By Harold Pease, Ph.D.
At the close of the cable news show Tucker Carlson Tonight July 20, 2020, Tucker had the strangest ending that I have ever heard a news anchor announce. I could feel his fear for his family
It began normal, “Well, all of a sudden the media have ripped off the mask and they’re supporting violence as a political tactic. They spent the last few months describing the riots as mostly peaceful. It provided cover for rioting. They’ve watched conservative speakers shut down, their families harassed.” I have published similar sentences describing the deep state, establishment media coverage of the law and order issues of today.
He next apologized for referencing himself. “Since the show began almost four years ago, I’ve really tried not to talk about myself on the air, or even use the first person pronoun. The last thing this country needs is more narcissism.”
He then related how the media with the thug organization Antifa had driven him out of his home in Washington DC almost two years before. “Left wing journalists 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 911 while hiding in a closet. A few weeks later they showed up again at our house. For the next year they sent letters to our home threatening to kill us. We tried to ignore it. It felt cowardly to sell our home and leave. We raised our kids there, in the neighborhood, and we loved it. But in the end, that’s what we did. We have four children. It just wasn’t worth it.”
Returning to his reluctance to report as news his persecution he said, “But tonight we’re going to make an exception to that rule. We don’t have much choice.”
I sat glued to my chair listening in horror because what was happening to him in America, with millions listening, could happen to anyone without an audience. He was one of the most viewed anchors in America.
But what came next is representative of what happened under Germany’s Adolph Hitler or Joseph Stalin’s media tyranny in Russia. “Last week the New York Times began working on a story about where my family and I live. As a matter of journalism, there is no conceivable justification for a story like that. The paper is not alleging 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.”
This is the New York Times, for more than a century the most trusted news outlet in America, and they are adopting the suppression tactics of two of the most brutal dictators in world history. The tactics of each the Times covered over past decades with distain.
Tucker continued. “But the New York Times followed us. The paper has assigned a political activists called Murray Carpenter to write a story about where we are now. They’ve hired a photographer called Tristen Spinski 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 will consider it collateral damage. They know! It’s the whole point of the exercise, to inflict pain on our family, to terrorize us, to control what we say. That’s the kind of people they are.”
Of course, the New York Times knows what they are doing. They saw how it worked under Hitler and Stalin—they are the Times—they were horrified with what they covered then. Now they are doing the same to those who disagree with them. Carlson added “They’ll deny this, of course, they’ll claim it’s just journalism, just the facts. Really!!”
Then he asked for empathy. “So how would Murray Carpenter and his photographer Tristen Spinski feel if we [Tucker Carlson Tonight] told you where they live? If we put pictures of their homes on the air? What if we publicize the home address of every one of the soulless robot editors at the New York Times, who was assigned and managed this incitement to violence against my family? What about the media editor, Jim Windoff? We can do that. We know who they are. Would that qualifies as journalism? We doubt they’d consider it as journalism. We don’t consider this journalism.”
Carlson made an astute but truthful observation. “They’d call it criminal behavior if we did it.” Then concluded, “And that tells you everything! It does tell you everything!!”
If The New York Times can destroy a very popular FOX News anchor, it can destroy any media source. A free press in America is close to being an illusion.
We hope our assistance in publicizing this travesty will help stop its escalation.
Dr. Harold Pease is a syndicated columnist and an expert on the United States Constitution. He has dedicated his career to studying the writings of the Founding Fathers and applying that knowledge to current events. He taught history and political science from this perspective for over 30 years at Taft College. Newspapers have permission to publish this column. To read more of his weekly articles, please visit www.LibertyUnderFire.org.