Fox News host Tucker Carlson was outed as a frequent anonymous source of information to the political media he claims to “hate” and has called “cowards” and “cringing animals not worthy of respect,” according to the New York Times.
Carlson on his show frequently criticizes journalists, sometimes identifying them by name and portrays them as part of a liberal plot to discredit Donald Trump.
In fact, he recently described journalists as “cringing animals who are not worthy of respect.”
But, according to the New York Times media columnist, Ben Smith, it is an “open secret” in Washington that Carlson frequently shared gossip and information with news outlets and was the “go-to guy for sometimes-unflattering stories” about Trump.
On the record, Carlson told the Times, “I don’t know any gossip. I live in a town of 100 people.”
But, Smith said he spoke to 16 journalists from publications other than the Times who say otherwise.
“In Trump’s Washington, Tucker Carlson is a primary supersecret source,” Michael Wolff, author of the 2018 book about the Trump administration Fire and Fury, reportedly writes in a new essay collection. “I know this because I know what he has told me, and I can track his exquisite, too-good-not-to-be-true gossip through unsourced reports and as it often emerges into accepted wisdom.”
CNN’s Brian Stelter told the Times that “you can see Tucker’s fingerprints all over the hardcover” edition of his book Hoax.
One reporter for a prominent publication told Smith “It’s so unknown in the general public how much he plays both sides”.
