Tucker Carlson is one of the most influential and popular podcasters in the world. He is, not to put too fine a point on it, a podcasting sensation, a master of one of the most important of all modern broadcast mediums. Millions of followers hang on his utterances and appearances. Carlson has 2.6 million YouTube subscribers, 13.3 million followers on X, and 3.9 million on Instagram. But for all the popularity, there’s a problem.

Like Carlson, who was originally a mainstream Republican, Coughlin started out as a mainstream figure

Like Carlson, who was originally a mainstream Republican, Coughlin started out as a mainstream figure

Nearly a century separates Carlson from Charles Coughlin, yet the parallels are so striking as to be eerie. Coughlin – known at the time as Father Coughlin – was a Catholic priest who became one of the first public figures to realise the potential of broadcasting (in his case radio). In the 1930s, he was so huge a figure in American public life that he would get 30 million listeners for his weekly broadcasts. As one obituary put it when he died in 1979, Coughlin ‘held millions of American radio listeners in his thrall, playing to their fears while also stoking their prejudices.’

Like Carlson, who was originally a mainstream Republican, Coughlin started out as a mainstream figure. He was a leading supporter of Franklin Roosevelt in the 1932 election, coining the phrase ‘Roosevelt or Ruin.’........

© The Spectator