet was “right” to publish every word from Cotton.

Bennet stood alone, Wemple wrote, because his peers lacked the courage to speak up.
Some have criticized Wemple's piece, and to be fair, his absolutist defense of Bennet does not reckon with the fact that Bennet never read the Cotton op-ed, which remains a mistake.
Either way, it's not easy to admit when you're wrong, and even harder to take a controversial stance. Wemple managed to do both in a persuasive and compelling column.

Tucker Carlson had an exceptionally unhinged one this week.
He kicked things off on Monday by giving the nod to fringe theories about Democrats engaging in child sacrifice.
According to the Q-Anon conspiracy theory, there is a global cabal of elites who sexually traffic children and kill them.

During his opening monologue, Carlson said Democrats are not reaping the political benefits they were hoping to gain by speaking about abortion ahead of the midterm elections next month.
"It’s a religion. It’s a child sacrifice cult," he said of Democrats
He donned another figurative tinfoil hat on Wednesday night, telling viewers he suspects the U.S. Senate election in Pennsylvania will be rigged for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D).
Carlson highlighted Fetterman’s travails and suggested there’s no way the candidate could win a fair election. The point mimicked one he made last week, when he claimed Arizona's gubernatorial election could only be fair if Republican Kari Lake won.
Despite touting multiple conspiracy theories throughout the week, Carlson's Thursday night show, which had a massive 3.7 million viewers, might have been the most bizarre.
After inviting Chuck Todd on to his show, Carlson speculated that the Meet the Press host has "killed a few people" by spreading Covid-19 misinformation.
"So, that invitation remains open," Carlson added. Hmm, I personally would not hold my breath.