ANGELO CARUSONE (MEDIA MATTERS PRESIDENT): What struck me about a lot of these clips was not just the fact that they're so consistent with the things that he says now, but the comfort in which he says it. It sounds like you're actually getting to see the real Tucker Carlson. In all of his profiles they talk about how private he is, how he lives behind this really deep veneer, how detached he is, right? Its a strange thing. I feel like that's the real Tucker. And that's the part that struck me, there's a casualness to it that just feels that's not the only time he said that.
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And there was this point where he said he fantasized about a candidate running for president who basically promises to eradicate all of the Muslims. Almost literally forecasting the appeal that Donald Trump would present to that audience.
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And I think that if you tie that with his programming today and I think that's why you see a winking and nodding. Before his show even launched, we found his new producers going into these chat rooms and posting, announcing that their program was there and inviting ideas and consistently there is always this segment that is a top story that's on the chans or one of these communities because he is elevating it and giving it oxygen and air time.
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If that was the case, if we just wanted to bombard with everything, then I would have taken a lot of the hundred plus hours that we listened to with Bubba The Love Sponge and Tucker Carlson and I would have played a lot of random other clips because he said a lot of awful things that are objectionable.
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The argument for pulling this out now, is one, because of his relationship to the president and the consumption, two that I think it gives some context and insight into what he does nightly on his program and to the extent that they enrich that understanding, I think it is worthwhile. So that's why we focused on things he said repeatedly and thematically and that also echo his programming today. And I think that makes it much more relevant.
