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EspañolTUCKER CARLSON
'Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson' (born May 16, 1969) is a conservative political news pundit who formerly co-hosted ''Crossfire'' and currently hosts ''>Tucker'', a national television news show, which is broadcast weekdays at 6 p.m. ET on MSNBC.
Family and education
He is a son of Richard Warner Carlson, a former banker, Los Angeles local news anchor, U.S. ambassador to the Seychelles, director of the U.S. Information Agency, and president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. His mother is the former Patricia Caroline Swanson. He has one sibling, Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson. Carlson's maternal grandmother, Roberta Fulbright Swanson, was a sister of U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright.[1], while his Swedish immigrant great-grandfather Carl A. Carlson founded Swanson, the frozen-foods conglomerate.
Carlson attended St. George's School, a boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island. After graduation, he majored in history at the private liberal arts Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, but did not receive a degree.
He is married to the former Susan Andrews, with whom he has four children: Lillie, Hope, Dorothy, and Buckley II.
Journalism career
Carlson began his journalism career as a member of the editorial staff of ''Policy Review'', a national conservative journal now published by the Hoover Institution. He later worked as a reporter at the regionally influential ''Arkansas Democrat-Gazette'' newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Carlson is the current host of the MSNBC program ''Tucker'' at 6 p.m. ET. Carlson joined MSNBC in February 2005 from CNN, where he was the youngest anchor in the history of that network. At CNN, he hosted a number of shows and specials, including the network’s political debate program, ''Crossfire''. During the same period, Carlson also hosted a weekly public affairs program on PBS, ''Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered''." A longtime magazine and newspaper journalist, Carlson has reported from around the world, most recently from Iraq and Lebanon. He has been a columnist for ''New York'' and ''Reader's Digest''. He currently writes for ''Esquire'', ''The Weekly Standard'' and ''The New York Times Magazine''.
Autobiography discusses false rape allegation
In 2003, Carlson authored an autobiography, ''Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News'', about his television news experiences. One of the book's revelations was Carlson's description of how he was accused of rape by a woman he had never met in a city he had never visited. Charges against him were never brought, and it was later revealed that his accuser had a chronic mental illness. Carlson wrote in the book that the incident was emotionally traumatic and strengthened his belief in the presumption of innocence, particularly on allegations of a sexual nature.
National television career
CNN and PBS shows
Prior to hosting ''Tucker'' on MSNBC, Carlson got his television start in 2000 as co-host of ''The Spin Room'' opposite Bill Press. He later was appointed co-host of ''Crossfire'', where he represented the political right. He also previously hosted PBS's ''Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered'' from 2004 to 2005.
2004 confrontation with Comedy Central's Jon Stewart
One of Carlson's most memorable appearances on ''Crossfire'' was his heated exchange with Jon Stewart, host of ''The Daily Show,'' prior to the 2004 presidential election. Stewart criticized the format of shows like ''Crossfire,'' calling Carlson and co-host Paul Begala "partisan hacks," and asked them to "stop hurting America."
Carlson countered by criticizing Stewart's July 2004 interview with former U.S. Presidential candidate John Kerry. He accused Stewart of "sniffing Kerry's throne" and "not asking tough questions." Stewart replied "I didn't realize that [...] the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity." After Carlson told Stewart "I think you're more fun on your show." Stewart replied by saying, "You know what's interesting though? You're as big a dick on your show as you are on any show!" Carlson replied by saying "Now you're getting into it...I like that!" [2]
Carlson remained polite about Stewart after their televised confrontation, recalling that Stewart "stayed at CNN several hours after the show to discuss the issues that he raised on the air. It was heartfelt," stated Carlson in an interview about the episode. "He (Stewart) needed to do this."[3]
Shortly after the Stewart interview, CNN announced they were ending their relationship with Carlson and would soon cancel the long-running ''Crossfire'' program. CNN chief Jonathan Klein told Carlson on January 4, 2005, that the network had decided not to renew his contract.[4] Carlson, however, claims he had already resigned from CNN and ''Crossfire'' long before Stewart was booked as a guest, telling host Patricia Duff: "I resigned from ''Crossfire'' in April, many months before Jon Stewart came on our show, because I didn't like the partisanship, and I thought in some ways it was kind of a pointless conversation... each side coming out, you know, [raises fists] 'Here's my argument,' and no one listening to anyone else. [CNN] was a frustrating place to work."[5]
MSNBC's ''Tucker''
On February 2, 2005, MSNBC announced that they had signed Carlson to develop and host a primetime (9 p.m. ET originally) MSNBC show, as a replacement for Deborah Norville.
