Fox News host Tucker Carlson uses racist, homophobic slurs in 2nd set of recordings

By Michael Brice-Saddler, Eli Rosenberg

March 12, 2019 7:55 AM PT

Washington Post

A day after releasing audio of Tucker Carlson making numerous misogynist remarks, Media Matters for America published a new video with clips of the Fox News host using racist and homophobic language to describe Iraqis, African Americans, gays and immigrants while speaking on a radio program between 2006 and 2011, according to a report published Tuesday by the nonprofit.

Media Matters, which describes itself as a watchdog of “conservative misinformation in the U.S. media,” published the audio from Carlson’s appearances on a Tampa-based radio program, the “Bubba the Love Sponge Show,” just 25 hours after releasing similar recordings in which he’s heard flippantly using sexist language to express his views on child rape, rape shield laws, underage marriage and other sensitive topics.

The new audio highlights about a dozen instances of Carlson using racist language on the “shock jock” show, to which he apparently called in as a guest for about an hour per week. In 2008, Carlson lamented that “everyone’s embarrassed to be a white man,” and asserted that white men deserve credit for “creating civilization and stuff.”

In another instance, Carlson described Iraq is a “crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys,” adding, “That’s why it wasn’t worth invading.” In a 2006 segment on the show, Carlson said he had “zero sympathy” for the Iraqi people and their culture because they “don’t use toilet paper or forks.”

“They’re just so awful. Just awful,” Carlson said.

A co-host on the show replied: “They’re animals, dude. They are.”

In what appears to be commentary on when the United States should remove troops from Iraq, Carlson said, “The second we, I mean they, can just shut the … up and obey, is my view,” using a four-letter vulgarity.

“The second we leave, they’re going to be calling for us to return because they can’t govern themselves,” he added.

In March 2006, Carlson spoke about his desire for a presidential candidate to blame the “lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals.” That candidate would be “elected king” if they vowed to “kill as many of them as [they] can,” Carlson added.

Carlson also spoke crassly of immigrants and questioned President Obama’s identity as a black man.

“How is he black, for one thing? He has one white parent, one black parent,” he said in 2006. Two years later, he added, “I don’t know how black he is, but I’m sure he’s a good basketball player — he says he is, anyway.”

In a separate posting, Media Matters published a 2006 conversation between Carlson and the show’s host, Bubba the Love Sponge, a.k.a. Todd Clem, in which both used homophobic slurs.

About the same time the second video was released, Carlson opened his 8 p.m. Fox News show Monday with a defiant, six-minute diatribe in which he took aim at what he called a digital mob, and he refused to apologize.

“The great American outrage machine is a remarkable thing,” he said, in front of title cards that read “THE MOB” and “CRACKDOWN ON DISSENT.”

“One day you’re having dinner with your family imagining everything is fine, the next your phone is exploding with calls from reporters,” Carlson said.

He said he believed that his critics were motivated more by a lust for power than actual concerns. “But what if we stopped pretending for a minute? What if we acknowledged what’s actually going on? One side is deadly serious. They believe that politics is war. They’re not interested in abstractions or principles, rules or traditions,” he said. “They seek power. They plan to win it, whatever it takes.”

Then Carlson said the network supported him.

“First, Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day,” he said. “Toughness is a rare quality in a TV network, and we’re grateful for that. Second, we’ve always apologized when we’re wrong, and we’ll continue to do that. But we will never bow to the mob, ever, no matter what.”

The audio released Sunday by Media Matters compiled more than a dozen instances of Carlson’s commentary on the “Bubba the Love Sponge Show” between 2006 and 2011, in which he’s heard describing women as “extremely primitive” and suggesting that underage marriage is not as serious as forced child rape and that he would “love” a scenario involving young girls experimenting sexually.

Those clips quickly went viral, and the backlash was swift as many condemned Carlson for his views.

In a statement Sunday, Carlson classified his comments on the radio show as “naughty” and invited those who disagreed with them to appear on his television show.

“Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour,” Carlson wrote in the statement. “If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why.”

Carlson’s supporters slammed Sunday’s Media Matters report, calling it a “hit piece.” In a Monday night tweet, Fox News’ Brit Hume noted that Carlson’s 8 p.m. segment was the most watched show in cable news, writing, “Doing well is the best revenge.”

Michael Brice-Saddler and Eli Rosenberg write for the Washington Post.