If only every Fox guest would bring a binder of "Fox News Falsehoods" on the air with them!
On last night's Tucker Carlson Tonight, Kurt Eichenwald was set up for a classic on-air smearing -- "How can you call yourself a journalist when your tweets prove you don't like Donald Trump and that's BIAS!?! Benghazi 9/11!"
But Eichenwald came prepared, with a very thick binder, title page "TUCKER CARLSON FALSEHOODS."
And for every charge thrown at him, Eichenwald offered not only to start reading from the binder, but publishing it at the Newsweek website.
Tucker wants to catch Eichenwald in a gotcha moment, and Eichenwald, knowing that Carlson is a professional liar working for a network that pays him to lie, makes it about Tucker Carlson, and lying. Tucker has little in his arsenal except smirks.
But also Gotcha Questions like this:
TUCKER CARLSON: Do you see on one day you're criticizing the press for being lazy and inaccurate and the next day you are being lazy and inaccurate.
KURT EICHENWALD: A journalist would ask the question why did you send that tweet? I will answer it for you now. I have been covering Donald Trump. I started writing about him in the late 1980s. At that time I obtained his medical records from his real doctor, not from this guy who sent out medical report then. It showed that in 1982 he was given a very heavy prescription for an amphetamine derivative and he remained on that prescription for many years. I knew from people inside the Trump organization that they were deeply concerned about his condition that he was getting reckless, that he was getting impulsive. That he wasn't sleeping. That he was speaking with these sort of great variations of grandeur that he could do anything. And in 1990, because he did so many deals that were so reckless, his whole empire was going into bankruptcy. And he was going through a divorce. And I was told that there was -- now, let me say, I'm talking about reporting process. So I'm saying here is what I was told.
Now I want you to think with me now, parse it out, what would Tucker Carlson be reporting if someone said these same things about a "President-elect Hillary Clinton." Would he change the subject? Would he insult the guest? Would he be physically suffocated by the Fox News Breaking Alert graphics, "AMERICA IN CRISIS"?
Well, it's a Republican, so let's make sure we ignore what the guest just said (serious verified evidence that the President-elect has a history of amphetamine use) and move on to a yes or no question where he already knows the answer and can say BIAS!
CARLSON: Was he in a mental hospital or not in 1990, you allege that he was. Was he or was he? he wasn't, was he?
EICHENWALD: Tucker, if you don't want me to answer the question.
CARLSON: I'm asking you the question. Was he in a mental hospital in 1908 or not.
EICHENWALD: I would like to answer the question. You have made an accusation. Let me answer.
CARLSON: No. I read your tweet.
EICHENWALD: In 1990 I was told that there was essentially a breakdown. I'm giving reporting process here, okay? Clearly, I didn't print it. I thought Trump was a private individual and it didn't matter.
CARLSON: You print it right here!
Well, yeah dumbass. Trump isn't a private citizen anymore.
EICHENWALD: And then -- and this was as a result of the amphetamine derivatives that he was taking. Many, many years passed and we have now the election. Now, up until that point, prior to the election...
Again, Eichenwald is giving some really important information here, information that if it was about any Clinton, anywhere throughout the history of all time, would be a breaking news alert on Fox.
Tucker is.... bored?
CARLSON: This is a very long story.
Oh. My. God. The network that spent months on Solyndra can't spend five minutes on whether or not Trump was AND IS a possible user. Of speed. Which makes you impulsive and reckless.
CARLSON: You said he was in a mental hospital in 1990, was he or wasn't? it's a simple question. I'm asking you to finish, sir. Answer the question.
EICHENWALD: If you don't like the answer. Don't have guests. But I would really like to answer your question.
CARLSON: It's a simple question. Was any a mental hospital as you claimed or wasn't he?
EICHENWALD: Tucker, would you like me to answer the question or not? If the answer is no, say so.
Of course he wouldn't Kurt. Your answers don't jibe with the Fox News talking point of the day, "Problems with Crazy Russian Puppet and Destroyer of Worlds Donald Trump? Nothing to see here."
So Tucker expresses concern for KURT'S mental health. I'd be worried about your job after a public embarrassment like that one, again, Tucker. And I hope Eichenwald does publish his binder. It's not complicated.
The problem is Fox. And Kurt Eichenwald brought a gun to their gun fight. What's the over/under that he won't be back on again?
