Thanks to the lovely Google Cache, a blog’s since-pulled offline report about Chris Matthews’ revelation and Tucker Carlson’s confirmation, during a Portfolio photo shoot at MSNBC’s D.C. studio, that Arianna Huffington had hired a private investigator to tail a NBC colleague (since identified as Tim Russert) can still be read. [Google Cache]
As it the censored item now reads: “The original author of this post and the editor of this blog would like to sincerely apologize to Conde Nast, Portfolio, Chris Matthews, Tucker Carlson and the photographer on set for any problems or inconvenience we might have caused. We had no intention to bring harm to anybody involved.”
Except, well, too late? The blogger, Douglas Thompson, has officially screwed over his friend, the photographer, who he tagged along with. No more Conde Nast work for you, buddy.
Ever since news broke about his brand of courtesy toward waitresses, David Gregory has been clamming up around the D.C. newsroom. But now we’re told that his distancing from staff might have more to do with at least 10 consecutive days of dipping ratings, where “he’s been losing big chunks of the strong lede-in audience he starts with,” says a MSNBC insider. More startling, if the information is to be believed: Race for the White House has been attracting fewer viewers than Tucker Carlson’s show did in its last month in the same 6pm slot, even with all the attention paid to the Pennsylvania primary, lending credence to the original theory about MSNBC’s buyer’s remorse.
Phil Griffin supposedly read the riot act to Gregory and exec producer Noah Oppenheim, with insructions to “get the numbers up … or else.” Naturally, MSNBC chief communicator Jeremy Gaines says the info, is “complete and utter bs, just like everything else you post. … Simply not true.” Not that the network’s recent track record about refuting rumors holds much weight these days.
Who owns the name “Beat The Press?” MSNBC’s Dan Abrams just got done delivering a wallop to CNN for ripping off the media mocking segment from his show Verdict. But his segment title, which was borrowed from Tucker Carlson’s canceled show – which, from what we can tell, came after Huffington Post launched “Eat the Press,” which itself was a riff on Tim Russert’s excellent Meet the Press – might be a rip-off itself (via). Boston’s public television host Emily Rooney says she has the rights to the title.
And, in fact, she does. Since 1993, the WGBH host (and daughter of 60 Minutes‘ Andy Rooney) has owned the copyright to “Beat the Press,” and uses the title for her own show. “I think this is intellectual thievery,” she says.
Funny, ’cause when Abrams called out CNN’s copying, he claimed it was “pure intellectual thievery.”
Who’s stealing intellect now?!
Recession? Iraq? The Hills? None of them take up enough time to keep Fox News’ Neil Cavuto from backhandedly defending Jay Leno and Tucker Carlson while getting in digs at their GE overlords, or Dan Abrams from going after CNN for ripping off his “Beat the Press” segment or their DUMBEST POKER GIMMICK EVER. [TVN]
In this four-question interview, MSNBC’s exiting anchor Tucker Carlson says: “Can’t complain about MSNBC. I wish they weren’t killing the show - I like it and think it’s good - but other than that, they’ve been nice to me.” [BHDC]
Correspondent Wendy rounds up the best comments made on cable news in recent days.
• “I woke up yesterday morning and one of the first thoughts I had was — this is something that happens to me a lot — what is Clay Aiken doing?” —Tucker Carlson, previewing how he’ll spend his time now that his show’s been canned, Tucker, March 7 CONTINUED »
Out goes Tucker Carlson, in comes NBC News veteran David Gregory. From Washington, the White House correspondent will begin filling the 6pm slot while continuing to carry on his regular duties, which includes playing fill-in for Matt Lauer on Today. Gregory’s show will be called Race for the White House, which, by definition, has a sell-by date of November. Meanwhile, the adept Andrea Mitchell will begin anchoring the 1pm dayside news broadcast, a similar role she had leading up to the 2000 election. [TVN, AP]
Perhaps the most distasteful joke about Tucker Carlson (at last) losing his MSNBC show: That he killed himself over it. Fake news site Unconfirmed Sources has the “story,” with Heath Ledger’s death scenario mixed in: “Tucker Carlson was found dead Tuesday of a possible drug overdose in a Lower Manhattan apartment, the New York Police Department said. […] Carlson was found naked and unresponsive, facedown on the floor at the foot of his bed by a housekeeper trying to wake him for an appointment with a masseuse, said police spokesman Paul Browne, ‘Pills were found in the vicinity of the bed,’ he told UCS News. ‘This is being looked at as a possible overdose, but that is not confirmed yet.’”
