Fox News host Tucker Carlson is feeling the heat this week after audio recordings of him spewing racist, homophobic, and misogynistic comments were leaked by progressive media watchdog Media Matters for America.
Now, the embattled news host is playing victim and claims he’s being attacked by a “bully” organization looking to take him to task for his own offensive and bullyish behavior.
Embattled host Tucker Carlson pointed the finger at Media Matters CEO Angelo Carusone over previous racist blog posts. (Photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons)
During a Wednesday night airing of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the 49-year-old host blasted Media Matters CEO Angelo Carusone, who he dubbed an “enthusiastic bigot.”
“It turns out that for years, Carusone maintained a racist blog,” Carlson alleged. “One post entitled ‘Tranny Paradise,’ addressed a crime story from Thailand. A Bangladeshi man had been robbed and assaulted by a group of male prostitutes dressed as women … Carusone objected to the idea that this was an actual story and ridiculed South Asians as inherently ugly and poor.”
He pointed to another post in which Carusone reportedly “described how a male coach at a Japanese high school had sexually abused female players. People in Japan were horrified by this, understandably. Carusone was not. His advice was, ‘”Lighten up, Japs. ‘”
Carusone recently appeared on MSNBC’s “All In” with Chris Hayes, where he argued that Carlson’s offensive and bigoted language were right in line with Fox News’ programming, saying, “‘the argument for pulling this out now, is one, because of his relationship to the president and … two [that] I think it gives some context and insights into what he does nightly on his program.”
Carlson didn’t take too kindly to the attack, however, and switched gears to criticize Hayes for failing to address Carusone’s alleged racist blog posts.
“Chris Hayes managed to pretend that none of this ever happened,” he ranted. “Hayes never mentioned the Jewish gold comment. He never said a word about the comments about ‘Japs,’ the ‘trannies,’ the Klan or even those ‘dirty Bangladeshis’ who deserve what they get no matter what the “trannie lovers” say. None of that.”
He added: “If a guy with a history of ranting about Jewish gold came on your show, wouldn’t you ask him about it? Would you challenge him on it? How would you not? You would feel morally obligated. But Chris Hayes didn’t. That tells you a lot.”
By Thursday, March 14, Carusone told Newsweek he wrote the posts in college and they were a parody of him “living my life as if I were a self-loathing, bigoted [Rush] Limbaugh right-winger.” Carusone went on to tell the magazine: “Every time Media Matters takes some meaningful action, some awful people bring it up to try to stop us. And every time, I will acknowledge that the writing was gross and apologize because the context only explains; it doesn’t excuse.”
Carlson’s attempt to shift blame comes amid backlash over his own past incendiary remarks, for which he has refused to apologize for. Controversy ensued Monday after Media Matters published interviews from shock jock radio program “Bubba the Love Sponge,” on which Carlson issued misogynistic rhetoric, defended statutory rape and downplayed the actions of convicted polygamist and child sex abuser Warren Jeffs.
In the clips, Carlson also described Martha Stewart’s daughter Alexis Stewart using a not-so-nice four-letter word and labeled celebrities Britney Spears and Paris Hilton as the” biggest white whores in America,” according to transcripts posted by the outlet.
Carlson has remained defiant through it all and said he refused to “bow to the mob” over his resurfaced comments.
Watch more in the video below.
