Tucker Carlson

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Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American conservative political commentator who has hosted the Fox News evening political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight since 2016. Carlson began working in the 1990s as a print journalist, contributing to the publication The Weekly Standard, among other things.

From 2000 to 2005, he was a CNN pundit and co-host of Crossfire.

From 2005 to 2008, Carlson appeared on MSNBC nightly program Tucker.

Since 2009, he has been a political analyst for Fox News.

Carlson co-founded and served as the first editor-in-chief of the conservative news and opinion website The Daily Caller in 2010. Carlson was regarded as a libertarian political commentator early in his career.

More recently, he has voiced reservations about libertarian economic policies and aligned himself with American nationalism and right-wing populism.

Carlson has written two books, including memoirs, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News (2003) and Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class Is Taking America to the Brink of Revolution (2018).

Early life and education

Tucker McNear Carlson was born in San Francisco, California, on May 16, 1969. He is the elder son of artist and San Francisco native Lisa McNear (1945–2011), a former "gonzo journalist" who became the editor of Voice of America, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the US ambassador to the Seychelles. Buckley Peck Carlson, later Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson, has been a communications specialist and Republican political strategist, and has served as a communications manager and Republican political strategist.

Richard Boynton and Dorothy Anderson, both children when his father was placed in The Home for Little Wanderers orphanage, where he was fostered by Carl Moberger of Malden, a Swedish tannery worker of Swedish descent, and his wife Florence Moberger. Carlson's father was adopted by upper-middle-class New Englanders, the Carlsons, an executive with Winslow Brothers & Smith Tannery in Norwood (America's oldest tannery) and his wife at the age of two. Cesar Lombardi, Carlson's maternal great-grandfather, immigrated to New York from Switzerland in 1860. Carlson is also a distant cousin of Massachusetts politicians Ebenezer R. Hoar and George M. Brooks, and he is a great-grandson to Californian rancher Henry Miller. Carlson was named after his great-grandfather, Dr. J. C. Tucker, and his great-grandfather George W. McNear. Carlson is of English, German, and the sixteenth Swiss-Italian ancestry.

Carlson's parents divorced after the nine-year marriage "turned sour" in 1976. Tucker and his brother were given custody of Carlson's father. Carlson's mother died when he was six years old, leaving the family behind to pursue a "bohemian" lifestyle.

Tucker and his brother were born in first grade in San Diego, California, and raised them there. Carlson attended La Jolla Country Day School and grew up in a house overlooking the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. His father owned property in Nevada, Vermont, as well as islands in Maine and Nova Scotia. In 1984, his father unsuccessfully challenged incumbent Republican Mayor Roger Hedgecock in the San Diego mayoral election.

Carlson's father married Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to Swanson Enterprises, nephew J. William Fulbright, and niece of Senator J. William Fulbright. Although Patricia was still a beneficiary of the family's fortune, the Swansons sold the brand to the Campbell Soup Company in 1955 and did not own it by the time of Carlson's father's marriage.

Carlson was briefly enrolled at Collège du Léman, a Swissboarding school, but he was "kicked out." He completed his secondary education at St. George's School, a boarding school in Middletown, Rhode Island, where he began dating Susan Andrews, the headmaster's daughter. He continued to Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, graduating in 1991 with a bachelor's degree in history. Carlson's Trinity yearbook lists him as a member of the "Dan White Society," a clear reference to the American political assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. Carlson applied to the Central Intelligence Agency as a student, but his admission was turned down, and he pursued a career in journalism with the help of his father, who told him that "they'll take someone."

Personal life

Carlson is married to Susan Thomson Carlson (née Andrews). They met at St. George's School, where she was the niece of the school's headmaster and priest. In the school chapel, they were married on August 10, 1991. They have four children. Carlson is left-handed and dyslexic.

Carlson was baptized as an Episcopalian, but he has claimed he grew up with secular convictions; he thanks his wife for his religious conviction. "We still go to the Episcopal Church for all sorts of complexities," Carlson said in 2013, "I despise the Episcopal Church in a variety of ways." He has said he stays in the church because the liturgical and the people are so dear to him.

In 2002, Carlson began abusing alcohol. He had quit smoking (he had started smoking in eighth grade) and switched to nicotine gum, which he buys in bulk from New Zealand and "chews often"), and oral nicotine pouches a few years ago. Carlson, a fan of the Grateful Dead, has attended more than fifty Dead shows, and the name of his 2018 book Ship of Fools was inspired by the Grateful Dead song of the same name.

