MEDIA LOSER: Tucker Carlson
Your friendly neighborhood Mediaite newsletter correspondent doesn't actually like selecting Fox News' Tucker Carlson as the Loser of the Day. There's a certain amount of outlandishness interwoven with cable news, outrage draws attention, attention drives up ratings, and Carlson is frequently the King of the Ratings.
But with great power comes great responsibility, and on Thursday night Carlson ignored Uncle Ben's wise words and instead used the power of his top-rated show to mock a sexual assault survivor's very reasonable concerns.
Earlier this week, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) told CNN’s Dana Bash that she not only feared for her life during the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, she was worried she might be raped.
"Get a therapist, honey," Carlson sneered, mocking the congresswoman's fears as "crazy."
It wasn't crazy at all. Violent mobs are unpredictable, and there's been extensive coverage of how Vice President Mike Pence and members of Congress escaped the rioters with only moments to spare. If the mob had caught up with them, it's reasonable to say it would have inflamed them further, so that even former President Donald Trump's belated calls for calm may not have ended the rioting.
Ocasio-Cortez's worries that day were valid, and Carlson's misogyny was just pathetic. |