Overview

Tucker Carlson "Bubba the Love Sponge" Calls refers to a series of interactions between Fox News television host Tucker Carlson and "shock jock" radio host Bubba the Love Sponge on the Bubba the Love Sponge radio show. A supercut of comments made by Carlson on the show went viral in March 2019, creating a public backlash due to Carlson's language comments about women, child abuse and marriages between adults and minors.

Background

On March 10th, 2019, the news media outlet Media Matters^[1] published a supercut of snippets of calls between Carlson and Bubba the Love Sponge. In the clip, Carlson makes comments about rape, child marriage and women. According to Media Matters, he states that underage marriage is not "the same thing exactly as pulling a child from a bus stop and sexually assaulting that child. … The rapist in this case has made a lifelong commitment to live and take care of the person so it is a little different." Additionally, he uses sexist and misogynistic language to describe underage women, public figures, such as Martha Stewart and women whom he hoped to be romantically involved.

Development

Online Reaction

That day, Media Matters posted the video on Twitter, ^[2] where it received more than 11,000 retweets and 18,000 likes in 24 hours.

Following the post, people began sharing the video as well as their opinions, using the hashtags "#FireTuckerCarlson"^[12] and "#BoycottTuckerCarlson."^[13] Some began posting Carlson's sponsors as a way of putting pressure on them to drop Carlson's show. Twitter^[3] user @charley_ck14 tweeted the list, receiving more than 250 retweets and 620 likes in 24 hours (shown below, left).

Twitter user @DrDenaGrayson tweeted,^[4] "How can @FoxNews -- the network that rages about “family values” -- keep Tucker Carlson on air⁉️" The tweet received more than 1,700 retweets and 3,300 likes in 24 hours (shown below, right).

Twitter^[6] published an Events page on the page on the controversy.

That day, Redditor ^[5] mepper posted the report in the /r/aethism subreddit. Within 24 hours, the post received more than 1,800 points (97% upvoted) and 125 comments.

Carlson's Response

On March 10th, Tucker Carlson responded to the controversy on Twitter.^[7] He wrote, "Media Matters caught me saying something naughty on a radio show more than a decade ago. Rather than express the usual ritual contrition, how about this: I’m on television every weeknight live for an hour. If you want to know what I think, you can watch. Anyone who disagrees with my views is welcome to come on and explain why." The post received more than 15,000 retweets, 68,000 likes and 17,000 comments in 24 hours (shown below).

Media Coverage

Several news outlets covered the controversy, including USA Today,^[8] The Daily Beast,^[9] Business Insider,^[10] Fortune^[11] and more.

Search Interest

External References