I just had a very interesting conversation with Tucker Carlson, co-host of CNN’s Crossfire and author of the forthcoming book Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites. What follows is an attempt to capture that discussion. Usually I do interviews via email so I know I capture the person’s statements accurately but Tucker has been on the road a great deal and so needed to do this via the phone. I didn’t have recording capability or transcriptions services so I simply tried to capture his answers out as we went along. Any errors or mistakes are surely mine so if I screwed something up, my apologies to Tucker Carlson who was gracious enough to speak with me. I will have a review of his new book posted later this week.
I understand you were in Liberia with Al Sharpton. Can you describe what that was like? What is Sharpton like when the camera is off?
I never made it to Liberia. I was in West Africa with Al Sharpton and members of the Nation of Islam. The rebels had captured the airport in Moravia and our pilot refused to fly us in. So we met with some of the rebel groups in West Africa.
Al Sharpton is much smarter and funnier than he can seem in a television context. He is a smart politician and political strategist. He can give you a extremely cogent wrap of the primary for example. Not really an ideologue; a lefty by tradition rather than by ideology. He is also a real preacher who actually believes in God unlike many of the preachers in my denomination, the Episcopalians.
What led you to write a book?
I never really stopped writing. Before TV all I did was write for magazines, newspapers, etc. It is nearly impossible to be a magazine writer and be in TV because you can’t travel. So you either you become a professional bloviator, a columnist, or you write books.
Were you ever tempted to write a more "intellectual" type work? To "prove" you are a serious journalist, etc.
No, it never really crossed my mind. I am not insecure about being a journalist. I really had two goals in writing this book: to write a book people would actually want to read and to tell the truth.
Has the media environment changed from the Clinton years to the Bush administration? If so how?
The big difference is that stories have become more complicated. Monica Lewinsky was a simple story. In many ways the perfect story: interesting cast of characters, sex, important because it was the President, etc. “How do we find WMDs” or “What does it mean if we don’t” are complicated stories, foreign policy is complicated. The Clinton years were kind of a vacation from history. Now we are dealing with people out there who are attacking us and who are trying to kill us. This is more complicated.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Olsen
Very cool Kevin, thanks - nice scoop!
2 - Mary Alice Richert
I want to send Tucker Carlson an email. Do you have his email address?
3 - COOPER
I MAKE SURE THAT I HEAR OR SEE AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE OF YOU. SOMEDAY THAT HORRIBLE VOICE OF YOURS WILL BE QUIET. I WONDER WHAT KIND OF AN ABUSIVE CHILDHOOD YOU MIGHT OF HAD AND HOW MUCH BULLYING YOU PARTICIPATED IN SCHOOL.AND HOW MANY LIVES YOU HAVE WRECKED WITH THAT TOUGH ATTITUDE OF YOURS,
PROBABLY , MY WORST FEARS ARE THAT YOU SUFFEREED GREATLY IN GROWING UP TO MAKE YOU SO MAD AT PEOPLE AND YOUR NEED TO PUNISH THEMN AS YOU HAD BEEN,, THIS MY ASSUMPTION
4 - nils wetterlind
What I Did On My Vacation
>by Little Tucker Carlson (aged 9)
>
RE-PRINTED WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM ESQUIRE MAGAZINE, MARCH ISSUE
>
You can never guess what I did on my holsie! I went all the way to IWAQ !! Iwaq is a place far far far away, but Uncle Halli Burton, who owns all of Iwaq (and also owns Uncle Dick Cheney) flew me there in an AEWOPLANE ! It was so neat! Iwaq is a tewwible mess, for we bombed and bombed and bombed them and killed thousands and thousands and thousands of them because their pwesident is howwid and has a moustache and Uncle Dick and Uncle Halli wants all their oil. So we did, and now the Iwaqis are all very dead and we won, SO THERE! And Uncle Halli makes lots and lots of money to rebuild everything that we bombed. He has lots of fun! But guess what? The ones we didn't kill are cwoss with us and want to SHOOT us!! The Iwaqis are such SORE LOSERS! BOO to them! Just because we invaded them and killed them and bombed all their hospitals and houses, and they aren't even GWATEFUL!
