Dean Baquet Rips Tucker Carlson For ‘Misleading’ Viewers About Unpublished NY Times Piece: He ‘Falsely Claimed To Be a Victim’

KJ EdelmanJul 24th, 2020, 11:39 am
 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet ripped Tucker Carlson for “misleading” viewers and falsely claiming to be a “victim” when the Fox News host accused the paper of trying to “hurt” him and his family with an unpublished story.

On Monday, Carlson railed against the paper on his prime time show and claimed that a freelance writer and photographer — who he named — were trying to “injure my wife and kids so that I will shut up and stop disagreeing with them.” Carlson said the paper was planning to publish the location of his home and didn’t know why they were writing a story on him. He continued:

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 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 we say.

Immediately after his monologue, the New York Times provided Mediaite with a statement that said Carlson was aware the paper did not plan to “expose” his residence.

“While we do not confirm what may or may not publish in future editions, The Times has not and does not plan to expose any residence of Tucker Carlson’s, which Carlson was aware of before tonight’s broadcast,” A Times spokesperson said.

Still, the paper faced intense criticism from pundits, GOP lawmakers and members of the Trump administration for the unpublished story. Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said it was “clearly their intent” in a reply to a tweet that read, “The New York Times is deliberately encouraging violence against [Carlson].” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) said the Times’ “woke mob” planned to “actually put lives at danger.”

The two journalists who Carlson named — Murray Carpenter and Tristian Spinski — were harassed, according to a column from the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple. Spinski also said someone tried to break into his home hours after Carlson’s monologue.

In a statement contained in that column, Baquet criticized Carlson, noting he was told the paper would not reveal his home. “If he has any honor and if Fox has any honor, they will admit they were wrong,” Baquet said. His full statement reads:

He misled his viewers into believing we would publish his address when he was aware that we had no intention of doing so and when the network was specifically told we would not reveal his home. Many wrongly think that we did publish his address and even a picture of his house. It inspired the exact same kind of personal harassment against others which he so indignantly and falsely claimed to be a victim of himself. Hours after the broadcast someone attempted to break into the home of a photographer who doesn’t even know where Carlson lives and his followers have waged an attack on people who have nothing to do with the story. And if he has any honor and if Fox has any honor, they will admit they were wrong.

While Carlson said on Monday the story was expected to drop this week, the Times has still not published its piece on the Fox prime time host.

In a statement to the Washington Post, Carlson said, “Some of my children stay in the building the New York Times planned to photograph. The paper was aware of this, because I told them. They didn’t care. Their story, like the one you’re writing now, had nothing to do with covering the news. It was an attempt to intimidate and incite violence against my family for political reasons. It’s disgusting.”

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