Fox News Channel’s Brit Hume says the reason why colleague Tucker Carlson is in the “boycott” crosshairs of activists is simple: ratings “dominance.”

The network’s senior political analyst told fans that “the left and its agents” will go to great lengths to derail a popular conservative’s career — particularly if the individual reaches millions on cable news.

At issue is a Media Matters story on Mr. Carlson’s old “Bubba the Love Sponge” appearances. His comments on women and other issues with the shock-jock have been used to fuel #BoycottTuckerCarlson on Twitter.

“What really drives the left and its agents nuts is that Tucker has succeeded in maintaining the Fox’s 8 pm hour dominance since Bill O’Reilly’s departure,” Mr. Hume tweeted Monday evening while linking to an op-ed by National Review’s David French.

“Doing well is the best revenge,” he added in a follow-up tweet juxtaposing Fox’s ratings with rivals CNN and MSNBC.

“Here’s the way it works,” Mr. French wrote for National Review. “If you’re a conservative or a Republican who attains any kind of prominence at all, then the hunt is on. Media Matters has its rolling list of allegedly bad or silly things I’ve said and written, for example. And the more prominent you are, the more diligent the hunt.”

“People will listen to hundreds of hours of radio shows or podcasts,” he continued. “They’ll watch tapes of cable news until their eyes glaze over. They’ll scan through hundreds of thousands of written words — letting the sum total of the person’s worldview and body of work wash over them — looking for that ‘gotcha’ moment, the word or phrase that proves “the bad man really is bad.”

Mr. Carlson reacted to the boycott campaign by telling critics, for all intents and purposes, to take a hike.

“Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago,” Mr. Carlson said. “Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch.”

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