New York Times Calls Out Tucker Carlson For “Calculated And Cruel” Segment Attacking Reporter

Ted Johnson
·4 min read
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SECOND UPDATE: Tucker Carlson again attacked a New York Times reporter in a segment on Wednesday night, calling her a “deeply unhappy narcissist.”

“We were embarrassed for Taylor Lorenz. She spends her entire life on the internet so of course you become a deeply unhappy narcissist,” he said, referring to one of her Twitter posts in which she said that “the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life.”

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He also went after The New York Times for its statement condemning his earlier remarks, saying that the publication “believes that anyone who disagrees with them is committing assault.”

He again claimed that the Times last year had been working on a story about his home. “The paper only stopped the story when we shamed them on this show,” he said.

“It’s a pretty good little scam The New York Times has got going. They get to hurt you at will, but you are not allowed to notice,” he said.

He then featured Sean Davis from The Federalist as a guest.

Lorenz later wrote on Twitter, “I hope people see this and recognize it for what it is, an attempt to mobilize an army of followers to memorize my name and instigate harassment.” She also posted an example of a vulgar message she had received.

She wrote, “As I said in this thread on international women’s day, no one should have to go through this, it’s become a far too common experience. Women, POC, LGBTQ journalists all suffer higher rates of abuse online, it has to stop.

Quote Tweet.”

UPDATED, with Fox News statement: The New York Times called out Tucker Carlson for a segment in which he mocked and attacked one of its tech reporters, Taylor Lorenz, for a tweet she send on International Women’s Day.

In a statement, the Times said, “In a now familiar move, Tucker Carlson opened his show last night by attacking a journalist. It was a calculated and cruel tactic, which he often deploys to unleash a wave of harassment and vitriol at his intended target. Taylor Lorenz is a talented New York Times journalist doing timely and essential reporting. Journalists should be able to do their jobs without facing harassment.”

Lorenz had tweeted on Monday about online harassment, writing, “For international women’s day please consider supporting women enduring online harassment. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the harassment and smear campaign I’ve had to endure over the past year has destroyed my life. No one should have to go through this.”

Fox News released a statement that said,“No public figure or journalist is immune to legitimate criticism of their reporting, claims or journalistic tactics.”

Carlson made the Twitter post a focus of a segment on Tuesday in which he said, “Lots of people are suffering right now, but no one is suffering quite as much as Taylor Lorenz is suffering. People have criticized her opinions on the Internet, and it has destroyed her life. Let’s pause on this International Women’s Day and recognize that. You thought female Uyghurs had it bad. You haven’t talked to Taylor Lorenz.” The chyron during the segment read, “Society’s biggest victims have the most powerful jobs.”

After the segment ran, Lorenz responded by noting that Carlson’s show even found a photo of her and made it her Twitter avatar as they displayed her tweet. In fact, she doesn’t have her image as her avatar.

She wrote, “I think it’s very weird of Tucker to *photoshop my avatar* to include my face. Stuff like this takes effort and is intentional…Yup, and the photo they used isn’t even from my IG, it’s from years ago. Tucker spent time and resources to photoshop my avatar into something it isn’t. That’s very much an intentional act!”

The Times also linked to a piece by The Washington Post’s Eric Wemple in which he examined the harassment faced by two Maine journalists who Carlson called out on his show. They had been reporting a story on Carlson for the Times. The Fox News host complained that the story was “on the location of my family’s house.” But Wemple reported that assurances were made to the network that the Times would not publish his address or photograph his home. The story itself, Wemple reported, was not hear publication.

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