Many politicians and their supporters are playing especially hardball in this election with the goal of keeping Donald Trump in office — at any cost. A close friend of POTUS, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, threatened journalists during his program, loading his millions of viewers up with provably wrong information, pointing them at journalists, and firing them into motion.
The president has convinced his supporters that the fourth leg of the government, a free press, is “fake” unless it fawns all over him. This angry group redirects their anger and joins in as Trump attacks journalists as his enemies.
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson actually threatened The New York Times reporters on air last month. As a result, a new 911 phone call transcript revealed on Monday how dangerous the talk show’s words were, as reported by The Salon:
‘So how would Murray Carpenter and his photographer, Tristan Spinski, feel if we told you where they live? If we put pictures of their homes on the air?’
Carlson planted the idea into his viewers’ minds by fantasizing such an event could happen to him, endangering him and his family,
The New York Times did not intentionally or unintentionally propel harassment directed at another’s family. However, Carlson did.
The Washington Post wrote that the cable show host’s threat said:
‘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. 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.’
He inaccurately accused the Times reporters of doing a story that released the Fox News host’s home address. The newspaper denied that charge. The article that was supposedly releasing the address has not appeared.
Regardless, Carlson openly threatened the reporters working on the story.
‘So how would Murray Carpenter and his photographer, Tristan Spinski, feel if we told you where they live? If we put pictures of their homes on the air?’
The close friend of Trump was well aware that it would be easy for anyone to locate the journalists’ addresses. Anti-abortion people have been using that tactic for decades, resulting in threats, violence, and even deaths.
After Carlson’s step-by-step harassment instructions aired, these two freelancers received a multitude of threats, according to The Washington Post.The newspaper’s Erik Wemple released a 911 transcript of the incident. The transcript read in part:
‘The 911 transcript adds contour to the story, as it depicts the victims of Carlson’s dangerous speculation trying to make sense of a sudden spurt of hostility at their doorstep on an otherwise quiet summer night. The call arrived at the Lincoln County facility at 9:57 p.m., just about an hour after Carlson’s blast.’
Spinski’s brother-in-law’s voice came onto the line, according to The Washington Post:
‘It’s been some loud banging noise downstairs and some threats coming to the house recently just in the past hour. I mean there’s the call and the voicemail saying we know where you live, beware and things of that nature.’
After the dispatcher asked probing questions about his situation, Spinski’s brother-in-law responded:
‘Yeah just recently, it’s my brother-in-law is a journalist and a news source posted his name on uh Tucker Carlson show and his address and things of that nature so he has um been getting threats all night long.’
Then, Spinski’s voice comes onto the line with some additional background information:
‘There is (sic) definitely people (muffled voices) on our property. Yeah there was a definite, we can feel our house when someone is trying to get into it downstairs. It was significant.’
During the situation, the photo-journalist, his wife, and his brother-in-law “locked” themselves into a room on the second floor of the home. Spinski said:
‘I am not going to poke my head out you know.’
Featured image is a screenshot via YouTube.
