Tucker Carlson Closed Monday's Show With a Blistering Word to the New York Times

Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson ended Monday night’s broadcast with an angry warning to the New York Times. According to Carlson, the Times is planning to run a story this week that will include his home address. Such an act would put Carlson and his family in danger.

Tucker responds to intrusive reporting by The New York Times. pic.twitter.com/xj4z69G9cA

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 21, 2020

“Last week, the New York Times began working on a story about where my family and I live,” Carlson said. “As a matter of journalism, there is no conceivable justification for a story like that. The paper is not alleging that we’ve done anything wrong and we haven’t. We pay our taxes, we like our neighbors, we’ve never had a dispute with anyone. So why is the New York Times doing a story on the location of my family’s house? Well, you know why. To hurt us. To injure my wife and kids so that I will shut up and stop disagreeing with them. They believe in force. We’ve learned that.

“Two years ago a left-wing journalist publicized our home address in Washington. A group of screaming antifa lunatics showed up while I was at work. They vandalized our home. They threatened my wife. She called 9-1-1 while hiding in a closet,” he added.

Carlson said antifa showed up again the following week, and sent letters for the next year threatening to kill him and his family. He and his family had to sell that home and move elsewhere. Several outlets covered the stalking of Tucker Carlson at his home when in November 2018. The events at his home happened around the same time antifa activists chased Republican Sen. Ted Cruz out of a Washington restaurant.

“But the New York Times followed us,” Carlson continued in the Monday show’s closing segment. “The paper has assigned a political activist, called Murray Carpenter, to write a story about where we are now. They’ve hired a photographer called Tristan Spinsky to take pictures. Their story about where we live is slated to run in the paper this week. Editors there know exactly what will happen to my family when it does run. I called them today and I told them. But they didn’t care. They hate my politics. They want this show off the air.”

“If one of my children gets hurt because of a story they wrote, they won’t consider it collateral damage,” said Carlson. “They know it’s the whole point of the exercise: to inflict pain on our family. To terrorize us. To control what we say.”

Carlson predicted the Times would deny the story, or claim it’s “Just journalism. Just the facts!”

The Times did indeed deny the story in a statement to Mediaite.

In a statement to Mediaite, a Times spox said, "While we do not confirm what may or may publish in future editions, The Times has not and does not plan to expose any residence of Tucker Carlson’s, which Carlson was aware of before tonight’s broadcast." https://t.co/arpBMHCOl1

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) July 21, 2020

The wording “any residence of Tucker Carlson’s” seems oddly phrased. It could indicate that Carlson has done what many famous people have to do to protect their residential addresses. They place ownership of their home in a trust that they control so that its physical address does not appear with their name in public listings of property or addresses. This is a common practice for famous people and others who tend to attract stalkers, as most media are aware and have been for years. Many prominent reporters undoubtedly do so themselves. It’s also perfectly legal, provided all the paperwork and taxes are handled properly. It is not a loophole around having to pay property taxes. It’s a way to shield one’s private residential address from others’ ability to easily access it.

If the Times is effectively stalking Carlson to doxx him and his family, it would not be the first time major media have done so to a conservative leader at the height of his or her influence. In 2010, an investigative reporter, Joe McGinnis, literally rented the home next door to Sarah Palin while he was allegedly writing a book about her. He moved in. His deck overlooked the Palins’ back yard, where, according to the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, he could and did watch her children playing in the yard.

The following year, McGinnis published an unflattering book about Palin.

And of course, Carlson himself was doxxed nearly two years ago.

Carlson’s Fox show has enjoyed historically strong ratings in recent weeks, as he has questioned everything from the coronavirus response to masks to protests and the ongoing riots and anarchy in many Democrat-run cities across the United States.

There is the question of how Carlson might have known the story, if there is one, was on the way. It’s unlikely the Times purposely told him ahead of time, but it’s possible he received a tip from someone inside the newspaper.

The Times has had an interesting week of its own, with the resignation of staff editor Bari Weiss. Weiss’ politics are center-left with some right-leaning ideas, but in the world of the woke NYT Weiss was somehow “conservative” and thus, according to her, subject to systemic mistreatment by other, mostly young, reporters. Never mind the fact that conservatives outnumber liberals across America. In her resignation letter, Weiss hinted there were others within the paper who agreed with her but feared speaking out. She also made several specific accusations that could be legally actionable under state and federal equal employment opportunity law.