When Tucker Carlson tells you that he lies, you can believe him. The Fox News host, who once again used his show with an audience of more than 3 million people to spread doubts about the coronavirus vaccine, despite the fact that he works for an employer that mandates its employees get poked, admitted that he sometimes just makes shit up when it is convenient for him. While sitting down for an interview with fellow conservative grifter Dave Rubin, Carlson, who apparently lives in a corner, admitted, "I lie if I'm really cornered or something."
Carlson's confession came about halfway into the hour-long conversation and was prompted by Rubin asking Carlson about how people like CNN fixtures Chris Cuomo and Brian Stelter can "live with themselves" when they "just lie again and again and we have the internet to expose the lies." Carlson immediately went into introspective mode. "I lie. I really try not to. I try never to lie on TV," he said. "I just don’t — I don't like lying. I certainly do it, you know, out of weakness or whatever." (You can hear the discussion around the 36:00 mark in the video below.)
Carlson — whose employer once defended him in court by saying that he's just an entertainer who offers "exaggeration" and "non-literal commentary" that should not be confused with "actual facts" — was trying to make a point that other people in media lie because they believe it is in the best interest of a system that they believe in. Sure, Carlson has cast doubt on the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election and claimed the FBI was behind the effort to organize the insurrection attempt that occurred on Jan. 6. But, like, he wouldn't systematically lie about something to serve as a means to his own ends, right? Right?
After his brief detour into self-reflection, Carlson returned to something more familiar to him: a completely unearned and hollow sense of righteous indignation. The man with the most-watched cable news show in the country took aim at "the mainstream media" and how they use their platform. "How dare you use your power to protect and guard the powerful?" he asked, forgetting that he spent four years defending the president of the United States on a nightly basis.
"Everyone who works on our show is very aware of the most basic rule, which is: Don't piss down," Carlson said. "Don't attack people beneath you. If you're going to take a punch, make sure it's upward — someone who is richer, stronger, more powerful, in charge of more things than you are." Of course, Carlson employed a hardcore racist who spent years on message boards attacking people of color and other marginalized groups, as well as doxxing and harassing women. Carlson himself regularly uses his show to rant against trans people and to say that immigrants make America "poorer" and "dirtier." You know, standard punching up stuff.
Anyway, Tucker Carlson is a liar — except when he says that he lies. Hopefully this clears things up.
