The cable news format allows Tucker Carlson to spread misinformation

The Washington Post

"Consider the nature of television relative to other formats for a moment," says The Washington Post's Philip Bump. "When you read this article, for example, you can return to it, over and over. You can step back and reread the preceding paragraph, mull it over, consider it. You can read this whole article again in a week or a month. What I say can be easily challenged and debated. With Carlson, that’s much harder. What he says is broadcast live — then disappears into the past. His show re-airs at various times, and clips or transcripts sometimes pop up online. But not always. There’s no way for his audience to easily reconsider what he says. The age of the DVR makes that possible, yes, but not as easy as rereading this paragraph from the beginning. All this makes it much easier to say something untrue or incorrect — then simply press forward. It’s not clear what Fox News’s policy on corrections is (a spokesperson for the network didn’t reply to my question on the subject), but there have been dozens of false claims made by Carlson in recent months that his viewers will never know were false."