Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Tucker Carlson Said He’s Being Attacked By TV And Sitcom Writers. Is That Anti-Semitic?

Tucker Carlson's comments may be anti-semitic

Tucker Carlson in October 2018. Image by Getty

Fox News personality Tucker Carlson has been having a bad couple of days. On Sunday evening, Media Matters, a non-profit conservative media monitor, released audio clips of Carlson making misogynistic comments and defending arranged marriages between adult men and girls who are below the age of consent. The statements were made between 2006 and 2011 to radio host Bubba the Love Sponge.

“I mean, I love women, but they’re extremely primitive, they’re basic, they’re not that hard to understand,” Tucker said. “And one of the things they hate more than anything is weakness in a man. “

Then, on Monday evening, as his Fox show aired, Media Matters released audio clips of Carlson making racist, nationalist and Islamophobic comments.

“Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys,” Carlson said in a clip from October 2008.

In response to the first round of leaks, in his opening monologue Monday, Carlson refused to apologize, and attacked the supposed people behind the leaks, who he referred to as a liberal “mob.”

“These are the people who write our movies and our sitcoms,” he warned. “They are not shocked by naughty words. They just pretend to be when it’s useful. It’s been very useful lately.”

Carlson’s comments echoed anti-Semitic statements made by people who have criticized supposed Jewish control of Hollywood. That Jews control the media and Hollywood is a long-time canard.

They also happened to be a stranger-than-fiction moment for a beloved joke about this canard from the TV sitcom “30 Rock.”

Just say Jewish scene from 30 Rock

Image by Pinterest

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.