Carlson was speaking at the funeral of Hells Angels president Sonny Barger in September 2022. Carlson said he had been a fan of Barger since his youth and that "belong loyal, remain free, and always value honor," adding to "I want to honor the man who spoke those words."

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Media career

Carlson began his career in journalism as a fact-checker for Policy Review, a national conservative journal that was then published by the Heritage Foundation and later acquired by the Hoover Institution. He spent time as an opinion writer at Little Rock's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper before joining The Weekly Standard news newspaper in 1995. After hearing of the publication's inception, Carlson decided to work with the magazine, afraid he'd be "written off as a wing nut" if he instead joined The American Spectator.

For Talk magazine, Carlson interviewed then-Governor George W. Bush in 1999. Bush blasted Karla Faye Tucker (who was executed in Bush's state of Texas) and often used the term "fuck." The piece caused poor publicity for Bush's 2000 presidential bid. "Mr. Carlson mistook me for a Jew," Bush said. He's a good reporter, but he's also mistook how serious it was. "I take the death penalty seriously." Carlson's work was lauded by liberals, with Democratic consultant Bob Shrum calling it "vivid." "I thought I'd be tumultuous for writing a puffy piece," Carlson said of the interview. People in the Bush campaign, according to my wife, will believe you're looking for a job in the Bush campaign."

Carlson formerly worked as a columnist for New York magazine and Reader's Digest, as well as articles in print; Esquire, Slate, The New York Times Magazine, The Daily Beast, and The Wall Street Journal. During this period, John F. Harris of Politico would remark on how Carlson was "viewed... as an important voice of the intelligentsia." Carlson and his father were involved in a plane crash in Dubai on October 17, 2001, while reporting a story about the Taliban in New York. Reverend Al Sharpton and other civil and political rights campaigners will be nominated at the National Magazine Awards for Carlson's 2003 Esquire biography on his journey to Liberia.

Carlson wore bow ties in his early television careers, a characteristic from boarding school that continued on television until 2006.

Carlson, a New York Times reporter who wrote about Donald Trump, revealed that he was a media source for many journalists and writers, including Michael Isikoff, Michael Wolff, Brian Stelter, and others who wrote critical of Donald Trump on June 21, 2021.

Carlson co-hosted the short-lived show The Spin Room on CNN in 2000. He was named co-host of Crossfire in 2001, in which Carlson and Robert Novak represented the political right (alternating on different nights), while James Carville and Paul Begala, alternating as hosts, represented the left.

Carlson's 2003 interview with Britney Spears, "[W]e should just trust our president in every decision she makes," she said as part of the 2004 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Supporting Actress, which earned her a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress.

On October 4, comedian and show host Jon Stewart appeared on Crossfire ostensibly to promote America (The Book), but instead he launched a criticism of Crossfire, accusing the show of promoting political discourse in the United States, with Carlson condemning Stewart for being biased toward the left. Stewart and Ben Karlin, one of the book's co-authors, remained on CNN for more than an hour after the show ended to address the topics he had raised on the air, with Carlson saying, "It was heartfelt." [Stewart] must do this] Stewart's "on-air dressing-down" of Carlson in 2017 dubbed him a "dangerous career [moment]" by the New York Times, prompting its cancellation. Stewart's appearance, according to the Atlantic, was a turning point that influenced how Carlson remade himself.

CNN chief Jonathan Klein told Carlson that the network had declined to renew his deal on January 5, 2005. CNN revealed that it was ending its relationship with Carlson and that Crossfire would shortly be cancelled. "I resigned from Crossfire in April [2004] many months before Jon Stewart appeared on our show because I didn't like the partisanship, and in some ways it was like a pointless talk."

Carlson was hired to lead PBS' new venture, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered, which ran in synch with Carlson's Crossfire gig on CNN. According to The New Yorker, "part of a broader effort to bring PBS further to the right ideologically."

Despite the Corporation for Public Broadcasting allocating funds for another show season, Carlson announced that he would leave the program just over a year after it began on June 12, 2005. Carlson wanted to focus on his latest MSNBC show Tucker, saying that although PBS was one of the "poorest" examples of government spending that he disagreed with, it was also "problematic."

Tucker (originally titled The Situation With Tucker Carlson) premiered on MSNBC on June 13, 2005. On a rotating panel, Rachel Maddow and Jay Severin appeared as guests. During the 2006 Winter Olympics, he also hosted a late-afternoon weekday wrap-up for the network. During the 2006 Lebanon war between Israel and Hezbollah, he appeared live from Israel, and he covered the aftermath of the Virginia Tech and Johnson Space Center shootings.

