Kat Abu Hate-Watches Tucker Carlson for a Living (But Still Loves Her Job)

By J. Max Robins, March 9, 2023

Want a weekly sampling of vintage Tucker Carlson nationalist whines, without having to hate-watch his Fox News gabfest? Then let Kat Abughazaleh be your ultra-right-media sommelier.

Two years ago, fresh out of George Washington University, the telegenic 23-year-old was hired as a researcher and video producer by the non-profit progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America. Over the last few months, her biting video commentary on Carlson’s nightly rants, interspersed with tart observations on other Fox News talking heads, have turned Kat Abu, as she’s known on Twitter and TikTok, into a bit of a social media sensation. Her Twitter followers have nearly tripled to more than 140,000. And since Abughazaleh took to TikTok in January, she has amassed almost 75,000 followers and nearly a million likes for her videos. “People think I’m some kind of masochist or must be suffering from PTSD,” Abughazaleh tells me during our interview. “The truth is I love my job.”

Abughazaleh is motivated by her firm belief that Tucker Carlson and his fellow Fox News travelers present a clear and present danger to democracy. “You can bury your head in the sand, ignore the influence of Fox and think it’s all a joke,” she says. “Yes, Tucker, [Sean] Hannity, Jesse Watters all say stuff that’s outrageous and absurd and patently false, but because they’re on Fox, they have tremendous influence. We need to actively teach media literacy so people understand what’s going on and what’s at stake.”

Republican No More

A savvy social media native who grew up in a politically active, staunchly GOP Dallas household where Fox News was video wallpaper, Abughazaleh identified as a Republican in high school. But after moving to D.C. to study foreign policy at GWU during the Trump administration, her views took a decidedly left turn. Abughazaleh’s mom, perhaps her biggest cheerleader, has shifted along with her and become “super progressive too.” And her 16-year-old cousin has noticed her growing influencer status. “She asked me what I was doing on TikTok,” Abughazaleh says. “I’m too old to her because I was born in the ‘90s.”

A self-described “super-Type-A workaholic,” Abughazaleh rises no later than 6 a.m. to start her workday, mostly from her D.C. apartment. There are  always transcripts and video from Tucker Carlson Tonight to review, as well as other Fox News shows like The Five and Hannity. When we speak, she says she’s putting the finishing touches on a second weekly Fox News TikTok recapto address the Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion lawsuit that concisely outlines five damning pieces of evidence against the Rupert Murdoch news machine. Spending virtually 24/7 in the right-wing media ecosystem has deepened Abughazaleh’s appreciation for the entrenched power of the Fox News brand, leaving her with little hope that any revelations from the Dominion case will diminish either the network’s audience or its political clout.

Taking Tucker to Task

Using the platforms where her peers get their news, Abughazaleh takes aim at Carlson, who she believes is “a fascist, through and through.” While her young gimlet eye’s primary focus is  Carlson, her video commentary includes insightful outrage on the full cast of Fox personalities. Her Instagram bio reads: “I watch conservatives for work but make fun of them for pleasure.” In her recent weekly TikTok video recap, Top Five Totally Real Stories on Fox News This Week”, which is currently clocking nearly 800,000 views, Abughazaleh featured bites from a Carlson commentary where he theatrically ponders why the “untouchable bottom of the caste system”—          that is, “straight white men”—  should continue to pay taxes? “If your conservative uncle says that to you verbatim,” she advises, “you’ll know he got it from Tucker.” In the same TikTok, she eviscerates Sean Hannity endorsing Marjorie Taylor Greene’s “national divorce plan.”

Mainstream news outlets are taking notice of Abughazaleh’s work, most notably an appreciative profile on the New Yorker’swebsite several weeks ago.  “I didn’t realize that it was out until I started getting texts from my mom and other family and friends,” she says.

Lately, Abughazaleh has been targeted by right-wing trolls and has not shied away from going toe to toe. When Phil Labonte, an ultra-right commentator more than twice her age, creepily posted her Tinder profile online, her unflinching response was widely reported, winning her some 50,000 new Twitter followers. “I decided that I’m just sick of ignoring some of the weird shit people say about me,” she told The New Yorker, “and I’m going to call it out whenever horny old men try to embarrass me or make me feel creeped out.”

Will Tucker Run?

Carlson himself has yet to turn his high-pitched ire on Abughazaleh, who observed that, since the mid-term elections, “Tucker seems lost and searching for narratives that will connect with his audience.” Indeed, the aging  Bow Tie Boy has definitely been floundering. The first installment of his much-touted retelling of Jan. 6 is drawing heavy fire from GOP pols who were there. And, thanks to the Dominion lawsuit, each day brings new revelations about Carlson’s real opinion of Trump and his lies – “I hate him passionately.” Nevertheless, given his clout within the GOP and the desire of many in the party to leave Trump behind, could she imagine Carlson leaving his primetime perch and making a 2024 White House run?

“He doesn’t want to work that hard,” says Abughazaleh. “Tucker needs Fox News more than the network needs him. They could put Jesse Watters at 8 p.m., and the Fox News audience would follow. Whoever is there becomes the face of Fox News to its audience of mostly old people.”

Sage words from the Gen Z media sommelier, who’s doing her best to advise Americans not to swallow this most chilling vintage.

J. Max Robins (@jmaxrobins) is  executive director of the Center for Communication. The former editor-in-chief of Broadcasting & Cable, he has contributed to publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Columbia Journalism Review and Forbes. 

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