As Newsbusters has previously reported, the CBS Evening News was the only one of Thursdays evening’s news broadcasts to mention an Antifa mob showing up at Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s house in the northwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C. Wednesday evening, shouting threats and vandalizing his driveway. On CNN and MSNBC, only one program on Thursday even bothered to mention the assault: CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin. Most other cable news programs devoted their airtime to pushing for gun control and losing their minds over President Trump’s nomination of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General.
While other journalists and media personalities on the other side of the aisle expressed their support for Carlson and condemned Antifa’s assault on his house, only the 3:00 program on CNN even bothered to mention it on the air. Host Brooke Baldwin, who had previously chastised right-leaning Daily Beast columnist Matt Lewis for referring to angry left-wing protesters confronting Senator Ted Cruz as a “mob,” brought in Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter to discuss the incident.
As Stelter explained, “20 people showed up at Carlson’s home in Northwest D.C. last night. He was not home, of course, he was at work getting ready for his show on Fox News. His wife was home alone and his wife heard this disturbance outside and heard them knocking on the door, heard them screaming things. She was concerned about a home invasion.”
Stelter proceeded to read aloud a statement from Fox News stressing that “the temperature need to be taken down across the board right now. Recent events in the country show we need to have a more civil, respectful conversation and be tolerant of differences.” Stelter briefly editorialized after reading the statement aloud, describing the statement as an “interesting tone coming from Fox News.” Stelter appears to view Fox News as the source of all division in the country; he repeatedly tried to blame the network for the shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue last month.
In spite of his frequent criticism of Fox News, Stelter condemned the assault on his home, arguing that “you can have a lot of criticisms of Fox News, and I do. But it crosses a line when you show up at somebody’s home. Whether you love Tucker Carlson or hate Tucker Carlson, I think we can all agree that protesters on a driveway shouting, scaring the anchor’s wife, it’s just uncalled for.”
CNN Newsroom’s discussion of the Carlson incident lasted for only 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Baldwin closed the segment by agreeing with Stelter and calling Antifa’s behavior “absolutely outrageous.” At the very least, hopefully the Carlson incident will cause Baldwin and other left-wing journalists to rethink their assertion that left-wing mobs only exists in the imaginations of Fox News hosts and President Trump’s most hard-core supporters.
A transcript of the relevant portion of CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin is below. Click “expand” to read more.
CNN Newsroom With Brooke Baldwin
11/08/18
03:57 PM
BROOKE BALDWIN: Left wing protesters are now targeting Tucker Carlson of Fox News at his house. Police were called to Carlson’s Washington, D.C. home last night where members of an anti-fascist group were staging a loud protest. In videos uploaded to Twitter, the group can be heard chanting “Tucker Carlson. We will fight. We know where you sleep at night!” So let’s go to Brian Stelter, he is our Chief Media Correspondent and host of Reliable Sources and what’s the news from D.C. police? What are they now saying?
BRIAN STELTER: We’ve just learned in the past few minutes there’s an open criminal investigation into this protest last night. And so, I think that means, Brooke, we could see the police looking into this further, possibly even trying to talk with or arrest some of the protesters. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. What we know for sure is that about 20 people showed up at Carlson’s home in Northwest D.C. last night. He was not home, of course, he was at work getting ready for his show on Fox News. His wife was home alone and his wife heard this disturbance outside and heard them knocking on the door, heard them screaming things. She was concerned about a home invasion. She called the police. The police showed up and the police report shows there was vandalism at the home. Here’s the statement, the news statement from the police saying, look, these protesters, some of them broke the law by defacing private property. “The Metropolitan Police Department takes these violations seriously and we will work to hold those accountable for their unlawful actions. There is currently an open investigation, an open criminal investigation regarding this matter. So, what starts as a left-wing protest, of one of these Antifa-affiliated groups. They say they need to speak truth to power and hold Carlson accountable. Look, everybody has got First Amendment rights. But to show up at someone’s house, to be knocking on the door, to be spray painting an anarchy symbol in the driveway, that has been denounced from the right and from the left today. Everyone from folks over at Fox to Stephen Colbert today saying that crosses a line. You shouldn’t be showing up at somebody’s house like that.
BALDWIN: What is Fox saying?
STELTER: Fox News has come out and agreed with that assessment, says this was reprehensible behavior and the executives at Fox have also said, look, the temperature need to be taken down across the board right now. Recent events in the country show we need to have a more civil, respectful conversation and be tolerant of differences; an interesting tone coming from Fox News. I think, look, Brooke, we talked about Fox a lot lately, we talked about Sean Hannity promoting Trump and all the rest. You can have a lot of criticisms of Fox News and I do, but it crosses a line when you’re showing up at somebody’s home. Whether you love Tucker Carlson or hate Tucker Carlson, I think we can all agree that protesters on a driveway shouting, scaring the anchor’s wife it’s just uncalled for. I’m just glad his kids weren’t home. But even, you know, his wife was home. Obviously, this was a disturbing situation and the D.C. police we are now learning are taking it seriously.
BALDWIN: Agree. Absolutely overstepping and absolutely outrageous. Brian Stelter, thank you so much for that.
