Tucker Carlson blasted The Washington Post and its media columnist, Erik Wemple, on Tuesday for looking into his background and contacting Carlson’s college acquaintances.
“Jeff Bezos had one of his minions, a mentally unbalanced middle-aged man called Erik Wemple, pull our dusty college yearbook and call around and see if we’d done anything naughty at the age of 19,” Carlson told viewers, referring to the Amazon CEO, who also owns the Post. “Let us know if you hear any good stories.”
According to Carlson, “quite a few old college classmates” had contacted him Tuesday and told him Wemple had been asking questions.
Wemple declined to comment on Carlson’s comments or if he was investigating the host’s background.
Fox News and a representative from “Tucker Carlson Tonight” did not immediately comment on the segment or answer questions if they thought Carlson’s background was a legitimate topic for journalists to investigate.
However, in the comments on his show, Carlson said Wemple’s work was comparable to the investigations political candidates conduct into their political opponents.
“But before Bezos drops any more of his billions on opposition research, you should know that it will not affect any election outcome,” Carlson said. “This is a news show, it’s not a political campaign. No one here is running for anything or plans to. On the other hand, if Jeff Bezos wants to come over to reminisce about 1987 on this show, he is always welcome, anytime.”
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” is one of cable news’s highest-rated programs. According to a recent Fox News press release, the show “finished the month of March as the top-rated program in cable news in all categories, delivering 3.2 million viewers and 521,000 in the key 25-54 demo and 331,000 with the younger 18-49 demo. The program also dominated several broadcast entertainment and news shows in viewership for the first quarter.”
In addition, Carlson recently began producing a series of video podcasts and long-form video pieces for Fox Nation, the on-demand streaming service of Fox Media.
Fox News generally, and Carlson specifically, have been frequent subjects of Wemple’s columns. He has referenced the host in the headlines of five columns this year.
However, this year the writer has also opined on CNN and the entanglement of host Chris Cuomo with his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and his scandals; the New York Times; One America News; the CBS show “60- Minutes”; and The Washington Post itself, as well other media outlets.
Wemple and Carlson have met at least once, when the writer appeared on Carlson’s show in 2017 to discuss media bias and the 2016 election. Wemple later wrote about the appearance in his column.