If you appear as a guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight, there's a good chance you'll be a target of online harassment

Written by Bobby Lewis

Published

After appearing on Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, several guests have reported that they were subject to waves of harassment, usually from “alt-right” and white supremacist trolls. Tucker Carlson has become cable news’s most favored hosts among neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and those in the “alt-right.” 

Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

Tucker Carlson is beloved by the “alt-right” and white supremacists

“Alt-right” and white supremacist trolls consider Carlson “literally our greatest ally.” Tucker Carlson has a devoted fan base in “alt-right” and white supremacist online communities. At one point, there was a subreddit devoted entirely to how “Alpha Male Tucker Carlson routinely plows beta-male SJW snowflakes over on Fox News,” with the phrase “can’t cuck the Tuck” frequently used to describe Carlson’s unwillingness to be “cucked” by interviewees. Mike Cernovich, a misogynist “alt-right” media personality and a key pusher of the pizzagate conspiracy theory, predicted that Carlson’s 9 p.m. time slot would “make FoxNews great again.” Beyond Reddit, Carlson also has a fan base among neo-Nazis. Andrew Anglin, founder of The Daily Stormer, said that “Tucker Carlson is literally our greatest ally. I don’t believe that he doesn’t hate the Jews.” Anglin has also called Carlson “a machine of ultimate destruction” under Trump, and “a one-man Holocaust” for arguing against The Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin. [Media Matters, 1/5/17]

Guests on Tucker Carlson Tonight become targets for harassment from his “alt-right” fan base

Teen Vogue’s Lauren Duca Was Told To “Get Raped” After Appearing On Tucker Carlson Tonight. Following her December 23 appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Teen Vogue writer Lauren Duca received several violent threats online. According to a CBS report, Duca said she’d “received thousands of angry responses, including being threatened with rape on Christmas Day.” Another message Duca received stated “all you need is a good ol fashion PUSSY GRAB.” From CBS’ December 27 article:

A woman involved in a heated debate with Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson over Ivanka Trump said Tuesday she’s received thousands of angry responses, including being threatened with rape on Christmas Day.

[...]

She was a guest on Carlson’s show Friday to discuss an incident where Donald Trump’s daughter was verbally accosted while traveling on an airplane with her family. Duca had tweeted that Ivanka Trump’s role in the incoming administration was fair game for discussion.

[...]

Duca said she was “shell-shocked” after the interview but also proud. She found it frustrating to be involved in just the sort of discussion she found infuriating during the presidential campaign, with people who seemed to be talking past each other. 

Then the online attacks began, many too lewd to repeat. She saw an online discussion board created to encourage people “to harass me until I have a mental breakdown or go into porn.” [CBS News, 12/27/16]

Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald was trolled by Tucker Carlson Tonight fans exploiting his seizure disorder. According to Mediaite, following a “highly contentious interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson” a troll on Twitter “caused [Newsweek’s Kurt Eichenwald] to have a seizure.” Eichenwald’s appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight had gone viral, and following a string of tweets from the reporter, “his critics … began trolling him.” According to Newsweek, “hours after Eichenwald appears on Tucker Carlson Tonight, the Twitter user @jew_goldstein tweeted a strobing image … that allegedly said, 'You deserve a seizure.'" [Mediaite, 12/16/16; Newsweek, 3/17/17] 

Joseph Palmero, a professor at Sacramento State University, was harassed online after an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Professor Joseph Palmero appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to defend a blog post that criticized President Donald Trump’s views on climate change. Following his appearance, according to a report from Inside Higher Ed, Palmero received “messages of hate.” From the February 2 report: 

A number of political blogs picked up the essay, writing that Palermo wanted Trump banned from Twitter because he didn’t believe in climate change. Palermo said he was making a rhetorical point, but that it was lost on his critics -- many of whom accused him of hypocritically advocating that the then president-elect be censored.

Palermo received more messages of hate after he appeared on Fox News’s Tucker Carlson Tonight to defend himself, but struggled momentarily to name a precise source for his assertion that 98 percent of scientists believe in climate change. (For the record, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration says, “Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that 97 percent or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree: climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”) [InsiderHigherEd.com, 2/2/17]

Former congressional candidate Erin Schrode reported "spikes” in online abuse after her Tucker Carlson Tonight appearance. The Associated Press reported that Erin Schrode, a former candidate for a Democratic House seat in California who had experienced online abuse from neo-Nazis in the past, saw “spikes in” online “harassment after she appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show in December.” From the March 29 report: 

Schrode, a Democrat and activist who would come in third in the June primary in her Northern California district, had become the latest target of The Daily Stormer, a popular neo-Nazi website known for orchestrating internet trolling campaigns.

After the site published a post about the “Jewess” and her candidacy, a reader posted Schrode’s contact information in the comments section. Over the past 10 months, her email and social media accounts have been polluted with a torrent of slurs and disturbing images.

[...]

Schrode noticed other spikes in her harassment after she appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in December and after The Huffington Post published an article she wrote in November about her experience as the target of trolls.

“Every day, I’m reminded that I’m Jewish,” said Schrode, co-founder of an environmental nonprofit. “It’s not normal to wake up and hear that people want you dead or in another country.” [The Associated Press, 3/29/17]

New York City Council member Corey Johnson received harassing voicemails after appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Days after an appearance on the May 16 edition of Carlson’s show, New York City Council member Corey Johnson tweeted that Fox viewers were “still” leaving harassing voicemails, telling him to “get the hell off the news,” calling him a “fucking faggot,” and asking if he was “a transgender bitch or what?”: 

[Twitter, 5/18/17]