Fledgling media firm Semafor’s launch started with a bang on Thursday when co-founder and BuzzFeed/New York Times alum Ben Smith interviewed conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson...or, tried to. The pre-launch interview certainly succeeded in giving the company the attention they wanted, but maybe not quite the type of attention they had in mind.
Smith, who was editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed News at the time they published the discredited Steele Dossier, was combative right off the bat.
“Do you believe white people are superior to other races?” Smith, who describes himself as a journalist, first asked Tucker.
Carlson chuckled and responded with, “Of course not!” before Smith interrupted his answer, and refined his question into, “Do you believe that white people have some claim on America that people of other races don’t?”
Incredulous, Carlson denied the suggestion again.
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Much of the interview went like this — Carlson, however, managed to hold his own when permitted to speak.
Carlson clarified that, as a Christian, he believes that everyone has equal value in God’s eyes, before adding that the archetypal Tucker Carlson opponent would be a “38-year-old female, white lawyer with a barren personal life.”
“That’s who yells at me in airplanes,” Carlson elaborated as he broke into laughter, “And so I always think of people [saying] ‘You’re a racist!’ It’s like, no, I hate you! I’m not mad at black people, like, what are you talking about? I dislike you! You’re horrible!”
Smith then grasped at straws to link Carlson’s views on mass migration to violent events and mass shootings.
“The language of replacement theory is, like, specifically the language used by Neo-Nazis to recruit people to their cause,” Smith claimed. “Obviously, I’m not suggesting some straight line between words and actions, but it is a phrase that has been used by mass shooters. I wonder, you don’t have any compunction or regret about popularizing that?”
Carlson responded, despite several attempts by Smith to cut him off, “This is why you are considered correctly a propagandist, and not a journalist. Because I just explained, in detail, with total sincerity, what I believe. You ignored it, and invoked mass shooters.
“This is revealing how ridiculous you are, and I think it’s evident to any fair person watching,” he added.
By the end of the interview, Smith was visibly flustered as Carlson laughed while saying, “This is fun!”
The liberal media quickly realized that Smith’s attempts to steer the interview were totally derailed by Carlson.
Even The Daily Beast rolled out an article titled, “Tucker Carlson ‘Steamrolls’ Ben Smith During Awkward Semafor Rollout Interview.” Media Matters’ Matt Gertz also threw his hands in the air, declaring in an article, “There’s no point to interviewing Tucker Carlson.” He even conceded that the interview was “a performance reminiscent of a Harlem Globetrotters game.”
Take notes, conservatives. Carlson’s ability to go on the offensive, give substantive answers to ‘gotcha’ questions, and weave humor into his arguments utterly dismantled his interviewer’s attempt to smear him. This is how to handle bad-faith questioning from the left.
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Sports journalist and commentator @WhitlockJason gives his take on the leftist media’s pitiful claims that Brittney Griner is a victim of American racism. https://t.co/CyuTlcvCBB
— MRCTV (@mrctv) July 8, 2022