aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Saturday, September 01, 2007

Tucker Carlson is still hurting America

I continue to watch and what I see is that there is just not enough outrage about Tucker Carlson’s creepy comments. Either his tale is true and he’s got a history as a basher, or he’s lied and so should be held to account.

Hyperbolic pundits routinely get away with inflammatory comments. The only action on the part of MSNBC to date is to remove Tucker’s head-bashing claim in re-airings, which both acknowledges and covers up the problem while tamping down outrage over their lying pundit. MSNBC should address those comments.

As Jon Stewart so famously said to Tucker Carlson in that 2004 Crossfire interview, “it’s not so much that it’s bad, as it’s hurting America.”

In this instance, it’s also hurting gay people.

Remember, too, his macho frat boy remarks in that same interview. Here Tucker asks Stewart about his interview with John Kerry:

CARLSON: Didn’t you feel like—you got the chance to interview the guy. Why not ask him a real question, instead of just suck up to him?

STEWART: Yes. “How are you holding up?” is a real suck-up. And I actually giving him a hot stone massage as we were doing it.

(LAUGHTER)

CARLSON: It sounded that way. It did.

STEWART: You know, it’s interesting to hear you talk about my responsibility.

CARLSON: I felt the sparks between you.

STEWART: I didn’t realize that—and maybe this explains quite a bit… that the news organizations look to Comedy Central for their cues on integrity… It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you’re accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You’ve got to be kidding me. He comes on and you…

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

(LAUGHTER)

STEWART: What is wrong with you?

CARLSON: Well, I’m just saying, there’s no reason for you—when you have this marvelous opportunity not to be the guy’s butt boy, to go ahead and be his butt boy. Come on. It’s embarrassing.

The Apologize Now petition has 7,500 signatures so far. Here some Tucker outtakes.

RELATED: Tucker a homo homophobe? Take action!

Obama’s coming back to GA

I want Democrats to come campaign in the South. Obama’s been here. And he’s coming back:

The event is Sept. 20, the locale is the Georgia World Congress Center, and the cost of admission — in the form of a campaign contribution — is $25.

Sharing the stage will be Usher Raymond IV, the actor/singer who usually goes by a shorter handle, and former Atlanta Hawks great Dominique Wilkins. Wilkins’ presence is interesting.

The last politician we saw him with was Newt Gingrich — the two are partnered in an anti-diabetes, anti-obesity campaign.

In April, on the Georgia Tech campus, Obama drew 20,000. This September event is less about show and more about serious network-building. Among real people, $25 is a significant — though affordable — commitment. And most of those donations will be accompanied by an e-mail address and phone number.

A standard, $1,000-a-head event follows. Invitations for both can be found here and here.