When a media outlet reported that his son was appointed to a job with a fantastic salary that he is supremely unqualified for, he told a reporter researching the story to “Go fuck yourself,” saying “Normal people understand it’s wrong to go after a man’s family.”  Typically, in politics, that’s a fair rule to follow for ethical journalists:  politicians’ children did not seek the spotlight or the political power.  They’re private citizens and particularly in the case of minors, should never be targeted by malicious media stories.

But the person in question here isn’t a politician; it’s Fox host, frozen food heir, Hungarian tourism attache and Reichsminister of White Nationalism Tucker Carlson.  The offspring?  Carlson’s 25-year-old son Buckley, who is employed by rightwing, but not Reich-wing, congressman and tacit supporter of the white nationalist agenda Republican Jim Banks of Indiana as his director of communications at an annual taxpayer-funded salary in excess of $135,000 per year.

Media started reporting on the Carlson family grift this weekend, with stories in Axios and The Daily Beast reporting that a GOP strategist speculated that Banks hired the Naziesque offspring to garner favor with the GOP media establishment–y’know, Fox.  Banks hired Buckley after he graduated from Georgetown, an institute of higher education like those that are regularly disparaged by Tuckums, in 2019 at a $40,000 salary.  Three years later, his salary more than tripled.

As the Washington Post reports, Carlson is now on a quest to suss out who talked to the media about his adult son–paid by taxpayer dollars to publically disseminate propaganda to an arch-right Congressman who gains political capital every time his name gets mentioned in media, like on Fox programming.  Apparently, Carlson doesn’t like journalists who utilize actual sources, and he is so confused by the practice that he demanded Republican Congressman Tom Emmer of Minnesota, who is competing with Buckley’s benefactor for a leadership position in the House, to disclose the source of the quote.  Why Tuckums came to think Emmer knew who the unnamed source was is unknown.

Let’s start a little earlier in Tucker’s saga, which lays out how amoral and self-serving Carlson is.  The first thing to know:  in 2014, Tucker Carlson appealed to Hunter Biden, a neighbor in Carlson’s tony Georgetown neighborhood, to help Buckley get in the prestigious university, which is Hunter’s alma mater.  Hunter graciously assisted the likely-average student by writing a letter of recommendation.

Side note:  How do we know Tuckums begged Hunter for a recommendation letter?  A copy of the email was found on a copy of a hard drive a Rudy Giuliani lackey gave the Washington Post, which was able to verify the email’s authenticity.  Much of the other content on the hard drive–which again came from suspended lawyer Rudy Giuliani and not from a credible source–could not be verified.

Fast forward to 2022:  Tucker Carlson lambasts Hunter Biden nightly on his show for his ongoing struggles with chemical dependency and his work in the private sector with clients that include foreign businesses, claiming that the only reason those companies hired Biden’s firm was to corrupt Joe Biden.  (Of course, neither Carlson nor any other propagators of this claim can point to a single policy that was influenced by Hunter Biden’s business.)

Carlson has attacked GOP leaders who pose a threat to Banks’ ascension, ironically with nepotism fixture and ongoing substance abuser–allegedly–Don, Jr. stepping in to quell Republican unrest after Carlson attacked New York Republican Elise Stefanik, one of the more brown-nosing Trump supporters in Congress, who is also challenging for a Party leadership post Banks seeks, as National Zero reported back in May.  It’s no coincidence that Carlson attacked Stefanik, and it’s no oversight that Carlson didn’t mention his inherent conflict of interest during the segment in which he called the Trump sycophant “an operative of the Democratic Party” because professional ethics don’t exist at Fox.  (See:  dozens of sexual harassment suits; graphics, including typos, taken directly from RNC-distributed talking points; and numerous network personalities participating in Trump policy deliberations and political rallies.)

The hypocrisy is obvious.  Carlson doesn’t want people to know his son is getting paid an exorbitant amount of taxpayer dollars for a job he’s completely not qualified for, apparently so a GOP politician can garner favorable media coverage from the top propagandist at a conservative television network.  And shockingly, it’s worked:  though Banks is a relative centrist Republican, he’s been spared from Carlson’s threatening RINO hunting.

Buckley Carlson and the circumstance of his employment should be scrutinized:  he’s a public employee.  It’s our money paying him.  The nepotism is obvious.  The purpose and outcome of Banks’ ongoing payoff are apparent.  And Tucker Carlson’s snowflakey reaction to an otherwise innocuous news report demonstrates that even HE knows why his son was hired–and Tuckums is more than willing to adhere to the terms of the deal.

Carlson has never acknowledged on air that his son’s employer is a Republican Congressman seeking favorable media coverage.  If Tuckums wants to rail about corrupt media, he should simply look at his cackling face in the mirror and speak about his personal corruption, not violate journalistic practices by threatening a Congressman or a strategist.  And the corruption goes to the highest level of his employer, who let Tuckums slide on transparency and disclosure for the sake of propaganda.