Sometimes “no comment” just doesn’t do the trick — and this was one of those times.
A New York Times reporter on Monday reached out to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for input on what sounds like a hit piece the paper was preparing on the influence of conservative commentators — just ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
And Carlson returned what billionaire Elon Musk called a “perfect response.”
Carlson posted the exchange on the social media platform X.
WARNING: The following post contains vulgar language some readers may find offensive.
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 29, 2024
Times reporter Nico Grant informed Carlson that the Times was preparing a report — based on an “analysis” conducted by the left-wing, Carlson-hating website Media Matters — studying conservative pundits and their statements about the election.
Carlson wasn’t playing along. But not only was he not playing along, he hit back, hard.
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“So the New York Times is working with a left wing hate group to silence critics of the Democratic Party?” he wrote.
“Please ask yourself why you’re participating in it. This is why you got into journalism? It’s shameful. I hope you’re filled with guilt and self-loathing for sending me a text like this. Please quote me.”
Grant, apparently not filled with either guilt or self-loathing, responded with a text that sounded like it was written for an after-school special about a smug, smarmy teenager taking his first high school journalism class.
“Thank you for your prompt response,” he wrote. “Would you like to address any of the points or questions above?”
Carlson didn’t take the baiting.
“Would I like to participate in your attempt to censor me? No thanks,” Carlson wrote.
“But I do hope you’ll quote what I wrote above and also note that I told you to f*** off, which I am now doing.”
(Just for the record, Carlson didn’t use asterisks.)
The intrepid Grant had sent a similar text to conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, co-founder of the website The Daily Wire.
Shapiro also posted the text to X, in a lengthy, 11-post thread that took apart the Times as part of the “part of the Democrat-Media Human Centipede.”
He ended with a message similar to Carslon’s, advising Grant to take on the physically impossible task of self-fornication:
“So, The New York Times wants comment? Here’s my comment: kindly, go f*** yourself.”
(For the record, Shapiro did use an asterisk.)
Both Carlson and Shapiro have been in the media game too long to be fooled by the Times’ gambit, and most conservative Americans understand it, too. The newspaper’s liberal reputation is simply too well-earned.
No Times report is ever going to give a fair shake to conservatives — ever.
It’s entirely possible that individual Times employees are capable of the kind of intellectual honesty that would make such a report possible — humans are, after all, marvelous creations, each with individual agency and an individual soul — even at The New York Times.
But as an institution, the newspaper has spent decades proving it’s no place to expect bipartisan fairness. (Remember the uproar over Sen. Tom Cotton’s opinion piece about dealing with the George Floyd riots? The Times editorial page editor was forced to resign over it.)
And a report based on an “analysis” by an outfit like Media Matters is going to be worse than usual.
Grant’s outreach amounted to a pro forma attempt at comment to present a patina of fairness to what is undoubtedly going to be a smear operation. (The Western Journal knows a thing or two about Times’ smear efforts.)
Carlson wasn’t fooled. Shapiro wasn’t fooled. And judging by the tone of the overwhelming majority of X commenters, not many others were either.
“Perfect response,” Musk wrote.
Perfect response 😂
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2024
Plenty agreed.
That is how you treat the Legacy Media
— Planet Of Memes (@PlanetOfMemes) October 29, 2024
You will never hate the legacy media enough pic.twitter.com/De3GFxr8fo
— Cash Loren (@CashLorenShow) October 29, 2024
One wonders what this guy was hoping for in a response. Did he think we’re not all aware of the disgusting group calling itself “media matters?” Great job, Tucker.
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) October 29, 2024
NYT acting as lapdog hitmen for Media Matters, probably the most dishonest, hateful Democrat front group in the country.
You can’t hate them enough.
— john jackson (@pvtjokerus) October 29, 2024
In a way, a match between the Times and Media Matters is fitting — they’re both raging left-wing publications that pretend the United States is a country driven by racism solely to suit the progressive purpose.
And no one who follows politics or journalism at all seriously is under any doubt about the credibility of either. (They’re both toilets when it comes to telling the truth.)
So the fact that one is writing a hit piece based on the “research” of the other isn’t surprising in the least.
But what is refreshing is Carlson and Shapiro calling the Times out on the game — complete with some biting (if anatomically questionable) advice on how the Times reporter might otherwise spend his time.
Sometimes “no comment” just needs a little more comment to get the message across.
Carlson and Shapiro did just that.
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