After deliberately suggesting viewers dox two New York Times journalists over reporting Tucker Carlson knew would not happen, the journalists were not only doxed but have suffered death threats and an attempted home invasion. Yet Fox News has said nothing.
As I previously reported, Carlson played the victim as he claimed on the air this week that he was about to be doxed by the Times. Even though he knew that was not the case. But just to be malicious, Carlson baselessly accused two Times journalists of doing it to terrorize him and suggested they should be doxed. In all likelihood, Carlson knew full well that his fans would do their best to terrorize the journalists.
That is exactly what Carlson wrought. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple followed up on what happened to the two Maine-based journalists whom Carlson targeted for harassment, reporter Murray Carpenter and photographer Tristan Spinski:
In an interview with the Erik Wemple Blog, Spinski alleged that about an hour after the Carlson accusations, someone attempted to break into his Maine home while he and his wife were present. “It was like a booming sound, someone trying to get in,” says Spinski. “Our doors up until that segment aired had actually been unlocked.… When the segment aired, everything got locked and I’m glad it did because within an hour somebody was here.… We sort of put ourselves in the safest place we could away from the windows and called police and waited it out.”
…
Carpenter said he had received thousands of emails stemming from Carlson’s Monday night monologue, most of which were some mix of abusive, threatening and hateful. Family members, he said, have received direct threats as well. Though no one has shown up at his doorstep, Carpenter notified local police about the harassment.
What’s even worse is that Carlson’s victimhood was entirely fabricated by him – and Fox News allowed him to do so. More from Wemple:
Sources at the Times, however, insist that assurances were made to Fox News in at least two separate conversations that the newspaper wouldn’t either publish Carlson’s address or photograph his home. Those assurances were delivered before Monday night’s segment on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” A directive on Monday afternoon from a Times editor instructed Spinski and Carpenter not to photograph the residence.
According to a source at the paper, there was even a pledge that the story wouldn’t publish certain details about Carlson’s setup that had already been made public elsewhere. GQ and media outlets in Maine had reported many details about Carlson’s love of the Oxford County town where he has spent just about all his summers. That reporting includes the story of his purchase of an Oxford County garage — located “down the road” from his residence — to house his summertime “Tucker Carlson Tonight” studio.
Furthermore, Wemple pointed out that neither Carpenter and Spinski do the kind of reporting that would involve doxing. Yet Carlson said, in pre-scripted comments that were almost certainly approved by a producer, that Carpenter is a “political activist.”
As I noted on Tuesday, Carlson’s stunt occurred the day he returned from his “long-planned vacation” not long after his head writer was forced to resign over online racism and sexism. It was also the same day the married Carlson was named in a federal lawsuit alleging he had sexually harassed and retaliated against a frequent guest.
Maybe Carlson thinks he avenged himself by thrusting payback on the "liberal media" for outing his head writer and casting a spotlight on his own racist behavior. It was actually CNN’s Oliver Darcy who broke that news, after receiving a tip, but, hey, maybe all the so-called “liberal media” is the same to a guy like Carlson.
But I think this behavior only makes Carlson look more abhorrent and vile than ever. And it’s just the kind of predatory behavior I’d expect from a racist, sexual harasser. I have no idea as to the truth of the lawsuit’s allegations against Carlson but let’s just say it's beginning to look like a pattern.
I doubt this did anything to convince Carlson’s wife he didn’t proposition a guest while keeping her secured to her chair, as alleged, either.
(Carlson image via screen grab)