''The Situation with Tucker Carlson'' premiered on June 13, 2005, with Al Sharpton as one of Carlson's first guests. The format of the show was similar to that of the ESPN sports show, ''Pardon the Interruption,'' where issues are debated for defined amounts of time.
Carlson's show was moved to 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET on July 10, 2006, with the title being shortened to ''Tucker.'' The show's formerly rigid, timed format has been abandoned, in favor of a more free-form mixture of news, opinion journalism, and guest analysis. The topic list was removed, as well as the segments with Max Kellerman and Rachel Maddow. Segments called "Beat the Press" and "Breaking the News" were added but later removed. MSNBC continues to fine tune the show. 2007 brought a new format for the show with Tucker situated behind a desk and moderating a duo or trio of guests (recurring guests include A.B. Stoddard and Pat Buchanan) who discuss the major political stories of the day. Also included at the end of the show is a segment that covers lighter topics such as entertainment news. The segment is narrated by ''Tucker'' senior producer Willie Geist.
Carlson hosted a late afternoon weekday wrap-up for MSNBC during the 2006 Winter Olympics, during which he attempted to 'learn' how to play various Olympic sports. In July 2006, he reported live for ''Tucker'' from Haifa, Israel, during the 2006 Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. While in the Middle East, he also hosted "MSNBC Special Report: Mideast Crisis," which aired at 10 p.m. ET.
Political views
Partisan ambivalence
Carlson has stated that while he votes, and cares deeply about conservative ideas, he does not care about the success or failure of any political party. In addition, his definitions of "conservative" views often conflict with the partisan mainstream opinion. This has created tension between Carlson and staunch Republicans.
Carlson has stated that U.S. President George W. Bush is not a true conservative. Despite his general reputation as a political conservative, this and other views have been interpreted as partisan ambivalence by some Republican (GOP) political figures and movement conservatives.[6]
In an August 27, 2004 ''Washington Post'' interview, Carlson expressed his "displeasure with Bush." "Why do so many anti-war liberals give Kerry a pass when he adopts the Bush view on Iraq, as he has? The amount of team-playing on the left depresses me."[7]
"I don't know what you consider conservative," Carlson said, "but I'm not much of a liberal, as least as the word is currently defined. For instance, I'm utterly opposed to abortion, which I think is horrible and cruel. I think affirmative action is wrong. I'd like to slow immigration pretty dramatically. I hate all nanny-state regulations, such as seat belt laws and smoking bans. I'm not for big government. I think the U.S. ought to hesitate before intervening abroad. I think these are conservative impulses. So by my criteria, Bush isn't much of a conservative."
Republican Party allegations of liberalism
Conservative Republicans have accused Carlson of not being sufficiently conservative. This first began following Carlson's public and private endorsement of former Presidential candidate John McCain. Speaking to Salon.com, Carlson responded: "I liked McCain. And I would have voted for McCain for president happily, not because I agree with his politics; I never took McCain's politics seriously enough even to have strong feelings about them. I don't think McCain has very strong politics. He's interested in ideas almost as little as George W. Bush is. McCain isn't intellectual, and doesn't have a strong ideology at all. He's wound up sort of as a liberal Republican because he's mad at other Republicans, not because he's a liberal."[8]
1999 Bush interview
In 1999, during the 2000 Republican Presidential primary race, Carlson interviewed Bush, then Governor of Texas, for ''Talk magazine.'' Carlson reported that Bush mocked soon-to-be-executed Texas death row inmate Karla Faye Tucker and "cursed like a sailor." Bush's communications director Karen Hughes publicly disputed this claim. Carlson did not vote in the 2004 election, citing his disgust with the Iraq war and his disillusionment with the once small-government Republican party.