Tucker was cancelled by the network on March 10, 2008, due to low ratings; the last episode aired on March 14, 2008. For the 2008 election, he remained with the network as a senior campaign reporter. "during Mr. Carlson's tenure, MSNBC's evening programs gradually to the left," Brian Stelter, a columnist for The New York Times, wrote. Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow followed him into his old time slots, 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m., which were then occupied by two liberals, Ed Schultz and Rachel Maddow." Carlson said the network had changed a lot, and that "they didn't have a place for me" and that "they didn't have a job for me."

On season 3 of the reality show Dancing with the Stars, Carlson was paired with professional dancer Elena Grinenko. To prepare, Carlson took four-hour-a-day ballroom dance classes. In an interview a month before the show began, he confessed that he would miss classes in Lebanon's two-week MSNBC assignment, saying, "It's impossible for me to remember the moves." Carlson said he accepted ABC's invitation to perform because "I don't do things that I am not strong at all." "I'm excited to do it" On September 13, 2006, Carlson was the first contestant to be disqualified.

Carlson appeared in the Season 1 episode "Hard Ball" of 30 Rock and in a Season 9 episode of The King of Queens, he made cameo appearances as himself. He appeared in the 2008 film Swing Vote again portraying himself.

Carlson was hired as a Fox News contributor in May 2009. He appeared on Fox's late-night comedy show Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld, was a substitute host of Hannity in Sean Hannity's absence, and he authored and hosted a special called Battle for Our Children's Minds in September 2010.

Carlson posted a 2007 video of then-Senator Obama condemning the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and thanking his pastor at the time, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, on the eve of then-President Barack Obama's first debate with Mitt Romney in October 2012. In Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, Wright's sermons had caused controversies. Portions of the video had been available online since 2007. A week before Carlson found the tape, an anonymous user named "Sore Throwt" (a play on the well-known Watergate informant Deep Throat) had been looking for a buyer of the tape.

Carlson introduced Dave Briggs as a co-host of Fox & Friends Weekend in April 2013, joining Alisyn Camerota and Clayton Morris on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Carlson on Fox News' Tucker Carlson began hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight on November 14, 2016. With 3.7 million viewers, the premiere episode of the show, which was later on On the Record, was the year's most watched telecast of the year.

Tucker Carlson Last weeknight, after Carlson's show replaced Megyn Kelly at the 9:00 p.m. time slot after she left Fox News, Megyn Kelly appeared at 7:00 p.m. each weeknight until January 9, 2017. Forbes magazine said in January 2017 that the show had "continuously high ratings, with 2.8 million viewers per night and ranked as the second cable news show behind The O'Reilly Factor in December." Tucker Carlson Tonight was the most watched cable program in the 9:00 p.m. time slot in March 2017.

Following the cancellation of The O'Reilly Factor, Fox News announced that Tucker Carlson Tonight would air at 8:00 p.m. on April 19, 2017. As of March 2018, Tucker Carlson was the third-most rated cable news show as a result of the election.

Tucker Carlson Tonight was the second highest-rated cable news show in prime time in October 2018, following Sean Hannity's appearance on The Sean Hannity Show with Sean Hannity with 3.2 million nightly viewers. Following Carlson's statement that immigration makes the country "poor, gritty, and more divided" by the end of the year, at least twenty advertisers had started to boycott the show by the end of 2018. According to Fox News, advertisers have only moved their ad purchases to other sites.

His show fell to third place with 2.8 million nightly viewers, down six percent from the previous year. At least 26 advertisers had been obscene. Despite the boycotts, Carlson from Fox News made a call to fire him in March 2019 after Media Matters resurfaced with remarks he had made about women (calling them "like dogs" and "highly primitive") and statutory rape, Iraqis, and refugees he had made over the years to the radio show Bubba the Love Sponge, but his numbers increased eight percent this week. Some companies had met their media buy agreements and advertisements for the time slot, according to Media Matters, and they had also begun to buy other time slots on Fox News. Carlson's Nielsen ratings in the nation's 25–54 range placed him second second only to Fox's The Sean Hannity Show among cable news shows.

After Carlson, Playboy actress Karen McDougal accused her of extorting Donald Trump in a 2018 episode of his show, she sued Fox News. Federal Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil dismissed the complaint in September 2020, citing Fox News' admission that Carlson's extortion allegations were based on opinion rather than "statements of fact." The judge also agreed with Fox News' argument that informed viewers would have "skepticism" over remarks Carlson makes on its show, as he often engages in "exaggeration" and "non-literal discourse," and that Carlson is not "stating the truth" on its program.

