Free Republic

by Mark Finkelstein September 25, 2006 - 17:10 Let's play one of our favorite games: WIACHSI, which of course stands for "What If a Conservative Had Said It?" Ready? OK, let's play. What would happen if a conservative attacked a female liberal icon by calling her promiscuous? How many outraged Dem elected officials, NOW leaders, Naomi Wolfs . . . and Air America hosts would be popping up all over the MSM to proclaim their outrage? And yet, on today's edition of Tucker Carlson, Air America host and class-action trial lawyer [nice two-fer!] Mike Papantonio leveled the loose woman charge...

by Mark Finkelstein September 12, 2006 - 21:30 As the Dancing With the Stars host said, Tucker Carlson - host of the MSNBC show of the same name - "has braved some of the most perilous situations in the world, but now [for] his most intimidating assignment - dancing the cha-cha-cha on national television." It was Tucker's turn to shine on tonight's episode of Dancing With the Stars. Carlson's professional dance partner Elena Grinenko did her best to lower expectations. Said the sultry Russian "when it comes to Tucker's ability for dancing . . . " She let a grimace...

Under direct questioning, and given several opportunitites to do so, Republican candidate for NY Attorney General Jeanine Pirro refused to say that she would vote for Hillary's Republican Senate opponent. There will be a Republican primary on Sep. 12th between former State Department official KT McFarland and former Yonkers Mayor John Spencer. Pirro was a guest on Tucker Carlson's MSNBC show this afternoon. Pirro declined to answer Carlson's repeated questions as to whether she would vote for the Republican candidate for Senate, replying only that she was "focusing on her own race."

by Mark Finkelstein September 1, 2006 - 16:49 During the course of a conversation with former Deputy Defense Secretary Jed Babbin on this afternoon's show, Tucker Carlson described himself as "a real conservative." But it was just a few minutes earlier, chatting with New Republic editor-at-large Peter Beinart, that Carlson mentioned in passing that he hadn't supported President Bush for president in 2004. When Carlson stated that he had been wrong to support the war in Iraq [and now opposes it], Beinart retorted: "You've just made a statement which almost guarantees that you're going to have to support the Democratic...

I think we now know Tucker Carlson's strategy for winning 'Dancing With the Stars': multiple partners. That's perhaps the only way to explain Carlson's odd defense of Warren Steed Jeffs, the polygamist leader arrested today. On his MSNBC show of this afternoon, Tucker was outraged that Jeffs had been placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list: "His crime was wanting to enter into life-long arrangements with women, or facilitating that between a man and . . . was this guy trying to undermine America, destroy our way of life or murder our citizens? No! What the hell was he...

by Mark Finkelstein August 25, 2006 - 18:42 The New York Times might be thankful that it is not on trial with Dan Abrams serving as prosecutor. The impassioned argument he made against the journalistic value of the Times' lengthy account of the Duke rape case in today's paper, Files From Duke Rape Case Give Details but No Answers, might have sent the paper to the Big House for years to come. Interviewed by Tucker Carlson, Abrams, who until taking over as head of MSNBC had his own justice-oriented show on the network, came out guns ablazin'. "I thought it...

.....Separating the men from the boysPosted: August 25, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern It was a shocking moment for me, and it took a few seconds for me to be sure I had heard him correctly. Had MSNBC's Tucker Carlson really belittled the argument that Islamic terrorists posed a growing threat to Western civilization as being "reprehensibly dumb"? I was on Carlson's bottom-ranked cable news show, and the once bow-tied anchor was lecturing me that my justifications for the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq was nothing more than "administration talking points." It was yet another in an incalculably...

by Mark Finkelstein August 22, 2006 - 17:14 Has Tucker Carlson ever heard of the Marshall Plan? Seriously. The question arises in light of Carlson's show-closing diatribe this afternoon. Tucker was irate that, "now that Israel is done pummeling Lebanon, Uncle Sam wants to help clean up the mess. Your hard-earned tax dollars will include $42 million to help Lebanon's military prepare for deployment in the southern part of the country, rebuild schools and help mop up an oil spill off the Lebanese coast." He continued: "Here's the question - if the United States was so opposed to the physical...