Asked by Salon about the response to his article on Bush, Carlson characterized it as "very, very hostile. The reaction was: You betrayed us. Well, I was never there as a partisan to begin with. Then I heard that (on the campaign bus, Bush communications director) Karen Hughes accused me of lying. And so I called Karen and asked her why she was saying this, and she had this almost Orwellian rap that she laid on me about how things she'd heard -- that I watched her hear -- she in fact had never heard, and she'd never heard Bush use profanity ever. It was insane. I've obviously been lied to a lot by campaign operatives, but the striking thing about the way she lied was she knew I knew she was lying, and she did it anyway. There is no word in English that captures that. It almost crosses over from bravado into mental illness. They get carried away, consultants do, in the heat of the campaign, they're really invested in this. A lot of times they really like the candidate. That's all conventional. But on some level, you think, there's a hint of recognition that there is reality -- even if they don't recognize reality exists -- there is an objective truth. With Karen you didn't get that sense at all. A lot of people like her. A lot of people I know like her. I'm not one of them."
Supporting, then opposing, the U.S. war in Iraq
Carlson initially supported the U.S. war with Iraq during its first year. After a year, he began criticizing the war, telling the ''New York Observer'': "I think it’s a total nightmare and disaster, and I’m ashamed that I went against my own instincts in supporting it. It’s something I’ll never do again. Never. I got convinced by a friend of mine who’s smarter than I am, and I shouldn’t have done that. No. I want things to work out, but I’m enraged by it, actually."[9]
Critic of Norquist
Carlson has also been a critic of conservative activist Grover Norquist, calling him a "mean-spirited, humorless, dishonest little creep ... an embarrassing anomaly, the leering, drunken uncle everyone else wishes would stay home...[he] is repulsive, granted, but there aren't nearly enough of him to start a purge trial."[10] According to ''American Politics Journal,'' Carlson went a step further, characterizing Norquist as a "buffoon commissar who has misplaced his principles to the extent of accepting money to lobby on behalf of the Marxist government of the Seychelles."[11]
Confrontations between Carlson and Norquist escalated, with Carlson dismissing Norquist's weekly conservative movement meetings as events "where conservative-movement activists, political strategists, Congressional staffers, and conservative journalists who are deemed loyal from rags like ''National Review'' and ''The Washington Times'' gather to hash out the GOP party line." Carlson then wrote a critical profile of Norquist.
Norquist retaliation?
In a move rumored by Beltway insiders to have been retaliation for the profile, Norquist tried to convince media mogul Rupert Murdoch to abandon financial support for the ''Weekly Standard,'' for which Carlson was a writer. Author David Brock alleged Carlson told him that then-U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich became involved in the feud, and that Carlson's job was endangered. Norquist has since denied using such tactics with Carlson, although he has admitted telephoning Murdoch insider Eric Breindel to discuss "alleged inaccuracies in Carlson's piece."
Defending Rainbow Warrior mining
Carlson drew criticism from Greenpeace in July 2005 after stating that he supported the French government's 1985 mining of the Greenpeace ship ''Rainbow Warrior'' in a New Zealand port to prevent it from interfering with a scheduled nuclear test. Following the mining, the ship sank, resulting in the drowning of a Greenpeace photographer and creating an international scandal. Carlson called the operation "a bold and good thing to do" on his MSNBC show,[12] and said that it was "vandalism," not terrorism, because "it wasn't intended to kill anyone."[13]
Canada, the "retarded cousin"
Carlson has also made polemic remarks about Canada, describing Canadians as being very "brittle." "Anybody with any ambition at all, or intelligence, has left Canada and is now living in New York," he has said. "Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada."[14] Carlson later appeared on Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's '','' saying that while he had "nothing against Canada" his description accurately reflected how "a lot of Americans see you."
