Fox News host Tucker Carlson told a media critic from The Washington Post “go f*** yourself” this week in response to a request for comment, per the journalist’s blog.
“Normal people understand it’s wrong to go after a man’s family. But you don’t because you’re a soulless ghoul who literally works for Jeff Bezos,” Carlson said, according to Erik Wemple of The Washington Post. “Go f*** yourself.”
“Thin skin; no sense of proportion; a compulsion to attack; a reliance on conspiratorial thinking as a way of explaining the world: That quote captures the essential aspects of Tucker Carlson, none of them pretty,” said Wemple.
The journalist and blogger had reached out to Carlson regarding a report published in Axios Sunday. That Axios report was in turn about Carlson’s response to a Daily Beast article published Friday.
An anonymous GOP strategist quoted in the Daily Beast article told the outlet that U.S. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) decided to hire Carlson’s 25-year-old son Buckley as his communications director because he “dies to be liked by the Establishment.”
According to Axios, “an irate Tucker Carlson phoned Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), chairman of the House Republican campaign committee (who Banks is expected to face off against Emmer for House Republican whip) with an ultimatum on Friday,” after the article came out.
This ultimatum was to “either reveal which staff member took a swipe at Carlson's son, a Capitol Hill aide, in an article about internal House GOP politicking – or the Fox host would assume Emmer himself was to blame for the quote,” Axios said.
However, Emmer’s office told Carlson that they were not involved and did not supply the quote.
“Carlson was unpersuaded,” said Axios. “He made clear to Emmer that he now had a personal problem with him.”
Others have also supported Carlson in the matter, including Donald Trump, Jr., son of former President Donald Trump, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
Axios also noted that this is not the first time Trump allies “have gone after a House GOP member for perceived attacks on Carlson’s son,” as reported in POLITICO. Carlson and his son did not reply to a request for comment from Axios.
In his blog post, Wemple said that “journalists don’t do this sort of thing,” regarding Carlson’s behavior, adding that the Fox host has been an unnamed source himself in the past, according to The New York Times.
“Leak investigations are the enemy of journalists: They seek to identify and punish people who provide information in the public interest,” said Wemple.
Related
Related
