We knew that Fox News talking head Tucker Carlson was one of the worst human beings this world has to offer. But a bombshell new, multi-part investigative report from the New York Times has just blown the lid off the Conservative television personality and exposed just how bad he truly is. And believe me, it’s even worse than you think, as the thundering report labels Tucker Carlson’s Fox show “the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
Times reporter Nick Confessore produced the detrimental piece that was published by the popular publication over the weekend, bearing the brutal headline: “How Tucker Carlson Stoked White Fear to Conquer Cable.”
Confessore, who serves as both a Times reporter and a contributor on MSNBC, detailed one particular meeting between Carlson and Fox tycoon Rupert Murdoch, regarding the brutal controversy Carlson was swimming in over his remark that undocumented immigrants are making America “poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
Confessore reports that Murdoch didn’t exactly discourage Carlson’s disgusting rhetoric, and soon the ultra Right-wing network began to see its ratings flourish as Tucker’s show doubled down on similar themes. The Times’ investigative report reads:
When ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ aired, Mr. Carlson doubled down, playing video of his earlier comments and citing a report from an Arizona government agency that said each illegal border crossing left up to eight pounds of litter in the desert. Afterward, on the way to the Christmas party, Mr. Carlson spoke directly with Mr. Murdoch, who praised his counterattack, according to a former Fox employee told of the exchange.
‘We’re good,’ Mr. Carlson said, grinning triumphantly, as he walked into the restaurant.
In the years since, Mr. Carlson has constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news — and also, by some measures, the most successful. Though he frequently declares himself an enemy of prejudice — ‘We don’t judge them by group, and we don’t judge them on their race,’ Mr. Carlson explained to an interviewer a few weeks before accusing impoverished immigrants of making America dirty — his show teaches loathing and fear. Night after night, hour by hour, Mr. Carlson warns his viewers that they inhabit a civilization under siege — by violent Black Lives Matter protesters in American cities, by diseased migrants from south of the border, by refugees importing alien cultures, and by tech companies and cultural elites who will silence them, or label them racist, if they complain. When refugees from Africa, numbering in the hundreds, began crossing into Texas from Mexico during the Trump administration, he warned that the continent’s high birthrates meant the new arrivals might soon ‘overwhelm our country and change it completely and forever.’ Amid nationwide outrage over George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer, Mr. Carlson dismissed those protesting the killing as ‘criminal mobs.’ Companies like Angie’s List and Papa John’s dropped their ads. The following month, ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ became the highest-rated cable news show in history.”
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Mediaite obtained a statement from Tucker Carlson Tonight senior executive producer Justin Wells on the heels of the bombshell Times report, reading, “Tucker Carlson programming embraces diversity of thought and presents various points of view in an industry where contrarian thought and the search for truth are often ignored. Stories in Tucker Carlson Tonight broadcasts and Tucker Carlson Originals documentaries undergo a rigorous editorial process. We’re also proud of our ongoing original reporting at a time when most in the media amplify only one point of view.”
You can read Confessore’s full, damning investigative report from the New York Times here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
