On Tuesday night, Fox News’s Tucker Carlson flogged the man behind a fake protest against President-elect Donald Trump.
The man, who identifies as “Dom Tullipso” and claims to be behind the Demand Protest website offering to pay agitators to protest against Trump, appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” to talk about his site, which netted attention on several websites and blogs. After Infowars and Gateway Pundit reported on the website, several outlets reported this proved the existence of “fake news” and that it’s only a problem among conservative websites and Facebook pages.
The Verge reported: “The paid protestor myth has been a staple of the fake news ecosystem for some time, and with this week’s inauguration, there’s reason to be extremely dubious of the new site.”
Carlson flipped this narrative on its head by inviting “Tullipso” to join his show, then proceeded to ask him a series of probing questions about who he is and his true intentions.
“I’m saying that your name is fake, your company is fake, and the claims on your website are false,” Carlson said. “What is the point of the ruse you’re perpetuating on the American news media?”
“I would assume that I wouldn’t be given airtime on a national stage unless I was legitimate,” the man said.
“Well, I’m vetting you right now and beginning by saying you are not legitimate, you are lying,” Carlson said. “We know that. You have fooled other news organizations. You did not fool us, and my question is: Why are you doing it?”
The man hemmed and hawed for a bit, apparently trying to decide how to respond.
“You’re not conceding this is a hoax, you’re saying this is a real company?” Carlson asked. “You haven’t been receiving hate mail, because you don’t exist. So if you do exist, why don’t you give me some evidence that you’re real beginning with your actual name, which is not Dominic Tullipso.”
“We are greatly supportive of national treasures such as Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, Peyton Manning,” the man said later on.
“So you’re pretty supportive of Peyton Manning, are you?” Carlson asked, laughing.
“Extremely,” the man said. He concluded by saying: “It’s pretty darn easy these days to just say whatever the heck you want on national TV and have it pass off as truth. It was pretty incredible to get the coverage we got.”
