Tucker Carlson might be in the doghouse over at Fox News after a New York Times report claimed he’s been consistently leaking information to the “mainstream media,” and it appears that no one is more disappointed than Mark Levin.
Levin, who hosts his own show on the network, used his platform to drag Carlson for betraying the trust and position of power he has at Fox News. Though Levin didn’t specifically name Carlson, the intended target of his tirade was pretty clear.
“I’ve been in this business almost 20 years. I worked in the Reagan administration for 8 years. I never once, not once leaked anything to a newspaper or media outlet, ever — let alone the New York Times and their ilk. Certainly not about the people around me,” Levin said on his radio show (via Media Matters) on Thursday. “That is a serious misunderstanding of one’s role, of loyalty, and character. Let me leave it at that.”
New York Times columnist Ben Smith had confirmed with 16 journalists that Carlson had been their anonymous source for stories about the network and former President Donald Trump, even though Carlson has built his brand on spreading mistrust and contempt for the media. Though some of his friends and Fox News colleagues — Sean Hannity and conservative writer Thomas Lifson — have defended Carlson and condemned the NYT, Levin chose a different approach.
“I would tell my friend Thomas Lifson, we know journalists, so many of them, are unethical. That’s the point. We know that they’ll only keep confidences that they want to keep or keep people anonymous that they want to keep anonymous. We know this, that’s the point, so don’t be surprised when they don’t,” Levin said, referencing Lifson’s recent takedown that tried to shift blame from Carson to the NYT for outing its sources. “I used to be approached by the likes of Brian Stelter, Oliver Darcy at CNN. I never sat down with them, never leaked anything to them. You see, this isn’t a game to me. I’m not positioning myself. This is deadly serious, this is the real world matters here. The real-world matters here. It’s hard enough to be a conservative on radio and TV, it’s hard enough to be a conservative at a newspaper without people leaking against you.”
This drama at Fox News will make people happy to grab the popcorn.
(Via Media Matters)