With Tucker Carlson out as an anchor at MSNBC, humor writer Peter Smith has a suggestion for a new job: The hosting gig on Meet The Press. Nevermind that Tim Russert currently holds that job, and has no intention of leaving. So why give Tucker the prestigious gig? “Carlson is younger, better-looking and faster-talking.” Reasonable. [HuffPo]
MSNBC TICKER Tucker Carlson confirms his show is canceled. We hear his replacement, despite the opportunity for the network to balance out its arguably misogynistic coverage, will not be naming a woman as his replacement.
Is those rumors we’ve been hearing about Tucker Carlson’s removal from his 6pm timeslot on MSNBC turn out to be true – and multiple sources assure us they are! but we’ve heard that before! – then his replacement will almost certainly come from in-house, we’re hearing. One source insists Rachel Maddow, the Air America host and MSNBC analyst whose been on air regularly during primary coverage, will be taking over. In January, Queerty interviewed Maddow, which, predictably, means she’s a gay. And also: She’s “not a Hillary Clinton fan.”
Update: Insists one MSNBC source: It is not Maddow. Though she did tape a pilot for the network, the opportunity isn’t on the table for her. Then again, neither is it for David Shuster. More unknowns!
Are Tucker Carlson’s days at MSNBC numbered? Rumors of his demise have been circulating for months years. At the time, those reports were “accurate”: Carlson was supposed to be removed from the network. But then he volunteered to take a pay cut (reportedly slicing his salary in half) to stay on the air. Now we’re hearing rumblings that plans are being made inside 30 Rock to swap him out at 6pm for a new project. No word yet on who would, theoretically, replace him, or whether Tucker would be asked to leave the NBC News campus entirely. As for timeline? It’s been said that two weeks ago, Tucker’s fill-in was to have taken over already, so it’s unclear whether MSNBC’s decision has been solidified, or whether brass still has a few more Ts to cross. Or whether Tucker is entirely safe!
• Bill Nye, the Science Guy is seeking a restraining order against his ex-fiancee whom, he claims, is poisoning his vegetable garden. Seriously.
• Tucker Carlson devotees protest his impending involuntary departure.
• Jay-Z finally admits his lyrics have inspired “a whole generation of bad writers.”
• Louis Vuitton successfully sues Britney Spears for cheapening the brand’s luxury image. Talk about an open and shut case!
• There is a time and a place for rabid environmentalism. And that time is not December 25th.
• Breaking: Kate Spade’s elderly, Jewish friend agrees to don Santa suit for emergency purse campaign.
Have we (as we speculated last week) finally seen the last of Tucker Carlson’s bow tie and annoyingly conservative ideals? Possibly, but MSNBC is keeping things ambiguous for now.
Rumors have been flying recently that Tucker Carlson could soon be on the way out at MSNBC. In a report that aired this morning on NPR, Phil Griffin, a senior vice president at the cable network, described Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews as part of the MSNBC “brand”. Asked whether Mr. Carlson was also part of that brand, Mr. Griffin replied: “He is right now.”
That is, assuming MSNBC’s definition of “ambiguous” roughly translates to “You have until the end of the day to clear out your things.”
