The stupendously dishonest Tucker Carlson
Fox News yesterday told the Erik Wemple Blog to be ready to discuss the very broad topic of media bias and the 2016 election on our appearance last night on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Instead, host Tucker Carlson wished to discuss the appearance in The Washington Post of native-advertising supplements promoting Russia — what he termed “paid propaganda” for the Kremlin. He folded this offense into the larger context of discussions about fake news.
So this was purposely deceptive ambush journalism. So what?! From watching a great deal of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” it’s clear that blindsiding his guests and keeping them from issuing fully formed answers is the official MO. Plus, this blog has been critical of Carlson’s work, both at the Daily Caller and at Fox News. There was no question that he was using the smokescreen of a vague topic to blast away at the Erik Wemple Blog. Deal with it.
Another level of deception occurred on air, when Carlson alleged that the Erik Wemple Blog fails to provide accountability coverage of The Post. In contrast to Carlson himself — who doesn’t referee Fox News’s mistakes and formerly ordered his underlings at the Daily Caller not to criticize Fox News — this blog has repeatedly criticized The Post over a number of journalistic and management issues. News outlets commonly don’t allow such internal scrutiny.
We pointed out to Carlson that we’d written a critical piece of The Post just last month, after the newspaper stumbled by inaccurately reporting that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid. Our post explored the mistakes and what we viewed as the insufficient explanation for them.
In our chat last night, Carlson didn’t view the post as a work of accountability. “You didn’t interview the reporters who wrote the story and then you end with this, ‘the missteps mar an otherwise spectacular run for the Post.’ Now when you write something that brown nosy, do you feel guilt?”
Since we had no idea Carlson would pursue this line of argument in the segment, we didn’t have the post in front of us. But we did remember that we didn’t “end” the post with those words. So we implored Carlson to provide the context necessary to properly inform the viewers eager to see the Erik Wemple Blog bloodied on live television. Now to the transcript:
CARLSON: Now when you write something that brown nosy, do you feel guilt?
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: No.
CARLSON: Do you feel like I’m doing my job as a hard-hitting media reporter, a spectacular run of my own publication, my own employers?
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: Finish the post, Mr. Carlson. Read till the end, please.
CARLSON: That’s actually the last — that’s the end of it, and then you go —
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: No, read until the end. Read the entire last paragraph, please, for me.
Carlson declined to do so, choosing instead to deflect the request.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...15/the-stupendously-dishonest-tucker-carlson/
Fox News yesterday told the Erik Wemple Blog to be ready to discuss the very broad topic of media bias and the 2016 election on our appearance last night on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Instead, host Tucker Carlson wished to discuss the appearance in The Washington Post of native-advertising supplements promoting Russia — what he termed “paid propaganda” for the Kremlin. He folded this offense into the larger context of discussions about fake news.
So this was purposely deceptive ambush journalism. So what?! From watching a great deal of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” it’s clear that blindsiding his guests and keeping them from issuing fully formed answers is the official MO. Plus, this blog has been critical of Carlson’s work, both at the Daily Caller and at Fox News. There was no question that he was using the smokescreen of a vague topic to blast away at the Erik Wemple Blog. Deal with it.
Another level of deception occurred on air, when Carlson alleged that the Erik Wemple Blog fails to provide accountability coverage of The Post. In contrast to Carlson himself — who doesn’t referee Fox News’s mistakes and formerly ordered his underlings at the Daily Caller not to criticize Fox News — this blog has repeatedly criticized The Post over a number of journalistic and management issues. News outlets commonly don’t allow such internal scrutiny.
We pointed out to Carlson that we’d written a critical piece of The Post just last month, after the newspaper stumbled by inaccurately reporting that Russian hackers had penetrated the U.S. electrical grid. Our post explored the mistakes and what we viewed as the insufficient explanation for them.
In our chat last night, Carlson didn’t view the post as a work of accountability. “You didn’t interview the reporters who wrote the story and then you end with this, ‘the missteps mar an otherwise spectacular run for the Post.’ Now when you write something that brown nosy, do you feel guilt?”
Since we had no idea Carlson would pursue this line of argument in the segment, we didn’t have the post in front of us. But we did remember that we didn’t “end” the post with those words. So we implored Carlson to provide the context necessary to properly inform the viewers eager to see the Erik Wemple Blog bloodied on live television. Now to the transcript:
CARLSON: Now when you write something that brown nosy, do you feel guilt?
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: No.
CARLSON: Do you feel like I’m doing my job as a hard-hitting media reporter, a spectacular run of my own publication, my own employers?
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: Finish the post, Mr. Carlson. Read till the end, please.
CARLSON: That’s actually the last — that’s the end of it, and then you go —
ERIK WEMPLE BLOG: No, read until the end. Read the entire last paragraph, please, for me.
Carlson declined to do so, choosing instead to deflect the request.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blog...15/the-stupendously-dishonest-tucker-carlson/
