After new audio footage surfaced of Tucker Carlson making racial slurs toward the Obamas, Muslims, Iraqis and others, the Fox News host threw a seven-minute tantrum at the beginning of his primetime show on Monday.
Carlson suggested that his comments were “spoken in jest” or “taken out of context” and said he would “never bow to the mob” of people criticizing him or calling for his firing.
Not only did Carlson again refuse to offer a simple apology, but he didn’t even acknowledge the specific slurs released in the new audio footage.
Video of Carlson’s tantrum:
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— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) March 12, 2019
Naturally, Carlson took the opportunity to attack his opponents on the left and even took the usual jab at the Clintons.
“Why are the people who considered Bill Clinton a hero lecturing me about sexism?” he asked. “How can the party that demands racial quotas denounce other people as racist?”
He even attacked Republicans for being too quick to criticize hateful rhetoric.
“Republicans in Washington do a fairly credible imitation of an opposition party,” Carlson said. “But on the deepest level, it’s all a pose.”
Tucker Carlson should be fired
As I wrote a short time after Carlson’s latest spewings were released, the bar has always been pretty low for Fox News. But after more racist audio surfaced on Monday, even they should recognize that this is a guy who has no business being on television.
And despite what Carlson said during his meltdown, his comments weren’t taken out of context. This isn’t some isolated incident. Regular viewers of his program know that he spews racism regularly.
Obviously, Fox News has long since stopped caring about maintaining any shred of credibility. That has only become more apparent in the Donald Trump era of American politics.
But as they continue to give a platform to people like Carlson and others, like Laura Ingraham, who consistently use their timeslots to spew bigotry, they’ve gone well beyond their usual mantle of right-wing propaganda network. They’ve turned into a full-blown safe haven for white supremacist thought.
Fox News should fire Tucker Carlson. And while they’re at it, they should send Jeanine Pirro packing, too.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
