The Tucker Carlson Leaks Make Whoever Is Responsible for Them Look Bad

The drip-drip-drip of Tucker Carlson leaks since his departure from Fox News last week continued on Tuesday morning when Media Matters released several more videos of the ex-primetime host.

“If we’re going to talk about sex, I’d love to hit some of the fine points of technique, but, you know, but it’s your show. It’s totally up to you,” joked Carlson to Piers Morgan, who chuckled in response.

“You wouldn’t. Okay? I’m not, you know what, I’m not qualified on that score. I will say, I thought his girlfriend was kind of yummy,” he said in another before prophetically shouting “just kidding!”

“Hey, Media Matters for America, go f*ck yourself. That’s the first thing I want to say. Second, I was totally kidding, I don’t even know what his girlfriend looks like. And if I did, I would not find her yummy,” continued Carlson.

In a third video, Carlson says he “can never assess” his own appearance and that he waits for his “postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that.” He went on to deliver a parody of his predecessor Bill O’Reilly’s infamous “We’ll do it live!” meltdown.

Media Matters characterized Carlson’s comments as “creepy” in its headline and Carlson’s detractors online concurred. Jezebel, for example, parroted Media Matters’ use of the adjective and speculated that his commentary off-camera might have contributed to Fox’s decision to move on from him.

But for his fans, the leaks only served as further proof of Carlson’s normalcy and sense of humor.  “Wow huge scandal. Leaked footage reveals that Tucker Carlson is funny and normal,” tweeted the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh. His colleague Ben Shapiro offered a partial endorsement: “Full credit to Tucker, Media Matters should certainly go f*** itself.”

“Is this supposed to make him look bad?” asked Benny Johnson.

“Thank you for confirming that Tucker is a normal, down-to-earth, very funny person,” added Christopher Rufo. “Great work, as always, Media Matters, curating excellent conservative content.”

Without weighing in on Carlson’s words or what we know of their context, it shouldn’t be hard for his proponents and opponents alike to recognize the steady stream of leaks makes those responsible for them look worse than the subject.

After all, whoever the responsible party is was happy to work with and benefit from Carlson for years even if they were disturbed by his off-air banter. These revelations are only emerging now that he and Fox have gone their separate ways because those responsible now perceive their publicization to be to their benefit.

There is no principled objection to misogyny, or to inappropriate workplace behavior; the leaker’s aim is to strengthen their own position while weakening Carlson’s.

Fox’s decision to part ways with the controversial host was eminently defensible. His credibility had been unambiguously destroyed and his behavior presented a long-term threat to the network. But the form of the post-firing campaign against him cannot be defended on the same grounds.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.