First off, I ’m a big fan of your show. Until you came on the scene, nobody thought politics could be funny. Yet you made it hysterical.You are an innovator in your field and I have the utmost respect for your accomplishments. Hell, I even bought a copy of Naked Pictures of Famous People. However, I do have one small bone to pick with you.

by Mark Finkelstein August 9, 2006 - 17:26 Tucker Carlson stopped short of saying that some of his best friends are Jewish. But he did let us know that "I love Israel, I think it's a wonderful place, I support it completely, I support it instinctively." That was just before he declared that "I think this war helps Hezbollah. I think it's bad for Israel, bad for the United States. I think you can love Israel and believe this war is a disaster." And it was just after he criticized President Bush for "taking the side of Israel to the...

by Mark Finkelstein July 24, 2006 - 18:40 I thought Tucker Carlson was supposed to be MSNBC's conservative counterweight to Olbermann, Matthews, & Co. Perhaps I better think again, judging by the opening roll of his 'Tucker' show this afternoon. Here's how it went: Open to video of an Israeli tank firing rounds, as an off-screen voice breathlessly announces "Lebanon, under siege" as the scene changes to smoke rising from an urban Lebanese landscape. Cut to a Lebanese couple, with the woman informing us that "our house is bombed, everything is bombed." Cut to what looks like a mosque in...

by Mark Finkelstein July 17, 2006 - 17:25 Israel versus Hezbollah? Those exchanges pale in comparison to the crossfire between MSNBC host Tucker Carlson and former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin 'Bibi' Netanyahu on this afternoon's 'Tucker'. Alright, perhaps I exaggerate just a tad, but there was no mistaking Netanyahu's anger at the way Carlson had framed the issue of Americans in Lebanon. Here's how Carlson, who made the plight of the estimated 25,000 Americans in Lebanon a theme of the show, introduced Netanyahu: "25,000 Americans are trapped as the nation of Lebanon continues to come under fire from Israeli airstrikes....

by Mark Finkelstein July 7, 2006 Does Norah O'Donnell read NewsBusters? Could it be pure coincidence that on this evening's 'What'd You Say?' Hardball segment featuring the audio highlights of the week Norah just happened to select two items we had featured here and here? Who knows? In any case, Joe Scarborough took the occasion to apologize for being too mean to Democrats earlier in the show. For the record, the two soundbites featured were Joe Biden's Indian/7/11 slur, and Cindy Sheehan's pronouncement that she would rather live under Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez than George Bush. Panelist Tucker Carlson had...

-snip- Tucker Carlson, who joined MSNBC last year after a career at CNN, will move from 11 p.m. to airings at 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. where "The Abrams Report" used to be.

MATTHEWS: Do you find her physically attractive, Tucker? CARLSON: I‘m not going to answer that, because the answer, I don‘t want to hurt anybody‘s feelings. That‘s not the point. MATTHEWS: Positively. COSBY: Don‘t ask me that question. MATTHEWS: Mike, do you want to weigh in here as an older fellow. Do you find her to be a physically attractive woman? BARNICLE: I‘m too old to be doing that. I had enough fights in my life. MATTHEWS: OK, Rita, do you find her to be a physically attractive woman? COSBY: I‘ll throw it back to you, Chris, do you find her...

It's always good news to find stimulating programming in these days of reality shows and counter-cultural situation comedies. "The Situation with Tucker Carlson" (MSNBC--10 P.M. Central) is smart television and worthwhile viewing for those who care about the crazy world of inside politics. Carlson, who made his television bones on CNN, is intelligent and witty on his new MSNBC show. One only wonders why Carlson was so lame when he worked for CNN. Carlson left the network last year after hosting the now defunct, but ground-breaking "Crossfire." The program regularly pitted conservative pundits who argued against their liberal counter-parts. Unfortunately,...

From the 4/11/06 edition of his yack show.........CARLSON:  Well, if you watched this show before you may have noticed that I look different tonight.  I‘m not wearing a bow-tie.  This is odd for me.  I have worn a bow-tie on television every night for the past six years and for 15 years off air before that, since I was in 10th grade.  I like bow-ties, and I certainly spent a lot of time defending them.  But from now on I‘m going without: no ties at all.  I didn‘t lose a bet.  It is not a political statement.  I didn‘t ditch...

THIS is the last you'll see of Tucker Carlson with his trademark bow tie. "I'm not wearing a bow tie" anymore, the MSNBC host wrote in his blog yesterday. "This is odd for me. I've worn a bow tie on television every night for the past six years, and for 15 years off-air before that . . . Since I was in the 10th grade.

[I]t was with not all that much surprise that I read Lou Sheldon's name again recently, in a story about disgraced lobbyist and admitted felon Jack Abramoff. According to the Washington Post, Sheldon allegedly took money from an Abramoff client called eLottery and in return pressured members of Congress to defeat an anti-gambling bill. Sheldon was joined in this by former Christian Coalition head Ralph Reed, another longtime Abramoff friend. ...Why were supposedly honest ideological conservatives like Sheldon and Reed and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist involved with Jack Abramoff in the first place? Keep in mind that Abramoff's business wasn't...