Fox News' Tucker Carlson Defends Sexist Comments on the Air as New Racist Recordings Are Released
Controversial Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson used Monday’s episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight to address newly resurfaced comments he made about women on a radio show in the 2000s. Spoiler alert: He’s not sorry.
Before we get into Carlson’s “response,” here’s some context: As reported by Media Matters, Carlson called into the Bubba the Love Sponge shock jock radio program between 2006 and 2011 with disparaging remarks about women. In addition to calling them “extremely primitive” and claiming that they enjoy being told to “be quiet and kind of do what you’re told,” he also addressed several famous women specifically. He referred to Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis as “c–ty,” called Arianna Huffington a “pig,” and dubbed Britney Spears and Paris Hilton “the biggest white whores in America.”
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But rather than using Monday’s episode to apologize for — or even attempt to clarify — his remarks, he used it to explain why he’ll never apologize, instead shifting the discussion to “liberal hypocrisy,” asking questions like, “Why are the people who consider Bill Clinton a hero lecturing me about sexism?”
He called the whole situation “bewildering … especially when the quotes in question are more than a decade old,” arguing that it’s “pointless to explain how the words were spoken in jest or taken out of context.”
In the end, Carlson said he wants his viewers to take away two points: First, “Fox News is behind us, as they have been from the very first day. Toughness is a rare quality in a TV network, and we’re very grateful for that.” Second, he said, “We’ve always apologized when we’re wrong, and we’ll continue to do so. That’s what decent people do. They apologize. We will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”
It should also be noted that Media Matters posted additional audio at the top of Carlson’s broadcast on Monday, revealing “white nationalist rhetoric and making racist remarks” he made on the show:
Unearthed audio shows Tucker Carlson using white nationalist rhetoric and making racist remarks https://t.co/RzpYgxwhRT pic.twitter.com/XumSIJFAxm
— Media Matters (@mmfa) March 12, 2019
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Video will be added when it becomes available. In the meantime, what do you make of Carlson’s expanded thoughts on his past remarks? Drop ’em in a comment below.
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