Buzzfeed reporter Kate Aurthur deliberately smeared Tucker Carlson using a photo of the Fox News anchor with a “sex worker.”
On Friday night, Christine Parreira, a self-described sex worker in Las Vegas (where prostitution is legal), tweeted out a photo where she is seen attempting to kiss Carlson on the cheek. For his part, Carlson looks as though he is trying to avoid the unwelcome smooch, but also taking it in stride — he’s amused but obviously caught off guard.
In one of these tweets Parreira posted the photo with the caption “#NewProfilePic TUCK!!!”
Her second tweet appears to reference Carlson being uncomfortable: “Hookers pass on cooties. It’s true.”
Buzzfeed’s Aurthur saw the tweets only as a political opportunity. In an obvious attempt to smear Carlson and damage his reputation, she posted both of Parreira’s tweets and added her own partisan assumptions about what the photo meant.
“Remember @tuckercarlson’s lecture during the height of family separation in June about how the left doesn’t care about family values?” She tweeted. “Well, I’m not one to kink shame, but here he is with a sex worker. Go Tucker?”
Before I get to the debunking, let’s stop here for just a moment…
Can you imagine how many photographs someone like Carlson takes with strangers every time he steps out into public? These celebrity selfies are the 21st century’s autograph; everyone wants to prove they got a moment of personal time with a famous face and Carlson is one of the biggest stars in all of cable news.
In this day and age it is outrageous for anyone to make any kind of assumption about one of these selfies. Nevertheless, Aurthur, a Los Angeles correspondent for Buzzfeed, published the photo as though it was a bombshell, as though she had proof Carlson was out cavorting with prostitutes.
That’s not even the worst of it…
The Buzzfeed reporter was quickly contacted by Parreira and the man who took the picture. Both told Aurthur it was wrong to attack Carlson when he had no idea who Parreira was when he posed with her.
From his verified account, Mitchell Sunderland tweeted to Aurthur: “I took that photo at… a funeral. Christina didn’t even tell Carlson her profession. All anyone spoke about that night was our dead mutual friend. It was the most PG-rated night in Nevada history.”
An hour later, he tried again with Aurthur: “It’s been unreal to wake up and see someone take a photo I took at my dear friend Dennis Hof’s funeral and use it to smear a sex worker in the name of wokeness,” he tweeted, adding, “Carlson didn’t even know Christina had worked as a hooker, and Christina didn’t even discuss politics with him.”
Parreira also asked Aurthur to remove the smear: “You should be ashamed of yourself for this tweet. Yes, that’s Tucker and I after Dennis Hof’s funeral,” she tweeted. “And I am a sex worker, but also a human being. Care to comment? C’mon- if you can subtweet me, why not tweet right at me?”
Aurthur responded by blocking Parreira from contacting her again and then attempted to justify spreading her fake news by attacking Carlson as “poison.”
“I’m answering you once, and then blocking you and muting the thread, for obvious reasons,” Aurthur haughtily wrote. “Tucker Carlson preaches prescriptive morality on his show about family values in the most toxic, destructive, high-handed way, leaving no room for anyone to deviate. He is poison.”
Aurthur did block Parreira and then she proudly retweeted her fake news smear.
Let’s look at the worse case scenario… Let’s assume Carlson knew what Parreira did for a living when he took the photo…
So what?
What exactly did Aurthur want Carlson to do, tell Parreira “Go away from me, whore!” like some holier-than-thou jerk who actually would fit the far-left’s stereotype of social conservatives?
Once again, we are reminded that it is the left who are the intolerant fanatics running around pinning scarlet letters on everyone.
If Buzzfeed allows its reporters to mislead readers about the small stuff like this, imagine the lies being told by Buzzfeed about things that matter.
Oh, wait, we don’t have to imagine — it’s already happened.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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