Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson denied a claim which surfaced earlier this week suggesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicked Carlson’s dog while meeting with the former Fox News host and his wife.
The claim surfaced in a segment from author Michael Wolff’s upcoming release, The Fall: The End of Fox News and the Murdoch Dynasty shared by New York Magazine on Wednesday.
Wolff detailed the Carlson family as “dog people” before claiming the Florida governor has assaulted one of their dogs.
“DeSantis pushed the dog under the table,” reads Wolff’s segment. “Had he kicked the dog? Susie Carlson’s judgment was clear: She did not ever want to be anywhere near anybody like that ever again.”
Wolff’s segment also claimed Carlson thought DeSantis was a “fascist.”
“It’s totally made up. Ridiculous actually,” Carlson told The Daily Wire in a denial of Wolff’s claim.
In another statement to Business Insider, Carlson referred to the claim as “absurd.”
“He never touched my dog, obviously,” he said.
NEW: Tucker Carlson has denied recent claims that Ron DeSantis kicked his dog pic.twitter.com/oO3UCVesZu
— Chris Bertman (@manofbert) September 21, 2023
DeSantis’ team also denied the claim.
“Some will say or write anything to attack Ron DeSantis because they know he presents a threat to their worldview,” said Communications Director Andrew Romeo. “But rest assured that as president the one thing he will squarely kick is the DC elitists in both parties either under or over the table, and that’s why they are so desperately fighting back.”
In a Tuesday piece, CNN’s Oliver Darcy suggested Wolff “may not be the most reliable narrator.”
“When reading and reporting on the book, journalists and the public at large would be smart not to mistake Wolff’s word for the word of God,” Darcy wrote. “Wolff has a history of printing claims that end up being strongly disputed by the subjects themselves. Critics have chided him in the past for sloppy or unethical reporting practices. And his bestselling Fire & Fury even contained outright factual errors.”
Darcy also noted Wolff made “sloppy mistakes,” including spelling hosts Bret Baier and Jesse Watters’ names wrong.
Fox News sources reportedly told Darcy that the author made no attempt to fact check the book with the outlet or parent company Fox Corporation.
“When it comes to reporting on any subject, however, taking basic fact-checking measures is important,” the CNN reporter continued. “With Fox News, where an author might be basing major claims using less-than-reliable sources, the risks are more pronounced, making such reporting efforts even more paramount.”
“Some sources could harbor an agenda — and it takes little effort or risk to provide information as an unnamed source,” Darcy added.