So we call the tewwowists! But Uncle Halli is very very clever and hired lots and lots of mercenaries! I looked it up in my dictionary and it says a mercenary is someone you can hire to kill people, so uncle Halli says it's much better to call them Secwuwity Consultants! It's weally good to have secwuwity consultants 'cause nobody can find out what they do all day and they can kill anyone they like and have lots of guns and go bang bang shoot shoot! And GUESS WHAT? They let me play with them! They are weally cool dudes and they even let me hold a WEAL GUN! I was so excited my pee-pee got hard! It's TWUE! I even have a PICTURE of me holding a GUN!! I DOE! SO THERE!! And they work for all kinds of cool dudes as well like Pwesident Taylor in Africa (that's where black people come from!). And it doesn't matter if they kill lots of howwid Iwaqis 'cause the Iwaqis don't use toilet paper!!!!!!! They DON'T! UUURGH!!!!
They are GWOSS!! And they don't like dogs either. I think all Iwaqis are horrid since they are sore losers and wipe their botties with their HANDS! YUCK! When I gwow up I want to be a secwuwity consultant too and work for Uncle Halli and kill people all day long and make lots and lots of money. That's why I'm pwoud to be American, 'cause we can go bang bang shoot shoot anytime we LIKE! So THERE!
>
Nils Wetterlind, 10 Anson Road, Int'l Plaza #5-16, Singapore 079903
5 - jack e. jett
no matter what you think of the man(?) you have to say he has carved a nice little niche for himself being a rush wannabe.
in a few years he will have enough venom for his very own spew fest.
i have alway found him to be cute in a "i want to spank his behind" kind of way.
jack e. jett
no back to you bob franken.
6 - JOHN.
Tucker Carlson-
YOU ARE AN IDIOT.
YOU AND THE OTHER CHICKENHAWK BUSH SYCOPHANTS WERE CHEERLEADING THE BOGUS IRAQ WAR FROM DAY ONE, AND NOW YOU ARE TRYING TO WEASEL YOUR WAY OUT OF IT.
YOU ARE A PHONY. YOU ARE A FRAUD.
YOU LOOK LIKE THE CREEPY AND NERDY KID AT HIGH SCHOOL WHO ALWAYS GOT BEAT UP AND HAD HIS FACE SHOVED INTO A TOILET BOWL AND THEN WENT HOME AND LOOKED AT PORN BECAUSE THAT WAS ABOUT AS CLOSE TO ACTION AS YOU COULD GET.
YOU AND HANNITY AND LIMBAUGH AND ALL OF THE OTHERS ARE ALL FRAUDS.
THE SHORT-LIVED POST-9/11 NEO-CON SHIP IS SINKING, AND YOU AND SAVAGE AND KRISTOL AND KAGAN ARE ALL ABANDONING SHIP JUST LIKE THE PHONY FRAUDULENT CHICKENHAWK COWARDS THAT YOU ALL ARE.
MAY YOU ALL BE EXPOSED FOR WHAT YOU TRULY ARE.
THANK YOU.
JOHN-ceo93@hotmail.com.
7 - Steve
I'm glad I stumbled upon this interview. Tucker is awesome.
8 - Bob A. Booey
I saw a commercial for his new upcoming PBS show. The title is Fresh Grind or some similar yuppie coffee reference.
He seems really insincere and glib to me, but I find him interesting nonetheless.
9 - Brian Moss
I just watched "Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered" on PBS. Who does he think he is fooling with his bowties and opening monologue? The rest of the show (with the possible exception of the P.J. O'Rourke piece) was a forum for left wing rhetoric. Bill Greider? Zanny Beddoes?! Gimme a break!
10 - Jorge
Tucker Carlson is an idiot! nuff said.
11 - Brenda Walker
Kudos to PBS for resuscitating the DODO! Behold the flightless bird who possesses neither a right wing nor a left wing. This analyst hobbles along on his opinions attempting to grow first the one and then the other.
12 - c harris
Name: Charles Pierce
Hometown: Newton, MA
Hey Doc:
Because every day, even the day before it, is Slacker Friday, Part The XIX.
In 1994, an eight-year old girl named Valerie Lakey was playing in a wading pool. She got caught in a defective drain. Her intestines were ripped from her body by the suction. She is now 17. She will have to be fed through a tube, 12 hours a day, for the rest of her life. In 1997, John Edwards won her family a $25 million judgment, of which he took a portion. The judgment helped jump-start his political career.
