Some days ago, RedState reported extensively on the revelation that the NSA had gathered Tucker Carlson’s communications (see here, here, and here). That was confirmed when the contents of an email were leaked to Axios. The big scandal was that Carlson had contacted US-based Russian sources, who were likely the primary target of the surveillance, to try to set up an interview with Vladimir Putin. You know, just like NBC News had done weeks earlier without having any of their communications leaked.

But before those details were confirmed, all we had was Carlson’s original allegation. During that time, CNN’s Brian Stelter and the resident potato squad rushed to frame Carlson as a liar. Worse, they tried to stoke internal division at Fox News, asserting that no one on the hard news side was defending Carlson.

Stelter, perhaps not realizing that it’s best to fade away when you get proven so wrong, decided it’d be a good idea to contact Carlson anyway. What followed was pure savagery.

Carlson's response to my request for comment today: "I'm not mad at anyone at Fox. If I was, I'd say so. I'm mad at you for lying relentlessly. What a loathsome person you are. Please print that." We did print that… https://t.co/D4v98EUioO

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 12, 2021

When partisan activist journalists try to act super-serious like this, it always comes across as absolute cringe. Stelter printed his own humiliation, which is funny but also just a little sad.

Of course, Carlson is right. It is loathsome to essentially accuse someone of lying, get proven wrong, and then still attempt to remain perched on one’s high horse. If Stelter’s “newsletter” was actually about presenting a fair picture of the news, he’d have never rushed to downplay Carlson’s now proven true allegations in the first place. He certainly wouldn’t attempt to double-down. But Stelter’s entire job is not reporting the news. Rather, it’s being an activist whose sole goal is to harm Fox News. He’s a completely ineffective joke of a hired gun who will ignore media scandals across the industry, but if someone at Fox News breathes, he’s on the case.

What’s pathetic is not just what his job boils down to, but how he attempts to gaslight everybody about what he and his colleagues truly are. People respect honesty, and that includes honesty about who someone really is. Stelter wants to play-act as a stalwart, unbiased media watchdog, but we all know he’s just a chihuahua nipping at Carlson’s heels.

Good on the top-rated Fox News host for not even entertaining Stelter’s questioning.