Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke Monday night about the resignation of his former lead writer, Blake Neff, who stepped down late last week after CNN reported on his long past history of posting racist comments and fans in an online forum that openly trafficked racist content. Carlson then announced that he was taking a “long-planned vacation.”
It appeared as an argument from both sides, in which he said that while what Neff wrote was incorrect, those in the media should be careful about their “self-righteousness.”
“First, what Blake wrote anonymously was wrong,” said Carlson. “We do not endorse those words. They have no connection to the show. It is wrong to attack people for qualities that they cannot control. In this country, we judge people by what they do, not by how they were born. ”
“We often say that because we mean it,” he continued. “We will continue to uphold that principle, often only among national news programs because it is essential, nothing is more important.”
He then targeted the media for having the audacity to report on Neff’s racist posts.
“Blake did not meet that standard and has paid a heavy price for it, but we must also point out to the ghouls who are now hitting their chests and succeeding in destroying a young man that self-righteousness also comes at a cost.” The right-wing host concluded. “We are all human. When we pretend that we are holy, we are lying. When we present ourselves as blameless to hurt other people, we are committing the most serious sin of all, and we will be punished for it. There is no doubt.
He then announced at the end of the broadcast that he would be taking a pre-planned vacation, apparently going to great lengths to make it clear that he had nothing to do with this current controversy.
“I am going to spend the next four days fishing for trout,” he said. “Long planned, this is one of those years where if you don’t get it now, you probably won’t if something dramatic happens, of course. We’ll be back.”
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that Carlson has taken a “pre-planned vacation” amid controversy. Last August, after facing a storm of controversy for calling white supremacy a “hoax,” Carlson announced over the air that he was “taking several days off” to go fishing.
There was a pattern in which Fox News hosts took what the network described as pre-planned vacations after being embroiled in controversy.
Laura Ingraham took a break after teasing Parkland survivor David Hogg. Sean Hannity went on vacation when advertisers started shooting themselves up after their embrace in the air of the Seth Rich conspiracy. Jesse Watters took a few days off after his comments from Ivanka Trump.
Then there was Carlson’s predecessor at the 8 pm time: Bill O’Reilly. Dealing with an exodus of sponsors on sexual harassment charges, O’Reilly announced in April 2017 that he was taking a break “because it’s Spring and Easter.” O’Reilly, of course, would never return.
According to CNN reports, Neff continued to make aggressively racist posts on the AutoAdmit message board for the past week, responding to a thread asking if you would let a “Congo JET BLACK n **** er do you lasik eye surgery for 50 years”. % off “when responding:” I wouldn’t get Asian LASIK for free, so no. “
In an interview with Dartmouth Alumni MagazineNeff once bragged that Carlson was “reading the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me.” He added that the program is “very aware that we have that power to influence the conversation, so we try to use it responsibly.”
Neff spent nearly four years as a writer-in-chief on Carlson’s Prime News Fox News. Before coming to Fox News, Neff served as a reporter for The Daily Caller, the conservative news site that Carlson co-founded. Meanwhile, the Daily Caller has a long history of attracting white nationalists and other bigoted writers, especially during Carlson’s tenure as chief editor.
In the past, Carlson has dismissed allegations that he is selling racist and white supremacist discussion points, saying in December 2019 that those allegations were “far from the truth” and “dishonest,” adding that he has nothing else. than “I despise people saying it.” She has also repeatedly denied knowing the racist comments and previous online posts of other Daily Caller writers.
After Neff’s resignation, Fox News executives sent an internal memo to Fox employees condemning the “horrible racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior of the writer.” Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace also attempted to portray Neff’s behavior as an aberration on Fox.
“Neff’s abhorrent conduct on this forum was never disclosed to the program or the network until Friday, at which point we quickly accepted his resignation,” they wrote. Make no mistake, actions like yours cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our workforce. “
Carlson’s show, while setting cable news ratings records, has come under fire for the host’s inflammatory rhetoric, especially over race and immigration. In recent weeks, the conservative fire brand has aggressively targeted the social justice movement Black Lives Matter, calling them a “terrorist organization” and a “mafia” that wants to destroy the United States.
“This can be many things, this moment we are living, but it is definitely not about black lives,” Carlson said in an infamous monologue on June 8. “And remember that when they come for you and at this rate, they will. Anyone who has been subjected to the mob’s fury knows the feeling. It’s like being surrounded by hornets. “
A Fox News spokesman later insisted to the Daily Beast that “Tucker’s warning about” when they come for you “was clearly referring to Democratic leaders and downtown politicians,” and not about BLM.
Carlson has seen his advertisers decline, and the pro-Trump MyPillow business represents a disproportionate amount of his business time. Sponsors began to flee seriously in December 2018 after he said immigration makes the United States “poorer and dirtier.” The following year, additional advertisers were rescued when he claimed that white supremacy was a “hoax” and a “conspiracy theory.”
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