On last night’s Dancing With The Stars, the MSNBC talking head joined forces with fellow DWTS castoffs Lisa Rinna, Harry Hamlin and Laila Ali in a video spoof in which Carlson and company “check into ‘dance rehab’ in Malibu because they ‘haven’t been able to let go of being on Dancing With the Stars.’” Reports TVNewser:
“I was brought here against my will,” Carlson tells a ‘rehab counselor’ [in the video]. “I am a dancer, whether (people) believe me or not. I’m the one person in here who doesn’t need therapy,” he continues, “because I’ll never get rid of dance. You could cut me into pieces, and each piece would have dance within it.”
Along with yesterday’s revelation that Rosie O’Donnell demanded a gold-plated trapeze to work for MSNBC comes word that Tucker Carlson (and his fledgling conservative show) will be canceled as part of MSNBC’s great migration to the left.
Nothing could further from the truth, however. At least, from what Carlson hears. “We’re on the air as far as I know,” Carlson tells Big Head DC, calling rumors of his show’s impending demise “complete and utter bullshit.”
One possible cause for the mix up was that the New York Times’s anonymous source at MSNBC was a frenemy of Tucker’s. (Same with that high-level source who told us Dan Abrams found out his time slot was in jeopardy from the morning papers!) Which means either cable TV “insiders” are actually just a bunch of bitch high school girls or else MSNBC’s still treating their anchors like yesterday’s news.
“Congratulations for making my life hell the past few days,” writes a (sort-of) joking Intern Wendy. “Thanks to Jossip’s coverage of Tucker Carlson, I had to rewrite my entire column for today. It’s enough to make me ask for a raise,” she sighs, adding, “if I were getting paid in the first place.” Oh, Wendy. Such a kidder…
• “Nasty, bad, naughty boy, that is the single gayest thing I have ever heard a senator say ever. That is redolent of gayness.” Tucker Carlson, showing off his gay-dar, Tucker, August 28
• “You just did a foot move there, Tucker.” Pat Buchanan, wondering if anything’s “afoot” under the table, Tucker, August 28
It’s been a busy past couple of days for political pundit Tucker Carlson. Between bragging about beating up a grabby gay in a men’s bathroom stall, apologizing for it profusely and then totally trying to take it back, Carlson’s been running around in circles as of late, trying to appease the throngs of knee-jerk liberals who apparently took his gay-bashing comments way out of context.
But what most people forget is that Tucker Carlson has been afflicted with incurable foot-in-mouth disease long before he was ever mentally “accosted” by a same-sex bathroom dweller. So in honor of his latest controversy, we’ve gone back into the archives of time (by which we mean past issues of Cable Quotables”) and rounded up a sampling of some of his most memorable remarks in a segment we’re calling, “Best Of The Bow-Tie: Tucker Carlson’s Greatest Hits.”
And if you think Carlson hates gays, you don’t even want to get him started on how he feels about fat people. The complete list, after the jump.
After being outsmarted by a comedian and out danced by a football player, Tucker Carlson has nothing to do but cause trouble on MSNBC. Blame Jon Stewart.
Wearing a normal tie and repeating “I’m not gay” about a dozen times, Tucker Carlson retells his own Larry Craig story to Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough:
Huh? You and a friend beat up someone up in a DC bathroom? That doesn’t sound like a story you want to stick with.
Tucker’s new version after the jump.
• Madonna finds another Malawi “orphan” to rescue snatch away from the evil clutches of her biological parents.
• CBGB’s is dead. And now so is its founder.
• Owen Wilson is officially dropped from the upcoming “Frat Pack” comedy, Tropical Thunder, presumably because they don’t allow movie cameras into the suicide ward of Cedars-Sinai hospital.
• Tucker Carlson doesn’t hate gay people. He just likes beating them up in public restrooms.
• Facebook trounces Google 15-11 in a heated game of ultimate frisbee. “Huh,” murmured a stunned Google tosser. “So that’s what it feels like to come in second.”
Editorial Director
