Tag: Tucker Carlson

Conservative pundit slams Tucker Carlson as a ‘pampered man-child trust fund baby’

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Far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson had a major hissyfit on Thursday night, June 24 in response to Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley’s comments during a hearing on Capitol Hill. Gen. Milley told Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida that the history of racism is something that should be studied, inspiring Carlson to say that Milley is “not just a pig — he’s stupid.” And the following night, when Never Trump conservative Charlie Sykes appeared on MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour,” he slammed Carlson’s anti-Milley diatribe without hesitation.

Sykes told “11th Hour” host Brian Williams and fellow guest Bill Kristol (another Never Trump conservative), “Think about this: You have this pampered man-child trust fund baby calling a decorated veteran a pig and stupid. And you would think that people would step back and say, ‘OK, I’m sorry. You can disagree with the man, but we are a party and a movement that has always prided ourselves on respect for the military, respect for what he’s accomplished.’ Those stripes on his sleeve are not, you know, Venmo accounts. Those stripes on the sleeve are, you know, places that he has served his country.'”

Carlson definitely comes from a background of privilege. His full name is Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, and his stepmother is an heiress to Swanson Foods. Carlson’s father is a former U.S. ambassador. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson Calls Journalists ‘Animals.’ He’s Also Their Best Source.

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His platform on Fox News made him a big player in Donald Trump’s circle. Off camera, he shapes the coverage of Trump’s world and Fox’s own internal politics.

Last month, I texted Tucker Carlson to ask him a question that was on my mind: “Did you get vaccinated?”

“When was the last time you had sex with your wife and in what position?” he replied. “We can trade intimate details.”

Then we argued back and forth about vaccines, and he ended the conversation with a friendly invitation to return to his show. “Always a good time.” Continue reading.

Poll: Fox’s Carlson Driving Republican Racial Agenda

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A recent survey by Punchbowl News and Locust Street Group found that 87 percent of GOP congressional aides considered Fox prime-time host Tucker Carlson to be “the most influential Republican voice” outside of lawmakers and former presidents or vice presidents. The survey highlights the conservative star’s meteoric rise in both right-wing media and Republican politics: The GOP has hitched its policy wagon to Tucker Carlson Tonight at the same time that Fox has gone all-in on branding Carlson as the face of the network. And the result is waves of culture war political posturing by Republicans that is informing everything from their tweets to legislation.

Fox has long been the communications arm for the GOP, and the revolving door between the Trump administration and the network laid bare the extent of the ties between the channel and Republican policymaking. With Donald Trump now out of office, the close relationship between Fox and the GOP continues — with Tucker Carlson’s monologues effectively becoming the party platform.

In April, the Republican Party released a memo outlining its intention to keep the party aligned with Trump and their mutual cheerleaders at Fox. The platform highlighted GOP priorities such as “anti-wokeness,” the threat of China, and anti-conservative bias in Big Tech. The “traditional” issues of conservative politics — taxes, deregulation, the national debt — had disappeared, replaced by a list that reads more like a teaser for an hour of Fox News prime time. Continue reading.

Fox News now has a conspiracy theory that vindicates both Matt Gaetz and Donald Trump

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Fox News personality Tucker Carlson on Friday returned to his debunked conspiracy theory that it was actually the FBI — not Trump and his supporters — who were responsible for the January 6th insurrection.

After Carlson interviewed Glenn Greenwald, the host wondered if maybe the FBI set up not just Donald Trump supporters, but also Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).

“It does kind of make you wonder about Matt Gaetz, actually. Remember Matt Gaetz? He was engaged in child sex trafficking,” Carlson said with a mocking voice. Continue reading.

With Murdoch’s Encouragement, Carlson Promotes White Nationalist ‘Replacement’ Theory

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When Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch replied in April to the firestorm caused by his star Fox News host, Tucker Carlson, passionately invoking the “great replacement” conspiracy theory favored by white nationalists, Murdoch chose to lie. 

“A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory,” Murdoch wrote. This was obviously and insultingly false. Carlson had explicitly endorsed its core tenets during the April 8 segment, saying that “the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World.” White nationalists themselves knew better: They praised the Fox host for bringing their talking points to his massive audience.

His boss’ dishonest comment was a green light for Carlson to continue to promote that conspiracy theory — and the host took it as such. Over the past two months, as Carlson became the face of Fox, “replacement” has proven a dominant theme of his program. It also spread to other Foxpersonalities and, increasingly, to Republican political operatives and politicians as well. Given Carlson’s sway over both his network and the GOP, that trend is likely to continue. Continue reading.

