Tucker Carlson

• PBS's "Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered," host and managing editor
• CNN's "Crossfire," co-host
• "The Chris Matthews Show," panelist
• Policy Review, editorial staff

Controversy over Gore, Wellstone memorial

In a Weekly Standard cover story, Carlson claimed Gore had said the U.S. would have to spend $100 billion a year on his plan, when he actually wrote the rest of the world would pick up most of the tab.

Carlson also quoted Gore as writing "We now face the prospect of a global civil war", calling it a typical quote. But Gore said no such thing. Instead, Gore wrote we faced "the prospect of a kind of global civil war".

Carlson further claimed Gore had kept up a busy campaign schedule on the day his sister died in 1984, accusing him of callousness. But as his advance person wrote the magazine, Gore immediately flew to the hospital upon hearing she'd "taken a turn for the worse" and before that had often driven across the state of Tennessee to visit her.

Upon hearing this, Carlson responded by saying the real issue was not Gore's campaigning, but "the cheap way he treated her memory at the Democratic convention last year." What was he referring to? Gore had recounted his final conversation with his sister, who died of lung cancer, and explained how it inspired him to fight to protect "our children from the dangers of smoking." Carlson claimed that during Gore's 1984 senatorial campaign, Gore "didn't talk much about curbing smoking that year." But he later went on to quote a journalist who said that during the campaign Gore "was willing to call the tobacco industry Merchants of Death."

On Crossfire, Carlson said Sen. Paul Wellstone's memorial was "hijacked by partisan zealots and turned into a political rally. Republican friends of Senator Wellstone were booed and shouted down as they tried to speak." He called it "revolting" and said "It makes me sick." But as Carlson admitted to Al Franken, he hadn't actually watched the service, and the events that he described did not happen.

Duncan B. Black, Tucker Carlson: An unfiltered Media Matters for America analysis of the new PBS host, Media Matters for America, June 17, 2004.

Women want to be "spanked" and "bring a friend"

"One area of liberal phenomenon I support is female bi-sexuality -- this apparent increased willingness of girls to bring along a friend. That's a pretty good thing." [1]

"[Women] want to be listened to, protected and amused. And they want to be spanked vigorously every once in a while." [2]

ELLE: Who is your guilty fantasy?

TC: "Hillary. Every time I see her I think I could, you know, help.… She seems tense." [3]

Wartime flip-flop

In the May 12 New York Observer, Carlson said ""I think [the Iraq war is] a total nightmare and disaster, and I'm ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it." But the same night he attacked Senator Kerry for expressing the same view!

"Kerry did vote for it, but then he opposed it. Now he wants to prolong it. What does John Kerry think about Iraq? Who knows. Who cares." [4]

Democrats love crossdressers...

"So there you have it: cross-dressing and abortion, two great Democratic values that go great together." [5]

"... the Democratic Party has announced a new affirmative action plan for gays, lesbians, and cross-dressers. According to the Associated Press, the party has set sexuality-based quotas ..." [6]

But the AP article said exactly the opposite: "Officials are quick to point out that the goals aren't quotas. Neither a state nor a presidential campaign is penalized if they do not reach these goals." The article also noted the plan was not affiliated with the national party, but state parties.

... but hate churchgoers

Commenting during The Chris Matthews Show:

"People who run the Democratic party, its activist wing have contempt for churchgoers, and my experience is they absolutely do have contempt for churchgoers." [7]

Carlson provided no evidence for the claim. However, a CBS News/New York Times poll conducted two months earlier showed that 67% of Democrats think religion is very or extremely important, while only 9% consider it not at all important. [8]

Shant Mesrobian, "Tucker Carlson on Dems' outreach to "gays, lesbians, and cross-dressers"", Media Matters for America, May 26, 2004.
Nicole Casta, et. al., "It's not just the cable guys: conservative misinformation on Sunday morning", Media Matters for America, May 24, 2004.

Against the 'do not call' list, but don't call me

Carlson denounced the federal government's do-not-call list, which allows people to opt-out of receiving phone calls from telemarketers, saying: "Score one for any yuppie community. They've won the right to trample on free speech" and calling it "special interests legislation". [9] When the audience dared Carlson to give out his home phone number, he pretended to comply but actually gave out the number of Fox News's Washington switchboard. [10]

Hughes a liar

Carlson also interviewed George W. Bush for a 1999 profile in Talk, which featured Bush "swearing like a truck driver, making fun of Karla Faye Tucker's death penalty appeals, mimicking her saying, 'Don't kill me!'". In response, Bush communications director Karen Hughes said Carlson was lying and told Carlson she'd never heard Bush use profanity, even though Carlson claims he'd seen Hughes listen to Bush use profanity. Carlson told Salon:

"I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness." [11]

Norquist a "creep"

Carlson has broken ranks with some conservatives, calling fellow conservative Grover Norquist a "mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep ... the leering, drunken uncle everyone else wishes would stay home."[12]