On the first day of last year, as part of his opening comments on Crossfire, this is how the incident was described by Tucker Carlson, whom public and private broadcasting networks tumble all over themselves to hire: "Four years ago, he (Edwards) was a personal-injury lawyer specializing in Jacuzzi cases."
Jacuzzi cases.
An eight-year old who got disemboweled.
Jacuzzi cases.
A child who'll have to be fed through a tube for as long as she lives.
Jacuzzi cases.
Now, I know it's a terrible thing when Whoopi Goldberg makes salacious fun of C-Plus Augustus's last name. I know that society may simply collapse. But here is a professional communicator at the top of his profession who, because he couldn't come up with anything else to say at the moment, smugly dispatches the tragedy of a child whose guts were ripped out. (Later in the same show, he told co-host James Carville to "Lighten up," about his comments.) It was an interesting evening -- not only should Tucker Carlson have lost every job in the professional media that he has, and not only did he lose forever any right to criticize anyone for intemperate speech, he at that moment should have been shunned by decent people for the rest of his sorry life.
Jacuzzi cases.
Christ.
13 - Carol Shetler
Thanks for a great interview, Mr. Holtsberry. I have recently become more open-minded about Mr. Carlson (whom I used to despise), and your discussion with him has given me more food for thought. I enjoy Crossfire as often as possible, and now will go out and track down Mr. Carlson's book.
Best wishes, Carol Shetler
14 - Friday again
Does Tucker really like dressing up as Pee-wee Herman?
15 - Tucker..seriously,,I'm better
Tucker Carlson is a huge douche-perhaps the hugest tool on all american t.v short of the racist ass hole community cable dip shits in Alabama. We should all toon out. Never ever watch the B.S festival that is crossfire. Maybe then CNN will fire bowtie off our screens.
16 - Eric Botticelli
I agree with Jon Stewart when he says people like Tucker Carlson are "hurting America."
Mr. Carlson said, in an interview with
"[America] exploits [Canada's] natural resources..."
"Canadians with ambition move to the United States...the average Canadian is busy dog-sledding."
See the video
Carlson ends the discussion, smiling, with a blunt:
"Welcome to [America's] Century."
Shame on CNN for employing such a disgrace to our nation.
17 - Eric Berlin
I think people that "go after" Tucker Carlson are going after our own media-saturated society, where information and truth and syntax and politics and lies all get scrambled into a 24-hour news cycle.
In that sense I agree with Jon Stewart: getting a good and honest and fair debate is becoming difficult. Who can discern truth amongst so much shouting and clamor?
That being said, I've always found Mr. Carlson to be more interesting, truthful, and refreshing than your average talking head. He maintains a degree of independence, and every once in a while, he voices it.
I'll end by saying that I'm a life-long Democrat.
Eric Berlin
Dumpster Bust: Miracles from Mind Trash
http://dumpsterbust.blogspot.com
18 - the crossfader
tu-cker! tu-cker! tu-cker!
19 - WheatieBoy
In the Immortal Words of David Spade
Buh' Bye Jackass. Or, don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out.
Tucker Carlson is leaving Crossfire. Happy Day. Even better... Crossfire may fold. The CNN website makes it sound like the bow-tied pinhead is leaving on good terms. However, the scrolling news service (text thing that rolls up the tv screen), implied that he was fired over issues such as:
1. Not being able to hold his ground against John Stewart.
2. A litany of Canada bashing comments. The tone was fine with CNN, the content was off.
Read up(http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/12/10_canada.html)to see what he had to say (wrongly) about his Northern neighbours (that would be us).
Anyways, while there's nothing more entertaining than a scared, under-informed, paranoid, conservative mouthpiece - I won't mention any more names *cough* Ann Coulter - it's good to see his ass hit the network highway. Watch for him crawling out from under a rock near you.
-If anybody has the means to send this off to Tuck, please feel free.
Wheat
20 - jarvey
I agree with Wheat. Watching that pinhead say that "most Canadians" are dogsledding had to be the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It really makes me wish I could find his personal email address... I hope that he someday tightens his bowtie too much, and puts him out of our collective misery.