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Fox News host Tucker Carlson defiant as new tapes with racist, homophobic language emerge

"We’ve always apologized when we’re wrong, and will continue to do that. That’s what decent people do. They apologize. But we will never bow to the mob."

The controversy over old audio clips featuring Tucker Carlson using vulgar, homophobic language comes at a bad time for Fox News.
The controversy over old audio clips featuring Tucker Carlson using vulgar, homophobic language comes at a bad time for Fox News.Read moreFox News / Fox News

On his Fox News show Monday night, Tucker Carlson pointedly didn’t apologize after old audio clips emerged of the host making vulgar comments about women and offering a defense of statutory rape.

“We’ve always apologized when we’re wrong, and will continue to do that. That’s what decent people do. They apologize. But we will never bow to the mob,” Carlson said to open his Fox News show Monday night.

Even as Carlson addressed the controversy over the comments, liberal media watchdog Media Matters released a second batch of audio clips from 2006 to 2011 of the popular Fox News host calling into the syndicated radio show of Bubba the Love Sponge. In those clips, Carlson credits “white men” for “creating civilization” and called Iraqis “semiliterate primitive monkeys.” He also used a pejorative term for homosexuals to express his love of Todd Clem, the show’s host.

“What struck me about a lot of these clips was not just the fact that they’re so consistent with the things that he says now, but the comfort in which he says it,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone said during an appearance on MSNBC’s All In Monday night. “It sounds like you’re actually getting to see the real Tucker Carlson.”

So far, Fox News has remained silent about the controversy swirling around Carlson over his past comments. So have the network’s news anchors and Howard Kurtz, its media critic. Despite that, Carlson said he had the network’s full support.

“Fox News is behind us, as they have been since the very first day,” Carlson said.

Fellow opinion hosts Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham defended Carlson on their own shows Monday night, and Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume sidestepped Carlson’s vulgar comments by focusing on his television ratings in a tweet, adding, “Doing well is the best revenge.”

Bubba, who lives and records his syndicated radio show in Pasco County, Fla., told the Tampa Bay Times he’s not surprised the old clips from his show have resurfaced. Carlson’s last appearance on the show was in November 2018 to promote his book Ship of Fools, but the host said the two have spoken since the vulgar audio clips have gone viral.

“He assured me he’s not mad at me, and said we’re still friends,” Bubba told the newspaper. “I don’t think this will affect Tucker one bit. He’s way too big of a star and a commodity for something said on a comedic forum to take him down. Remember, this was my show, it wasn’t Crossfire with James Carville.”

The controversy comes at a bad time for Fox News. On Wednesday, the network is hosting an event with advertisers to play down the controversy involving its opinion hosts and promote straight-news anchors like Bret Baier, Martha MacCallum, and Shepard Smith.

Advertisers continue to avoid Carlson’s show. According to Variety’s Brian Steinberg, Monday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight featured just four ad breaks and spots from just one major national brand — Bayer AG. Carlson has lost at least 33 advertisers since December, when he said allowing certain immigrants to enter the United States “makes our country poorer and dirtier.

On Tuesday, bed linen company Sheex confirmed it was pulling its advertising off Carlson’s show “due to inappropriate statements of Tucker Carlson that have recently come to light.” Sheex — founded by two former women’s basketball coaches — was one of Carlson’s largest remaining advertisers.