[ *** UPDATE, 6/6/2005: Tucker Carlson is moving to MSNBC starting Monday, June 13, with a new show titled "The Situation." My TiVo season pass mentioned below has now been changed to the new channel and new time. Bonus: The new show will be daily. *** ]
I have had a season pass to Tucker Carlson's weekly, half-hour PBS show "Unfiltered." Looking forward to seeing it each weekend is was one of life’s little pleasures for me. (Reason I have a “season pass”: That’s what TiVo calls it when you instruct it to automatically record every episode of a particular show.)
Why do I enjoy Tucker Carlson’s show so much more than the others? That’s what I asked myself last week. After thinking about my impression of Tucker’s show compared to my impressions of the other talk shows, the answer became clear: Tucker chooses expert guests, concisely states his thoughts, asks simple, direct questions, and then—the big surprise . . .
. . . he actually listens to their answers—without interrupting!
Hard to believe, isn’t it? Nevertheless, it’s true; I see it happen every weekend. The graphic at the bottom of this article contains irrefutable evidence that Tucker is a good listener.
Does he choose milquetoast guests who always share his views? Definitely not. Does he scoff when Zanny Minton Beddoes suggests alternative ways of thinking versus the conservative talking points? No. Does he grimace when Christopher Hitchens violates the rules of political correctness by speaking bluntly about Islamic fascism? No. What does Tucker do when a French intellectual, Bernard-Henri Levy, talks glowingly of his encounters with all Americans (possibly excepting his encounter with John Kerry) during his journey across our country? He politely tests his guest’s unexpected assertions and conclusions, then welcomes them. How does Tucker react when a leading geneticist, Dr. Francis Collins, who also happens to be a Christian, says that both sides of the “intelligent design” debate are making big mistakes? He listens intently, lets him finish his points, then probes for more information or clarification.
In short, I learn something every week from Tucker’s show, because he’s good at asking probing questions of his well-chosen guests, and then listening intently to their answers—in full, without interruption. Tucker does give us his opinion in a brief, opening monologue; refreshingly, he does not interrupt his subsequent guests in mid-sentence to spew his own dogma—unlike some other talk show hosts I can think of. Decorum is the ingredient Tucker provides, and it’s a scarce commodity these days.
Testing the hypothesis using the "Talk-to-Listen Ratio"
Before I posted this article, I wanted to test my hypothesis that Tucker is a better listener than other talk show hosts. I’m a skeptic; testing my hypotheses is my duty.
Because I have less time than others seem to have for this blogging task (see my About page), I chose one other talk show host, chose two interviews each, and then started counting words. MS Word made it easier with their word-count function, but it still took some time to compile the stats. Anyway, it’s done. Initial conclusion: my hypothesis survived the test. (Feel free to count the words in as many other interviews as you'd like, to obtain a more statistically significant test of the same hypothesis; I'm all done counting. Let me know what you discover.)
Below are links to the interviews I chose, followed by the results of the analysis.
Interviews chosen:
• Tucker Carlson interviewing Dr. Francis Collins
• Tucker Carlson interviewing Bernard-Henri Levy
• Bill O’Reilly interviewing Debra Saunders and Bob Kohn
• Bill O’Reilly interviewing Jon Stewart
Click to enlarge.
Footnote: Tucker Carlson's show is the only PBS program I have time to watch. Therefore, based on my sample of thirty minutes per week, PBS is 100% objective, fair, polite, informative, educational, and entertaining. I'll continue watching, and I won't be joining any debates about PBS being politically biased. [ UPDATE: Tucker is moving to MSNBC starting June 13, 2005. So much for my 30-minute weekly sample of PBS talk shows. ]
