After historian Rutger Bregman released a recording of Tucker Carlson calling him a “moron” who should “Go F**k yourself,” Carlson doubled down with a “sorry, not sorry.”
As I wrote in my post about that ill-fated segment, I think Bregman was wrong to throw out insults in response to Carlson's legit questions. Even worse, he blew an opportunity for a potentially substantive discussion about his theories for getting the wealthiest to pay more taxes. Had Carlson pulled a gotcha, Bregman could have fired back on all cylinders with my blessings. But by firing first with attacks on Carlson and Fox, even as Carlson seemed genuinely interested in Bregman’s thoughts, it all but guaranteed the discussion would go off the rails and likely never air.
However, that is not to say that Carlson was blameless. He could have ended the discussion with something like, “Look, I wanted to have a serious discussion with you but you only seem interested in insulting me and Fox News.” Instead, Carlson went all spoiled-frat-boy: “I want to say to you, why don’t you go f*** yourself, you tiny brain – and I hope this gets picked up because you’re a moron.” (You can view the entire discussion here.)
Last night, Carlson said, “It’s not clear that Bregman’s ever seen Fox,” despite the fact that Bregman specifically told Carlson, “I do my homework” and had watched the show.
Carlson took specific issue with one of Bregman’s accusations, that Carlson’s “corporate masters tell me what to say on this show.” I think Carlson’s right about that. I have always thought his bigoted nastiness is his own. However his claim that nobody tells him what to say is, I believe, disingenuous. As the liberal “Fox mole” Joe Muto wrote about his experiences working for The O’Reilly Factor, “Theoretically, each show could talk about whatever they wanted to talk about, and take any angle they wanted to take” but, “Realistically, there was tremendous pressure to hew closely to the company line.”
Every organization that I’ve worked for has unwritten rules. It’s hard to imagine that Fox News, whose interests are now so aligned with Donald Trump’s, really has an “anything goes” attitude toward its on-air content.
Carlson went on to suggest that his profanity was the only reason for not airing the segment: “I did what I try hard never to do on this show and I was rude,” he said.
Sorry to break this to you, Tucker, but you are rude to nearly ever guest you disagree with. Maybe you don’t curse them out but you might as well.
“I called him a moron and then I modified that word with the vulgar, Anglo-Saxon term that is also intelligible in Dutch,” Carlson continued. “In my defense, I would say that is entirely accurate but you’re not allowed to use that word on television. So once I’d said it out loud, there was no airing the segment. As it turns out, Bregman taped our exchange. He released the audio today and if you like, you can listen to it. There is some profanity and I apologize for that. On the other hand, it was genuinely heartfelt. I meant it with total sincerity.”
Watch Carlson’s non-apology below, from the February 20, 2019 Tucker Carlson Tonight.