When Tucker Carlson vowed he “never would” attack the Parkland school shooting survivors who have become gun control activists, that must have been so pre-March for our Lives ago. On the eve of the student-led national protests for gun control, Carlson spent more than 10 minutes on a segment Fox News called, “Tucker: Why I’m picking on kid activists like David Hogg.”
Of course, Carlson has been picking on the Parkland students all along. But back in February he was sly about it. He complained that those who questioned the teens’ legitimacy “have been denounced as immoral and heartless and how dare you question these kids or attack them – which, for the record, I am certainly not doing.”
Carlson also said this, on February 21, 2018:
CARLSON: People become political activists all the time in response to tragedies. That’s their right. Nobody ought to attack them for it. We are certainly not attacking them. We never would. We assume they have the best motives. Most of us have the best motives. Almost everybody is against school shootings. The question is what do you do about them?
Well, what a difference a national demonstration with hundreds of thousands expected in Washington, D.C., alone, makes!
Last night, Carlson cherry-picked a comment by Hogg, one of the most prominent Parkland activists, saying Florida Governor Rick Scott wants to sell more guns, see more children get murdered and get re-elected. The video clip of Hogg’s remarks looked like he was making off-the-cuff comments as part of an informal discussion. But for Carlson, that was worth 10 minutes of air time devoted to discrediting Hogg, his fellow student activists and, by extension, the entire March for Our Lives demonstration.
But that wasn’t enough smearing for Carlson. He painted the teens as anti-American:
CARLSON: I’m just very concerned that all this energy and the money from all these various billionaires is not making it better, it’s focused instead on taking the rights away from people who didn’t do anything wrong, like me and like all of middle America … who they hate, obviously.
Carlson also complained that the teens have not focused on the “four cops with guns who stood by” during the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School “because it doesn’t entail taking away the Second Amendment rights of the innocent.”
Guest Mark Glaze, a gun control advocate, put up a good argument but he never confronted the elephant in the room: Carlson had an agenda to attack the teens and used Hogg’s remark as an excuse. How do we know? When was the last time you saw Carlson spend 10 minutes attacking anything over-the-top from a conservative? I’ll bet no one ever has.
Donald Trump’s comments are far more consequential but I have never seen Carlson spend 10 minutes excoriating anything he said or tweeted. And Trump has not just accused others of wanting violence but has repeatedly encouraged violence. Remember his tweet of a train hitting a cartoon person covered by a CNN logo? Last summer when Donald Trump made his Charlottesville remarks, Carlson discussed it by blaming the media for the fallout and attacking liberals.
In any event, Carlson could have had a civil debate on the subject of gun control. But instead, he set out to make the discussion about smearing traumatized teens who happen to hold different beliefs from his own.
Watch Carlson pre-smear the March for Our Lives below, from the March 23, 2018 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
Coincidentally, Fox News frequently ran ads yesterday pimping their prime time pundit shows – Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham – spewing a mountain of bull manure. They’re trying to paint these 3 right-wing shills as being for the little, forgotten guy. Memo to Fox News: they’re not all older conservative white males who live in rural America. Tucker – who is infamous for cutting off and shouting down anyone he disagrees with – made it sound like he invited civil debate.
I’m also tired of the generic smear if you don’t agree with me you’re a hater. Not that Tucker or even conservatives are the only ones guilty of this sin but I’m going to call him out for it here. To suggest the motives of people for gun control is based on anything but the belief it’s part of the solutions is disgusting. It certainly is disgusting to suggest they – we – hate middle America (of which I and most of those proposing gun control are a part of).