Gay marriage
On July 24, 2007, Carlson said on his show, "I'm just for marriage generally. I'm for people making a lifelong commitment. Do you know what I mean? I'm not against gay marriage, actually, and I'm the most right-wing person I know."[15] Carlson later went on to say, "I think, marriage has been a great thing for me, and I think it's a really civilizing force, and I think it would be a civilizing force for gay people too."
Libertarianism
On May 3, 2007, Carlson interviewed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and admitted to voting for Paul in 1988 when he was running as the Libertarian Party presidential candidate.[16]
Tucker has also made various comments recently suggesting that he is supporting Ron Paul in the Republican Primaries.
Sirius Satellite appearances
Carlson also appears as a regular weekly guest on the ''Bubba the Love Sponge'' radio show on Sirius Satellite Radio on Howard 101, every Tuesday at either 4:30 p.m. (ET) or 5:00 p.m. (ET). Tucker Carlson appeared on the ''Bubba the Love Sponge'' show at 9:00 a.m. (ET) on Friday August 24,2007.
Bow ties
On April 11, 2006, Carlson (who is known for wearing bow-ties) announced on his MSNBC show that he would no longer be wearing a bow-tie, adding, "I just decided I wanted to give my neck a break. A little change is good once in a while, and I feel better already." He now wears neckties on the air. Carlson had previously been mocked for his bow-ties, and the matter was often teasingly brought up in many interviews over the years.
''Dancing with the Stars''
On August 14, 2006, the ABC television network announced that Carlson would be a participant in its Fall 2006 ''Dancing with the Stars'' reality show.
Carlson reportedly took four-hour-a-day ballroom dance classes in preparation for the competition, and mourned of "missed classes" during an MSNBC assignment in Lebanon.[17] "It's hard for me to remember the moves," he stated. When asked why he accepted ABC's invitation to perform, Carlson responded, "I'm not defending it as the smartest choice, but I think it's the most interesting. I think if you sat back and tried to plan my career, you might not choose this. But my only criterion is the interest level. I want to lead an interesting life." He concluded, "I'm 37. I've got four kids. I have a steady job. I don't do things that I'm not good at very often. I'm psyched to get to do that."
The gambling site BetBet placed Carlson's odds of winning the competition at 15:1.[18] Jerry Springer was ranked as having the longest odds of winning, at 30:1.
Carlson was voted off on September 13. His performance on the previous night was the lowest ranked among the judges; the low score resulted from him spending much of the performance sitting down in a chair. MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, at the end of his show that night, said of Carlson's performance: "Any dance a man spends part of which in a chair is, by definition, a lap dance!"
At the close of the show Carlson said: “Teaching me (to dance) is like Einstein teaching a slow child math.”
CBS game show
In April 2007, the entertainment publication ''Variety'' reported that Carlson would host a game show pilot for CBS titled ''Do You Trust Me?''.[19] According to ''Variety'', the show has been picked up for a six episode run[20] with Carlson as host. CBS has not yet announced specifics as to when the show will air.
Criticism
Carlson was ranked 93rd in the 2006 book ''101 People Who Are Really Screwing America'' (ISBN 1-56025-875-6), by author Jack Huberman.
On the conservative Media Research Center-owned blog "Newsbusters", Carlson was called an "MSNBC conservative" explaining that: "Carlson is clearly the kind of conservative MSNBC could love - one who doesn't support the incumbent Republican president and opposes the cornerstone of his foreign policy. It's the same phenomenon that explains Pat Buchanan's ubiquity on MSNBC."[21]
On air assault confession
On ''MSNBC Live'', on 28 August 2007, Carlson told host Dan Abrams that as a teenager, he and a friend physically assaulted a man who reportedly "bothered" Carlson in a public restroom in Georgetown Park in Washington, D.C.. As Carlson explained, "I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the -- you know, and grabbed him, and ... hit him against the stall with his head, actually. ... And then the cops came and arrested him."[22] [23]
A day later, Carlson described the incident differently in a statement to Media Matters for America, which had reported on the exchange, writing:
In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.
Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me.
In multiple later airings of the 28 August 2007 episode of ''MSNBC Live'', Carlson's comments about the 1980s incident were omitted.[24] After Carlson justified his behaviors with his second statement, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) and Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) expressed outrage and called on Carlson and MSNBC to apologize for "remarks that appear to condone violent assault" against gay people.[25][26] Neither MSNBC nor Carlson has produced police records of the alleged "sexual attack" and "assault" which prompted Carlson's vigilantism.[27]
Grateful Dead
He stated in August 2006 on MSNBC's ''Tucker'' that he is an ardent fan of Grateful Dead and late Grateful Dead guitarist and songwriter Jerry Garcia, and claims to have attended more than 50 of the Grateful Dead's shows. This puts him in the company of fellow conservative pundit Ann Coulter,[28] liberal actor and activist Edward Norton, and politico (via ''Saturday Night Live'') Al Franken, all of whom also profess to being "Deadheads."
Popular culture references
★ Carlson and Chris Matthews played themselves in a fictional edition of ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'' seen in the ''30 Rock'' episode "Hard Ball."
★ Carlson made a brief appearance during a dream sequence in an episode of ''King of Queens'' as himself.
★ Carlson was mentioned in an episode of Family Guy where Peter Griffin, by going back in time, changes the future. In the future, Tucker is inadvertently killed, along with Karl Rove, by Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney after Cheney accidentally shoots Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia on a hunting trip.
References
1. David Harris, "Swanson Saga: End of a Dream", The New York Times, 9 September 1979
2. http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0410/15/cf.01.html
3. http://msl1.mit.edu/furdlog/docs/nytimes/2004-10-24_nytimes_damien_cave.pdf
4. http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2005/01/05/Arts/tucker050105.html
5. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8607737266932832438&q=tucker+carlson&hl=en
6. http://mediamatters.org/issues_topics/people/tuckercarlson
7. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39712-2004Aug27.html
8. http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feature/2003/09/13/carlson/index.html
9. http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=49632&Disp=14&Trace=on
10. http://slate.msn.com/id/3654/entry/23930
11. http://www.americanpolitics.com/111197GOPCrimesUPD.html
12. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8551916/
13. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/fire-tucker-carlson/passacantando-and-carlson-talk
14. http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Election/2005/12/20/1361065-sun.html
15. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19976269/
16. http://allronpaul.blogspot.com/2007/05/msnbc-tucker-carlson-interviews-ron.html
17. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401091.html
18.
19. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117963015.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
20. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965890.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
21. http://newsbusters.org/node/7338
22. http://mediamatters.org/items/200708290004?f=h_popular
23. MSNBC Live
24. http://mediamatters.org/items/200708290010
25. https://www.glaad.org/action/alerts_detail.php?id=4046
26. http://www.glsen.org/cgi-bin/iowa/all/news/record/2211.html
27. http://www.nypost.com/seven/08312007/tv/come_clean__carlson.htm
28. http://jambands.com/Features/content_2006_06_23.06.phtml
External links
★ Tucker Carlson's Official Web Site at MSNBC.
★ Tucker Carlson profile at NNDB.
★ Tucker Carlson profile at IMDB.
★ Media Matters' page on Tucker Carlson.
★ Tucker Carlson Fan Community at LiveJournal.com.
★ "Hillary Clinton Has Sweet Revenge", CNN, July 9, 2003.
★ Video of Tucker Carlson exchange with Jon Stewart on CNN's ''Crossfire'', 2004.
★ "Tucker Carlson to join MSNBC", MSNBC statement, February 2, 2005.
★ MSNBC promotional video slot for ''Tucker''.
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