Brian Stelter Says Tucker Carlson Has Changed: Behavior ‘Comes from a Darkened Heart’

In a new interview with Mediaite, former CNN host and media reporter Brian Stelter spoke about his many years covering the career of Tucker Carlson, the cable news journeyman who peaked during the Trump era as the most popular host on cable news with a prime time Fox News show before he was fired earlier this year. In that time, Stelter said, Carlson changed for the worse.

Stelter joined Mediaite’s The Interview podcast to discuss his new book about Fox News and its coverage of the 2020 election, Network of Lies. When asked about his professional relationship with Carlson, which goes back years, Stelter said he stopped replying to Carlson’s texts last year “because it was getting so hateful.”

“Do you think he’s changed?” Mediaite editor Aidan McLaughlin asked.

“Yes, I think he’s changed as a person,” Stelter answered.

“You know, he was an unconventional, contrarian, libertarian-leaning conservative commentator. He was a bolt of energy on [CNN show] Crossfire 20 years ago. And even more recently than that, I interviewed him when he started his job at Fox News. I was at The New York Times. He was just starting at Fox. He was willing to do whatever Roger Ailes told him to do. You know, he needed a job… But people forget he was in the wilderness for years. He was hosting Fox & Friends Weekend. He was miserable on that couch.”

Stelter continued:

So when he got the prime time job, that was everything; that was such a critical promotion, such a critical change in his life. And I really believe he talked himself into believing all the B.S. that he says on the air. You know, he presents this image of America as Armageddon, as an apocalypse. That we are doomed. At least this is what he was doing on Fox. The interviews now he’s doing are a little bit different; he’s doing interviews on X. They’re mostly just with the predictable far-right figures who share his desperate view of the world.

But the image he was portraying on Fox, I would actually argue, it’s un-American. The way that he portrayed the doomsday scenarios, the way that he depicted America’s cities, the way he portrayed liberals — not as people with different ideas, but as evil enemies.

And to your point, lots of name calling, lots of name calling of media reporters and others. He loved to call me a eunuch, which, it just doesn’t even make any sense…But look, that’s — it’s a darkened heart. That’s what it is. That comes from a darkened heart.

Stelter added that he still doesn’t think he has “the full story” on how Carlson got to this point.

“I think there’s still probably more to figure out someday there,” Stelter said.

Subscribe to The Interview on Youtube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify.