Fox News’s Tucker Carlson accused the National Security Agency last week of reading his private emails and planning to leak their contents to take down his show. Meanwhile, Axios just confirmed the Biden administration targeted Carlson after he sought a televised interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But instead of being outraged that a government agency could once again be spying on Americans — or even bothering to question the NSA’s failure to deny reading Carlson’s emails — blue checkmarks on Twitter banded together with Democrats and corrupt corporate media outlets to write him off as a right-wing conspiracy theorist.
While Axios claims it can’t confirm that the government spied on Carlson, the details of the story make it clear that the host was targeted, that his communications were collected, that he was unmasked, and that details of his communications were shared with reporters.
Fake news “conservatives” were some of the first people to have full-blown meltdowns over Carlson’s claims just minutes after they aired.
Spoiler alert: The NSA isn’t spying on Tucker.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) June 29, 2021
1. Dude. Don’t tell me what I know and don’t know, thanks 2. A lot of you are coming back at me with this entirely different claim than what Tucker alleged. Wanna debate the NSA? Great. Just know you’re changing the subject from what I was responding to and what Tucker said. https://t.co/tJBiolxJNw
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) June 29, 2021
You’re still at it. My claim — which you misunderstood hours ago — was that Tucker’s story doesn’t make sense. That was the context. I informed you of the correct context and you’re still defending a different, utterly debatable, thing. Muting you now.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) June 29, 2021
Carlson accused the NSA during a monologue, after he claimed a whistleblower showed him evidence confirming an operation. “Yesterday we heard from a whistleblower within the U.S. government who reached out to warn us that the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air,” Carlson said.
“The whistleblower, who is in a position to know, repeated back to us information about a story that we are working on that only could have come directly from my texts and emails,” he added. “The NSA captured that information without our knowledge.”
Carlson’s allegations against the government agency were quickly brushed off by blue checkmarks, journalists, Democrats, and others on Twitter even after the NSA refused to deny they were spying on the TV host.
“On June 28, 2021, Tucker Carlson alleged the National Security Agency has been ‘monitoring our electronic communications and is planning to leak them in an attempt to take this show off the air.’ This allegation is untrue. Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air,” the NSA said in a statement one day after the segment aired.
“NSA has a foreign intelligence mission. We target foreign powers to generate insights on foreign activities that could harm the United States. With limited exceptions (e.g. an emergency), NSA may not target a US citizen without a court order that explicitly authorizes the targeting,” the statement added.
The statement clearly denied “targeting” Carlson, but didn’t directly address what he emphasized was a “very straightforward claim: NSA has read my private emails without my permission.”
“That’s what we said. Tonight’s statement from the NSA does not deny that,” Carlson said in response.
The Biden White House, like many others, was quick to shoot down Carlson’s claims and run interference for the NSA. In response to a question from a reporter asking: “Is the administration aware of any espionage or listening efforts on US citizens by the NSA, and is Tucker Carlson one of them?” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki offloaded the question to intelligence agencies, answering: “Well, the NSA … is an entity that focuses on foreign threats and individuals who are attempting to do us harm on foreign soil. So that is their purview, but beyond that I would point you to the intelligence community.”
Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell, who kept his position on the House Intelligence Committee even after maintaining an intimate relationship with a spy for communist China, also weighed in and told Carlson to “settle down.”
“Tucker Carlson predictably tripled down on his ‘NSA spying on me’ story tonight. He claims the NSA’s denial is ‘an entire paragraph of lies.’ He says he wants to know: ‘Did the Biden admin read my personal emails?’ I want to know: Why isn’t Fox supporting Tucker’s claims?” CNN’s Brian Stelter quipped on Twitter.
Stelter later doubled down on his rejection of Carlson’s story and accused the host of being “the new Alex Jones.”
“Is it a stretch to say Tucker Carlson is the new Alex Jones?” Stelter asked.
CNN’s Oliver Darcy also echoed the claim that “Tucker Carlson is Alex Jones.”
“Carlson knows enough to choose his story lines carefully: As far-fetched as the NSA snooping story may be, it’ll be hard for anyone to prove it wrong. And that’s all the breathing room he needs,” Darcy shared on his feed.
“Yeah I forgot all about when tucker said without any evidence that the NSA was spying on him….” The Daily Beast’s Molly Jong-Fast wrote.
“Kevin McCarthy’s call for a congressional investigation of Tucker Carlson’s evidence-free claims about the NSA reading his emails shows how shamelessly Trumpers manufacture controversy,” Vox’s Aaron Rupar stated.
“Tucker’s fauxrage over the idea the NSA is monitoring his show to take him off the air is one stop short of his dog telling him to murder people,” said The Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson.
“Tucker’s not blowing a whistle. He’s a gibbering, conspiracy-whoring choad,” he added.
“Tucker Carlson is lying. His Lying is premeditated and purposeful. It is about political power and it is deeply cynical. He is an arsonist, lighting fires of division and distrust that if not doused will engulf our democracy and get many people killed,” another Lincoln Project member tweeted. “Carlson has invented this nonsense to wrap himself in the imaginary cloak of right-wing victimhood at the hands of a fantastical conspiracy. The lie will be believed by millions and spread to millions more.”
“Sure, any claim from the NSA should be taken with a grain of salt. But claims from Tucker Carlson should be taken with a giant swig of the Dead Sea,” a national correspondent for the Washington Post wrote.
“Fox is wary of Tucker Carlson’s NSA claims. That’s probably because he’s a huge liar,” a senior fellow at Media Matters for America tweeted.
“We just reached the point where this all makes sense- Tucker is having a mental breakdown,” tweeted a columnist for MSNBC, CNN, and The Daily Beast. 
Entire corporate media outlets also cast doubt on Carlson’s claims, writing him off for creating a “conspiracy.”
“Tucker Carlson Actually Thinks the NSA Is Spying On His Email,” read a VICE headline. “Sure they are, babe,” the outlet’s Twitter caption added.
“The intelligence community has been dragged into Tucker Carlson’s latest conspiracy,” Vanity Fair wrote, taking the NSA’s statement as pure truth.
“Tucker Carlson thrives on aggregating half-baked stories, making up other ones and always — always — stirring white grievance, not on digging up secrets, @ErikWemple writes,” The Washington Post Opinions page shared.