Fox News Staffers Laugh at Calls for Tucker Carlson to Be Fired: Don’t Hold Your Breath!

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Another week, another #TuckerMustGo social-media trend. But as Fox insiders told The Daily Beast, Carlson is “untouchable” and not going anywhere.

It’s a scenario that has become all too familiar for media watchers: Fox News star Tucker Carlson is once again under fire for his offensive and inflammatory comments, sparking widespread backlash and calls for advertisers to drop his show and for Fox to fire him.

And the expected outcome is also all too familiar, as current and former Fox News staffers told The Daily Beast this week: The network does not care and nothing will happen to Carlson.

Earlier last week, the far-right, proudly nationalist host once again drove an entire news cycle with his trollish remarks, this time by calling on his millions of viewers to publicly harass people wearing masks outside and to call child protective services on parents of mask-wearing kids. Naturally, due to the potentially violent consequences of his commentary, the clip immediately went viral on social media and the hashtag #TuckerMustGo began trending on Twitter. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson Tells Fox Viewers to Call the Cops if They See Kids Wearing Masks Outdoors

The Fox News star implored his loyal viewers to openly harass and mock anyone they see wearing a face mask outdoors because “it’s repulsive.”

Raging against face masks on Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson told his viewers they should openly harass anyone they see wearing masks outside and go so far as to call the police or social services on the parents of any children with masks on.

Carlson, who was a proponent of mask-wearing to help stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic as recently as last March, has since become a fierce critic of face masks and other COVID-19 restrictions, guidelines, and mitigation efforts.

In this vein, and with the Biden administration set to further relax guidance on mask-wearing as coronavirus cases and deaths decrease nationwide as more Americans get vaccinated, Carlson opened up his top-rated Fox News primetime show on Monday night by blasting “neurotic” liberals who have been faithfully wearing face masks amid a deadly pandemic. Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson’s College Yearbook Entry Goes Viral, And It’s A Doozy

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The Fox News host affiliated himself with some eyebrow-raising groups.

Tucker Carlson’s college yearbook seemed to foretell plenty about the man whose bigotry would later fill the prime time airwaves on Fox News.

In a 1991 Trinity College yearbook entry now making the rounds on social media, Carlson wrote that he was part of the “Dan White Society.” News outlets presumed he was referring to the man who in 1978 murdered San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city Supervisor Harvey Milk, California’s first openly gay elected official.

Carlson also affiliated himself with the Jesse Helms Foundation, named after North Carolina’s longtime anti-gay and anti-civil rights senator. Continue reading.

‘Nope, done’: Tucker Carlson abruptly ends interview after former NYPD officer schools him on Derek Chauvin’s culpability

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On Tuesday, April 20, a jury found former Minneapolis police officer guilty of three charges in connection with the May 25, 2020 killing of Georgia Floyd: second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Far-right Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson, the night of April 20, discussed the verdict with Ed Gavin — a former deputy sheriff with the New York City Sheriff’s Department — and Carlson brought the interview to an abrupt end when he didn’t like Gavin’s analysis.

Carlson asked Gavin to weigh in on “what this means for law enforcement,” posing the question, “Who’s going to become a cop going forward, do you think?” Gavin responded, “I think people will still become police officers. This really is a learning experience for everyone. Let’s face it: what we say in that video was pure savagery. I mean, the documentary evidence showed the police officer putting his knee on the perpetrator’s neck while he was rear-cuffed and his stomach was on the ground, causing positional asphyxia.”

Gavin continued, “What I’d like to see is more training for police. I’d like to see the police trained as EMTs, like in the fire department.” Continue reading.

Tucker Carlson villainizes journalists on his top-rated show. Then the threats pour in.

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As the Fox host’s popularity grows, he has found fodder in lesser-known media figures whom he presents as symbols of liberalism-run-amok.

Brandy Zadrozny, a reporter for NBC News who covers online extremism, was working on a story last fall about the right-wing websites that had promoted conspiracy theories about Hunter Biden. One of her queries was to Darren Beattie, a former Donald Trump speechwriter who allegedly wrote for one of those sites.

But instead of answering her questions, Beattie lashed out at Zadrozny in a blog post calling her an “ideologically-motivated hit-man” with a practice of “targeting Trump supporters for doxing, censorship and harassment.”

It might have remained a small, nasty online grudge. But Beattie soon got an opportunity to bring his views to a much-larger platform: that night’s episode of Tucker Carlson’s prime-time Fox News show, which was watched by more than 5.3 million people. Continue reading.