Fox News said it would not bring a bully guest back, then it did
Written by Jason Campbell
Published
On the July 7 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson interviewed The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles, who had called environmental activist Greta Thunberg a “mentally ill Swedish child” in 2019. At the time, the network had said it would not bring Knowles back on its air.
Citation From the July 7, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight
Knowles had made his comments during the September 23, 2019, edition of The Story with Martha MacCallum, repeatedly referring to environmental activist Greta Thunberg as a “mentally ill child.” Thunberg, who was 16 years old at the time, has been very open about her Asperger’s diagnosis.
Citation From the September 23, 2019, edition of Fox News' The Story with Martha MacCallum
MICHAEL KNOWLES: Ironically, there was a study that came out of Carnegie Mellon University in 2015 which showed that meatless diets are actually far worse for the environment than the regular meat-filled diets.
They increase emissions, they increase energy use, they increase water use, but none of that matters because the climate hysteria movement is not about science.
If it were about science, it would be led by scientists rather than by politicians and a mentally ill Swedish child who is being exploited by her parents and by the international left.
CHRIS HAHN: How dare you.
KNOWLES: So, what you're seeing here is a political movement and a religious movement, and it's fulfilling religious and political goals of the left but it isn't doing very much for science.
HARRIS FAULKNER (GUEST HOST): Chris, you had a visceral reaction to that. Go ahead.
HAHN: Yeah, I mean, you're a grown man and you're attacking a child. Shame on you. She's trying to do what she thinks is right --
KNOWLES: I'm not, I'm attacking the left for exploiting a mentally ill child.
HAHN: Relax, skinny boy. I got this. OK? You're attacking a child, you're a grown man.
Knowles’ comment sparked immediate outrage, including condemnation from the United Kingdom’s National Autistic Society, which tweeted:
It’s unbelievable & shameful that at such a significant moment, some people are still ready to verbally attack a 16 year old girl. Without wanting to give him more publicity – one particular comment was really nasty.
A spokesperson for Fox News called the comment “disgraceful” and apologized to Thunberg and Fox viewers. The network said it had “no plans” to bring Knowles back as a guest.
For his part, Carlson’s show has featured guests with bigoted pasts. Just last month, he hosted a former Trump official who had left the White House after reports surfaced that he attended a white supremacist conference. Last year, there was reporting that a former top writer of Carlson’s show, Blake Neff, had been posting racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and other offensive comments to an online forum for five years.
Carlson’s show is a hotbed of misinformation, white supremacy, and fearmongering over a supposed white genocide.