You can't go from mass to grass roots.
In the pre-internet era, mass was everything. Broadcast/cable TV is a pre-internet paradigm, which is why it is fading. The only thing we need to see in real time is sports, or maybe breaking news. Then again, breaking news is better online, where you can hop from site to site, to get a three-dimensional view of the situation. Why settle for the viewpoint of one outlet when you can have the benefit of many?
This is the mistake many up and coming acts make today. They think it's about mass. But mass is instant, mass is now, mass is rarely forever.
That's the history of instant successes, of those dependent upon hits, sans smashes...their audience withers. Whereas if you come from the grass roots...you maintain. Furthermore, there is no mass anymore. Everybody's in their own silo. That's the beauty of the internet, you don't have to spend time with that which you are not interested in. Listen to the radio without pushing the button, enduring the commercials, are you kidding? And even if a boomer might do this, even watch "Succession" in real time on Sunday night, the younger generations don't play that way. Younger people are busy, heavily scheduled, they don't want to waste any time. Therefore they watch television when they want to, on demand, and HBO/Max and other outlets dribbling shows out week by week can't train them otherwise. They want it all and they want it now. You'd think legacy players would have learned the lesson of Napster at this point, don't give the public what it wants at your peril. Move forward, hopefully ahead of the audience, don't try to hold people back.
So Tucker Carlson is a creature of mass, a beneficiary of not only the imprimatur of Fox News, but its built-in audience. I know people who keep MSNBC on all day long, they're some of the least informed people I know. If you want to know what is happening, read the papers, go online, there's much more information. The values of the boomers are so last century. Whereas the youngsters...
So, many people don't even know that Tucker Carlson started the "Daily Caller," and that Kaitlan Collins worked for it. Carlson could have stayed there, been a bigger Kos, but he wanted more, and went to Fox. One can say Tucker paid his dues, but he didn't make his bones on the internet, like Matt Drudge. Tucker is starting all over on Twitter.
Not completely, but he's going from mass to grass roots, on demand. And to get someone to pull you up on demand...is a very hard thing to do.
It's not only television shows that are on demand, music is too. How do you get someone to pull your song? It's nearly impossible. Oh, you can pray that you get on a playlist, but that doesn't build careers, no, you build careers from the ground up, person by person, grass roots. And it's a slow process but this audience will never completely abandon you, sans some huge faux pas.
But everybody wants it instantly.
But that's no longer the world we live in.
The other night I was at a restaurant and I proffered that only one person there would be able to mention the name of a song, one single song, from the new Taylor Swift album. But the person I pointed out, the early twentysomething across the aisle, was flummoxed. Oh, she did know that Taylor Swift had a new album, but that was all. And Taylor Swift is one of the biggest acts in the business! This is not a judgment on either Swift's music or career, this is just an illustration of what everybody thinks is mass is not. Your goal of world dominance, a household name, babies singing your songs...that's a fantasy.
So Tucker Carlson goes to Twitter...
Big problem, his audience is not on Twitter. Older people inured to broadcast television are not on Twitter, because if they were there would be no reason to watch news on TV! So the hurdle of getting Tucker's audience on Twitter...is too high for most people. You have to get an account, and then follow and find Carlson. Furthermore, there is no appointment time. Which is why Howard Stern hyped his move to Sirius for nearly a year before the jump, he had to prime his audience to come with him. Carlson laid none of this groundwork. Carlson has been at the tippity-top of the traditional news business for so long that...he's completely unfamiliar with the internet and how it works. Bill Maher self-satisfiedly puts down the internet every week, he does not know that this is a bad look, makes him appear ignorant, after all, who wants the opinion of someone who never goes where the facts are? You can live in the bubble, but if you want to opine you've got to leave it.
Like RFK, Jr. My inbox is full of fans. Saying he's their candidate. I'm stunned, even RFK, Jr.s' wife went on record that she doesn't agree with his antivax beliefs. Furthermore, RFK, Jr. does not have a legacy of elected office, so one would think he's not even qualified. But somehow, RFK, Jr. is polling at about 20% compared to Biden. And today I saw an ad for him in the "Wall Street Journal." I was stunned, it was pretty convincing. RFK, Jr. is all about fighting for the little guy, public service, that resonates like Trump's statements in 2016, only RFK, Jr. is perceived to be more credible. The truth is RFK, Jr. could give Biden a run for his money. And then where would the DNC be? They anointed Biden too early. Everybody thinks he's too old. I was at the eye doctor yesterday, a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. He said every time he sees Biden he winces, he sees him slowing down, he'll vote for him, but...isn't there an alternative?
