After decades of spreading false narratives about immigrants, depicting Black people as violent criminals and feminists as the root of all evil and helping to lay the ideological bedrock for this current administration, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson wants you to forgive him.
On his podcast, Carlson and his brother, Buckley, a former speechwriter for Trump in 2015, criticized the war in Iran. Buckley called Trump “out of control, megalomaniacal, destructive president.” And a subdued Tucker said he will be “tormented” by his support for Trump for a “long time,” apologizing to listeners for “misleading” them about the president.
But Carlson’s apology feels false after decades of profiting off racist, sexist and violent rhetoric. If he was truly sorry, he should say specifically what he’s sorry for. There’s plenty of material to work from. As the tide of public opinion shifts against Trump and his ill-conceived war, Carlson’s attempt at contrition isn’t really remorse. It’s just more of what Carlson has always done so well, carpetbagging the American flop era.
Carlson knows the effect of his words. He’s just never cared who they could hurt — not when he could make so much money.
In 2018, I profiled Carlson for the Columbia Journalism Review. At the time, I talked to more than 20 of his friends and colleagues — former colleagues from when he was a print journalist, when he was at CNN and then later at MSNBC, people who knew him from D.C. dinner parties, whose kids knew his kids from the expensive private schools — and they all assured me, Carlson was just doing a bit. He was playing the boorish demagogue because it was good for ratings. After all, he had previously hosted two shows on CNN and MSNBC. And at Fox News, he’d only gotten the coveted “O’Reilly Factor” spot after Bill O’Reilly had been fired amid sexual misconduct allegations in 2017.
So, Carson leaned in hard to the incendiary bit, these insiders assured me. As if that was supposed to make me feel better. As if performing a bit was more forgivable than being a true believer. It’s the opposite. Knowing better and still doing the bad thing just to cash in on the violence of American political rhetoric is cravenly opportunistic.
Carlson’s apology feels false after decades of profiting off racist, sexist and violent rhetoric.
In the years since Carlson took over that prime-time spot, he promoted false and violent rhetoric about immigrants and Black people. There was a pandemic and an insurrection, and Carlson’s prime-time rants about Covid undoubtedly spread misinformation, exacerbating the effects of the virus. And a former senior staffer on the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack wrote an op-ed for Politico, outlining how Carlson manipulated security camera footage to mislead his audience about the reality of the insurrection.
Carlson was fired from Fox News in 2023 due to internal political tensions. Carlson had alienated the network, sent violent and erratic texts and promoted false information about Dominion voting machines, while that company was already suing Fox News for defamation. His career at Fox News is over, but its damage remains: journalists he has led mobs against; a Covid toll needlessly worsened by disinformation; an insurrection fueled by election conspiracies Carlson helped to spread, even while knowing they were false.
Carlson is not the most reliable narrator for his own actions. But even taking his words at face value, Americans still do not owe this man forgiveness. He made his fortune stoking the fires of American hate, and now that it has burned the country down, he can’t say sorry as we poke the smoking ash with a stick.
I remember interviewing Carlson in 2018. I remember telling him about my divorce, which was due in part to politics. My ex had voted for Trump, and Carlson’s violent rhetoric had worked its way into our lives. While researching the piece, I was often shocked at how Carlson’s talking points mimicked my ex’s angry rants against me in those early days of our separation.
I wanted Carlson to see, just for a moment, what his show was doing to average people in red states. How this wasn’t just a rhetorical game. This wasn’t about liberal elites versus red state salt-of-the earths. That these words would have consequences. He deflected and told me I shouldn’t cancel people for their speech. And he ranted and ranted. He didn’t want to listen to anyone but himself.
If Carlson truly meant what he said in his apology, he should give some of his millions that he made from his show to a nonprofit. Perhaps one that helps incarcerated Black people or a fund for immigrants who are being targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, just for starters.
Too much of our politics — and by extension, our lives — are treated like a game by politicians and pundits who do not listen, until the moment they are faced with consequences. Then, they beg for redemption on the cheap. I have no desire to forgive Carlson or anyone like him. Because I refuse to forget how we got here.
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