Tucker Carlson Tonight became the most rated cable news show in the United States, with an average of four million viewers over the week of June 8-14, 2020, beating out rival Fox News pundits Hannity and Ingraham. This came after Carlson's remarks condemning the Black Lives Matter campaign, which had caused some businesses to pull their ads from the program, including The Walt Disney Company, T-Mobile, and Papa John's.

Blake Neff, Carlson's head writer, resigned in July 2020 after CNN Business revealed that he had been using a pseudonym to post comments on AutoAdmit, a message board well-known for the lack of moderation of offensive and defamatory content. Carlson's program came under renewed scrutiny from sponsors as a result of Carlson's remarks on Black Lives Matter. On The Daily Caller, Neff had already been a writer. Carlson wrote about Neff's remarks on the second episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight, which aired after the articles were first announced.

Tucker Carlson Tonight's monthly average reached 5.3 million viewers by October 2020, the most popular cable news program in history at that time. The show had an average viewership of just over a million in the 25-54 demographic, with 670,000 being between 18 and 49. Following the aftermath of the 2020 race, Carlson's show saw a decline in viewership, losing to Anderson Cooper 360° in the 25–54 demographic, which Carlson had held on to for the longest time since January. This coincided with Carlson's distancing himself of Trump's post-election legal battles, in which Carlson said the election was "not fair" but that it did not result in a Trump win, but that it did not result in a Trump victory. Tucker Carlson Tonight and The Sean Hannity Show were the first cable news shows to reach a full year with a viewership in excess of four million.

Tucker Carlson Tonight was the only cable news show not to see a decline in viewership in the week following Joe Biden's inauguration as president, just barely increasing from where it had been one week before and reclaiming the lead among the 25-54 population. As of mid-2021, it was the most closely followed news-related cable television show. It was a close second to The Five during May 2022, while leading in the 25-54 population.

Carlson announced a multiyear contract with Fox News to host Tucker Carlson Originals, a new weekly newsletter and a series of monthly specials, which debuted on March 29. Tucker Carlson Today, the show on Fox Nation, began in 2021 in the spring of 2021.

Carlson and Neil Patel, a former Dick Cheney aide and a former college roommate of Carlson, launched The Daily Caller on January 11, 2010. Carlson served as editor-in-chief and occasionally wrote opinion pieces for Patel. Foster Friess, a centrist activist, funded the website. The Daily Caller was a member of the White House's rotating press pool by February 2010.

"The Daily Caller will not be tied to ideology but rather "breaking news of importance," Carlson said in interviews. "We are not enforcing any kind of ideological orthodoxy on anyone." Mickey Kauss, a columnist for Fox News, resigned after Carlson refused to run a column critical of the Fox News' coverage of the immigration policy debate due to his job commitments to Fox News.

The Daily Caller published excerpts from e-mails sent between members of JournoList, an invitation-only liberal forum that was founded in 2007 by Ezra Klein, consisting of "several hundred journalists, scholars, and policy experts" in June 2010. Media journalists and centrists were banned from participating in the debate. Carlson had attempted to join the forum on May 25, 2010, but was turned down by Klein. Klein attempted to form a bipartisan forum with Carlson, but Carlson declined. To gain entry into JournoList, Daily Caller employees impersonated an editor of the Arkansas Times. The e-mails leaked by The Daily Caller, which detailed plans to depose Palin and McCain while also assisting in the assassination of Rush Limbaugh, according to Carlson, "the most persuasive talking points in order to depose Palin and McCain and help elect Barack Obama president" after he resigned.

The Daily Caller released an "investigative collection" of articles co-authored by Carlson, ostensibly an insider's look at Media Matters for America, the conservative watchdog group that monitors and investigates conservative media outlets, as well as its founder David Brock in February 2012. "I've never thought much of Media Matters' style of monitoring or Brock's journalism," Reuters media analyst and libertarian Jack Shafer said in a tweet that "Daily Caller is attacking Media Matters with inaccurate journalism and lame propaganda."

The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), a liberal thinker group, said in June 2017 that The Daily Caller was paid $150,000 by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign for a list of subscribers, who the Trump campaign then emailed at least 25 times. Carlson had a conflict of interest and had breached journalistic rules, according to the CMD.

Carlson sold his one-third stake in The Daily Caller to Patel for an undisclosed sum in June 2020, adding that "Neil [Patel] controls it. I wasn't adding anything. So we've made it official."

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