Tucker Carlson Says Departed Writer 'Was Wrong'

Tucker Carlson said the top writer for his Fox News Channel show "was wrong" for making racist and sexist comments anonymously on an online message board. But he also took the opportunity in a program commentary to jab at self-righteous "ghouls beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man."

Late in Monday's edition of top-rated "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the host spoke for a little more than a minute about former writer Blake Neff, who resigned Friday just before the publication of a CNN report that revealed him to be the anonymous author of racist and sexist comments on an unmoderated message board.

Blake Neff

USAToday reports, Carlson criticized Neff's behavior, but in milder terms than Fox News executives, who referred to Neff's posts as "horrendous and deeply offensive" and added in an email to employees Saturday that "Fox News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior."

Neff resigned Friday after CNN reported that he used the pseudonym CharlesXII to post bigoted remarks about Black and Asian people on the online forum AutoAdmit. He also repeatedly mocked a woman about her dating life.

In his remarks, Carlson said Neff "was horrified by the story and …  ashamed," adding "what Blake wrote anonymously was wrong."

Although Carlson did not mention CNN specifically, he implicitly disputed the rival cable news organization's statement that there "has at times … been overlap between some material (Neff) posted or saw on the forum and Carlson's show."

Carlson said of Neff's commentary: "We don't endorse those words. They have no connection to the show. It is wrong to attack people for qualities they cannot control. In this country, we judge people for what they do, not for how they were born. We often say that because we mean it. We'll continue to defend that principle, often alone among national news programs, because it is essential. Nothing is more important. Blake fell short of that standard and he has paid a very heavy price for it."

He then went after those he perceives as taking delight in Neff's downfall.

"We should also point out to the ghouls now beating their chests in triumph at the destruction of a young man, that self-righteousness also has its costs," he said. "We're all human. When we pretend we are holy, we are lying. When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the greatest sin of all and we will be punished for it."

Carlson added he would be taking the rest of the week off to go trout fishing.