If we're gonna talk about sex, I'd love to hit some of the fine points of technique.
>> [LAUGH] >> But
it's your show, it's totally up to you.
>> We can certainly talk about your sexual technique,
especially after your tanning testicles last week.
>> There's a pretty big possibility that the leaked footage of Tucker Carlson you
just watched was leaked by Fox News.
And I'll explain why there's a belief that that's the case.
But the video that was captured there happened on a day when
Tucker Carlson was going to be interviewed by Piers Morgan.
Media Matters for America has been publishing these leaked tapes.
And in another video obtained by Media Matters,
Carlson makes a comment about someone's girlfriend.
>> You wouldn't, okay, you know what?
I'm not qualified on that score, I will say,
I thought his girlfriend was kinda yummy.
Just kidding, in case this is being pulled off the bird, yeah, the bird.
Hey, Media Matters for America, go [INAUDIBLE] yourself.
That's the first thing I wanna say tonight.
Second thing is, totally kidding, I don't even know what his girlfriend loks like.
And if I did, I would not find her yummy.
>> So that was not when he was on air.
This is probably during the break or before he went live.
And so the only people that would have access to that footage are employees
over at Fox News.
>> So it's either an employee or the company itself.
>> Right. >> And more likely,
the company itself will get to that.
And I think that's the only reason we're doing this story.
I don't like these leaked videos that are totally taken out of context.
So, he was joking around during the break.
So that's it, he's guilty forever.
Tucker Carlson is massively guilty for the things he says on air.
>> 100%.
>> Okay, and I know he treats a lot of his workers like dirt, and
that's why a lot of them turn on him and do the videos.
In this case, I think it's the company itself, so I don't shed a tear for
Tucker Carlson, but I hate these dirty tactics.
>> Yeah, so I want to go to one more video, because I think,
out of everything that they've leaked, this is the most interesting.
Because it gives you a sense of what Tucker Carlson thinks about his own
audience.
>> Well, I feel great, I can never assess my appearance.
I wait for my post-menopausal fans to weigh on that.
>> Now, to be fair, Fox News does have an older audience,
we do talk about that quite a bit.
And it appears that Tucker Carlson is aware of that, but
has decided to specifically attack the female portion of that audience.
Nonetheless, why do we think that this was very likely leaked by the company itself?
Well, because it turns out that there are people working at Fox News
who basically put together dossiers of talent that has left or
has been fired to essentially use against them.
Or threaten to use against them to kind of make sure that they stay in line.
Okay, so I'll give you details on that.
But, Cenk, any thoughts on this video?
>> Yeah, so first of all, look, yes, it's true, the Fox News audience is very old.
And so, sorry, and we have plenty of great progressives who are older in our
audience, too, and some of the best progressives.
But having said that, the older demographics these days generally watch
corporate media, cuz they grew up on television.
So they don't watch Fox Nation necessarily.
And that's, in fact, in another leak,
Tucker Carlson was complaining that nobody's watching Fox Nation.
Because Fox News's audience is so old, that demographic can't
figure out the Internet, or doesn't want to figure out the Internet.
So the average age of the Fox News audience is 70.
That means half of them are above 70 years old, okay?
And they know it, and they joke around about it.
Look, you wanna say they shouldn't joke around about it, fine.
And we're showing you the clips here, and we don't like Tucker Carlson at all.
You do with that information anything you like.
But to me, the interesting part of the story is Fox
is going to war against Tucker Carlson before Tucker even fired a shot.
>> Yeah, it's really strange, right?
So I don't agree with the tactic of compiling a dossier of
former employees to threaten to use against them.
But I at least kind of understand that tactic to make sure that he doesn't leave
and then start trashing the company, whatever, right?
I wouldn't do it, but it's Fox News, I'm not surprised that they would do it.
But why are they attacking first?
I don't really understand.
So let me give you the details about what Rolling Stone reported on this issue,
and then we can discuss it a little more fully.
So, eight people familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone that Fox News
and its communications department, long led by the notoriously
aggressive Irena Briganti, has assembled damaging information about Carlson.
One source with knowledge calls it an oppo file.
Two sources add that Fox is prepared to disclose some of its contents
if execs suspect that Carlson is coming after the network.
Now, I will say, based on what's been leaked so far, if you compare
it to what Tucker Carlson has candidly said on air, it's not that bad.
Let's just keep it real.
So I think that this was, if it is true that the company released these videos,
I think this was like the warning to Tucker, like, this is just a little taste.
>> Yeah, I have a similar, but a little bit different take on it.
So, first off, look,
I think when Tucker calls immigrants dirty on air, it's disgusting.
And I don't need any secret leaked tapes to make me dislike Tucker Carlson.
My issue with Tucker Carlson isn't his personal opinions.
If he kept them in a basement, I wouldn't care at all,
that's his right as an American citizen, no matter how atrocious his opinions are.
My problem is that he poisoned the American culture with the toxic stuff that
he would say to get people angry and fearful and hating one another, right?
So he jokes around about somebody being yummy or somebody being old.
Sorry, I know I'm supposed to care, I'm supposed to be outraged,
that's what we do.
We go to our different camps, and
then we all get outraged at each other on every single thing.
No, that's not the issue here at all.
So why do I think it's Fox?
First of all, one outlet that he's being taped there is Fox News,
the other one is Fox Nation.