If you don't choose your alternative, someone else will. RFK, Jr. is building a base while every other potential Democrat is sitting on the sidelines, fearful of alienating Biden and the DNC.
If I hadn't gotten that plethora of e-mail, I would have never been hip to the inroads RFK, Jr. is making. I'm lucky, I'm in touch with a cornucopia of citizens 24/7, I hear all the different viewpoints, whereas most in traditional media are living inside the bubble. In addition it's a full-time job keeping up, and you can't keep up, but if you don't dedicate a good amount of time, you're out of the loop.
The younger generation? The supposed short attention span people? Stop accusing them, they're constantly grazing to get a feel, to take the temperature, that's the modern paradigm, get on board.
Turns out people believed in Fox more than Bill O'Reilly. Than Glenn Beck. And it's no different for Tucker. They were built by the machine. The Avett Brothers don't need the machine. Nor do Tedeschi Trucks or Phish or Warren Haynes. Because they all made it via the grass roots. Their audience is keeping them alive. And the audience is looking for them! These acts were not pushed down fans' throats, the fans found them, they followed them, they're invested in them. But despite the hype, time and again it's been proven that fans are less invested in the mass acts. Because the masses are fickle. And the true followers don't want to be associated with the mass, so they abandon the act.
So Tucker Carlson is starting all over. Not at the bottom, but close to it.
And Tucker made the classic mistake of someone who's been fired, believing they must get back in the game instantly. This almost always leads to mistakes. Your mind is not clear, you've got to assess the landscape. That's what Barry Diller did before he built his ragtag internet empire that made him a billionaire. Tucker should have licked his wounds and done research, gotten a feel for the world today. Come on, who else has made it broadcasting on Twitter? NO ONE! So Tucker needs to invent the paradigm along the way! YouTube, people subscribe. TikTok is where the eyeballs are. Twitter? Evanescent short messages. Not the place for Tucker.
And even if he cross-posts on YouTube, you've got to get people to pull it. Which is why TikTok is such a success, because of the algorithm, it feeds you the product.
And to see all the bloviators reporting on and endorsing Tucker's Twitter move... Illustrates to me that they've got no idea what is going on in the social media sphere. Because if they did...
But they're too busy doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, the ratings for Fox News are anemic anyway. Network ratings are in the toilet. Cable news? It's a joke! People hear about Tucker, but do they actually watch his show? Almost none do. So if he goes to Twitter...these none-fans might check him out, if even that, but odds are they're not going to become hard core fans and check every post.
Look at the highly-hyped acts. BTS. There are no casual fans. Just addicted fans and people who don't care, won't pay attention and won't listen. There's enough money for BTS to get rich, never mind those behind the act, but the money is coming from a very small percentage of the public, unlike in the old days when there was limited product and if radio in the sixties or MTV in the eighties played you you were known by everyone.
This is the world Tucker is living in. And he's got fewer fans than BTS. And BTS is EVERYWHERE! Sure, on television one place might be enough, but especially if you don't have a strong online presence, you've got to be everywhere today. Unless you're starting from the ground up, grass roots, because then people will pull your content and tell others about it and you will continue to grow. But this process is slower than ever before. Chances are the major label doesn't even sign your kind of music. And it can't do much for you. And if it does succeed in pushing you down people's throats, it alienates them. Come on, think of all the acts you're sick of and you've never even heard their music. But the endless hype is turning your stomach!
So you can go from grass roots to mass. It's just that it takes longer than ever before and mass success does not look like it used to. It might be very lucrative, but your overall mindshare will be less, because of the endless options, the difficulty of getting people to pay attention.
All we've got is time. You're looking for our attention. You've got to earn it. And it's very difficult to do and grow a significant audience. Everybody is looking for shortcuts, but they usually come at a cost. And if you're a product of the machine, you live and die by the machine. Fox is the machine, it excised Tucker Carlson.
Tucker's been sent to the minor leagues. But it works the other way around, you start in the minor leagues and then graduate to the big leagues! Essentially no one makes it if they go in reverse. Oh, they can always find a team to play ball for, but they're not going to be seen by many nor make much money and most...just give up.
I don't expect Tucker Carlson to give up, but if he was smart, he'd look for another mass job. And grow from there. To build it from the ground up, to start all over again, is just too hard, it's a fool's errand.
Come on, how many faded acts propelled by the machine into superstars came back independently to the same level, even close?
I can't think of a single one.
I rest my case.
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