Tucker Carlson's Past Appearances On Bubba The Love Sponge's Radio Show Spark Controversy

Carlson

FOX NEWS CHANNEL host TUCKER CARLSON's appearances on BUBBA THE LOVE SPONGE's radio show in 2006-11 have become an issue for the conservative commentator after MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA unearthed the tapes.

In the segments posted by MMFA, CARLSON, on a 2009 show, says that underage marriage is not "the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child" because "The rapist in this case has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person so it is a little different,” which he seemed to recognize might be a troublesome position by adding, "I got myself in a position that seem like I'm defending it, because I am against that." 

On another show from the same year, CARLSON discussed sexual experimentation among girls at his daughter's boarding school ("If it weren't my daughter I would love that scenario"), and on a 2006 show, CARLSON downplayed felony rape charges against WARREN JEFFS for arranging a marriage between a 16-year-old girl and 27-year-old man as "bullsh-t" because it "is not the same as pulling a stranger off the street and raping her." 

Subsequently, a 2009 show found CARLSON defending JEFFS as having been imprisoned "because he's weird and unpopular and he has a different lifestyle that other people find creepy" and added that if it were up to him, "MICHAEL VICK would have been executed, and WARREN JEFFS would be out on the street."  Other clips include CARLSON proclaiming that a teacher who molested a 13-year-old boy was "doing a service to all 13-year-old girls by taking the pressure off. They are a pressure relief valve, like the kind you have on your furnace" and calling for the elimination of rape shield laws that protect rape victims from having to have their identities made public.

While CARLSON has made an issue of comments from the past made by his political targets (most recently, JOE BIDEN), he issued a response that said, "MEDIA MATTERS caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago.  Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I'm on television every weeknight live for an hour.  If you want to know what I think, you can watch.  Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why."  In DECEMBER, CARLSON's comment that immigration makes the U.S. "dirtier" led to several advertisers pulling their ads from his show, and when a guest, historian RUTGER BREGMAN, pointed out in a heated exchange on his show last month that CARLSON criticizes "elites" while being an elite himself ("a millionaire funded by billionaires"), CARLSON profanely responded, calling BREGMAN a "moron," and the segment never aired.

« see more Net News