- Tucker Carlson, the Fox News primetime opinion host, called racist and sexist posts secretly written for years by his former head writer "wrong" before condemning the "self-righteousness" of his critics.
- Carlson claimed the bigoted sentiments Blake Neff expressed routinely online had "no connection" to his show, which Neff says he was central in creating each night.
- "It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control. In this country, we judge people for what they do, not how they were born," Carlson, the most-watched cable host, said during his Monday night show.
- But Carlson went on to say Neff has "paid a very heavy price" for his actions and the host condemned Neff's critics, who he called "ghouls" eager for the "destruction of a young man."
- Carlson announced at the end of his show that he will be on a "long-planned" fishing vacation for the next several days.
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Tucker Carlson, the Fox News primetime opinion host, called racist and sexist posts secretly written for years by his former head writer "wrong" before condemning the "self-righteousness" of his critics.
Carlson made his first public statement on Monday night about the recent resignation of his former head writer, Blake Neff, who was exposed on Friday in a CNN Business report for anonymously writing racist, sexist, and homophobic posts for years on an online forum.
The most-watched cable host in the country said his former writer was "horrified" and "ashamed" by "the reporting" about his online writing and Carlson claimed the sentiments Neff expressed online had "no connection" to the Fox News show, which Neff says he was central in creating each night.
"We want to say a couple of things about this: first, what Blake wrote anonymously was wrong, we don't endorse those words, they have no connection to the show," Carlson said. "It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control. In this country, we judge people for what they do, not how they were born. We often say that because we mean it. We'll continue to defend that principle, often alone among national news programs, because it is essential. Nothing is more important."
He added, "Blake fell short of that standard, and he's paid a very heavy price for it."
But Carlson then launched into an attack on those who've condemned Neff's offensive posts, calling those critics "ghouls" who "are committing the gravest sin of all" by pretending they "are holy."
"We should also point out that the ghouls now beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man that self-righteousness also has its costs," Carlson said. "We are human. When we pretend that we are holy, we are lying. When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the gravest sin of all and we will be punished for it, there's no question."
Neff, who joined Carlson's show shortly after it went on air in November 2016, recently told the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, "anything [Carlson] is reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me."
Neff posted bigoted messages for several years under the pseudonym "CharlesXII" on the online forum AutoAdmit, CNN Business first reported Friday.
Fox News executives released a memo on Saturday condemning Neff's "horrendous and deeply offensive" posts, which they said they didn't know about until Friday.
"We want to make absolutely clear that Fox News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic, and homophobic behavior," Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace wrote in the statement.
Here's how @TuckerCarlson addressed his former top writer Blake Neff's resignation for having secretly posted racist and sexist material on an online message board. pic.twitter.com/Kle9kkNygx
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 14, 2020
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