They're slightly different with slightly different staff.
I don't know their internal working,
sometimes it could be very different staff.
So it would have to be someone that's really close to Tucker and
works on both shows.
Or much, much, much more likely, it's the person who holds all the tapes, and
that's the company itself.
Okay, so they've got Tucker under a $20 million contract.
And what basically they're saying to him is, you want the 20 million?
You know Newsmax can't give you the 20 million,
you know none of these things can give you the 20 million.
If you want, be a good little boy.
Now, okay, the threat we talked about last week,
you don't wanna use the threat, you wanna threaten him with it.
And dangle the carrot of the $20 million so he doesn't attack you.
The problem, since we talked about it last week,
is that half of the Fox News audience is already gone.
So now what I think they're doing is, they're smearing Tucker publicly to say,
you see how he insulted you guys, and he called you old women?
So come back, everybody, come back, Tucker is not the good guy, we're the good guys.
I think that's why Fox News is leaking this stuff.
>> Yeah, I think that that could be true.
I mean, if they think it's gonna work, it's laughable,
I don't think it's gonna work.
>> No, but remember,
the executives are totally out of touch with their own audience.
In fact, they hate their own audience.
We know it because we saw the texts and we saw the emails.
And they're like, how these rubes, these idiots that we take advantage of,
they're lunatics.
They say things that are 10,000 times worse than what I said about
right wingers, right?
And so to them, they don't even understand the audience.
They're like, what if we smear Tucker and say that he calls women yummy?
Dumbasses, the right-wing Fox News audience will probably like that.
>> Yeah. >> They're not gonna hate him for that.
God, they don't know anything about their own audience.
>> Yeah, and remember, the reason why Fox felt the need to pander to its audience
after the results of the 2020 election is because the audience is so
obsessed with Trump, right?
And so think about who Trump is,
think about the insanely insulting things Trump has said about women.
>> My God, come on.
>> Honestly, the idea that the Fox News audience would go back to
Fox after leaving as a result of Tucker's firing.
>> Because they thought Tucker was too sexist.
>> Come on.
>> I mean, these elites are so out of touch.
They haven't met a regular person in forever,
they have no idea who their audience is.
>> Now, if you're wondering what that file,
secret oppo file of Tucker Carlson includes.
Rolling Stone says that the file includes internal complaints regarding workplace
conduct, disparaging comments about management and colleagues.
And allegations that the now-former prime-time host created a toxic work
environment, three of the sources say.
So, again, it really depends on what he says on those tapes.
But so far, based on the description of that oppo file, and
based on what we've seen so far, if your theory is true.
And Fox is trying to get its audience back by having right-wing audience members turn
on Tucker, I don't think it's gonna play out the way they want it to at all.
>> It's definitely not.
And look, Fox News is in a lot of trouble,
they're beginning to realize, and that's why this is happening.
But they didn't realize it when they fired Tucker Carlson.
Because they thought it's like the good old days, hey, we fire Bill O'Reilly,
we fire Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, it doesn't matter.
Everybody still stays here cuz we're the machine, okay?
But they don't know that between that time and this time, their audience has
become far more radicalized, including by people like Tucker Carlson.
So when Tucker Carlson says, my God, they don't want you to suntan your crotch,
that way you'll take the vaccine and be under the control of Dr Fauci,
their audience, frothing at the mouth, goes, yeah, right?
And so when you bring in Brian Kilmeade, and he's like, now, remember,
we all hate Democrats.
And those standard right-wing establishment talking points,
we were like, boo, when are we lasering our crotch, okay?
So it's a different audience, and they lost track of it, and
I think this is gonna hurt them real bad.
And so maybe I'm wrong, we'll see, but I don't think so.
I think it moved on them, and they screwed up here.
One thing, last thing I'll say is, now,
I'm intensely curious about why they fired Tucker.
Cuz we shared a number of theories when they fired him.
But Tucker didn't expect it to come now, this was a genuine surprise.
And there's some percentage chance they did it because of like a Roman Roy
situation, if you're watching Succession.
Some idiot, whether it's senile Rupert Murdoch or his idiot son or whatever,
was like, I don't like it.
I don't like what he said about me in a text, I'm gonna fire him,
I bet there won't be any consequences.
Remember, the children of the really wealthy got there
by being the children of the really wealthy, they're not very bright, okay?
So I don't know what happened, but this was probably, and
thank God, a massive mistake by Fox News.
>> But I don't think Tucker's done, he's gonna make a comeback.
>> No way.
>> I don't know what form that will be in, but he will make a comeback.
>> Of course he will.
>> He's not gonna go away.
>> Anyone who thinks that Tucker Carlson cannot
now mount a comeback does not understand today's media at all.
And this is coming from the guy that when they fired Bill O'Reilly,
you can go back and watch the tapes.
I said, Bill O'Reilly is done, he has no ability to come back.
Cuz back then, there was not enough infrastructure in digital media for
a brand like Bill O'Reilly, an individual brand, to rise up, okay?
Now, for a brand as big as Tucker Carlson, he has all the capacity in the world.
Especially after getting fat and rich off the Fox News money,
let alone the Swanson dinner money.
He could then form his own organization and
get pretty large pretty quickly, and be a real threat to Fox News.
And the knuckleheads who run that organization don't know it at all.
And like I said, thank God they don't know, good, keep making more mistakes.