Nearly Half Sour On Tucker Carlson Over Old Audio Clips

Unearthed audio of Tucker Carlson’s comments on a range of sensitive topics have prompted advertisers to drop the Fox News host’s show.

While this is not the first advertiser boycott he’s faced, a new Morning Consult analysis shows the uproar could pose problems for Carlson: Fifty-five percent of U.S. adults — and a 42 percent plurality of Republicans — say they’re less likely to watch “Tucker Carlson Tonight” after hearing some of his remarks.

Carlson originally made the comments on the “Bubba the Love Sponge” radio show between 2006 and 2011, but they were dug up and republished by longtime Fox critic Media Matters for America on Sunday and Monday.

The March 12-15 survey, which featured Media Matters’ videos excerpting some of those comments, elicited strong views among respondents.

Nearly half (48 percent) of the general public said they’d be “much less likely” to watch Carlson’s show after hearing the excerpts, including a 33 percent plurality of Republicans.

Respondents in the survey — who were asked to react to Carlson’s comments in real time as they watched the videos — found some of his remarks more objectionable than others.

Negative views were strongest during Carlson’s statements in 2009 concerning Warren Jeffs, former president of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, who was at the time seeking an appeal of his conviction on two counts of first-degree felony rape as an accomplice. 



While nearly every demographic group in the survey was more likely than not to be turned off by Carlson’s comments, there were exceptions.

For example, 34 percent of Republican men said they’d be more likely to watch Carlson’s show after viewing the videos, compared with 31 percent who said they’d be less likely. And people who strongly approved of President Donald Trump’s job performance or viewed the president very favorably were split almost evenly on how the video impacted their likelihood of tuning into “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

But among all Republicans, fewer see Carlson in a positive light these days: Thirty-five percent of this group viewed the host favorably in the new poll, compared with 42 percent in a November survey. Among all adults, his favorability rating dropped 9 percentage points, from 29 percent to 20 percent, over the same period.