You can say a lot of things about Tucker Carlson, but you can’t say that the man has integrity. Ignoring politics, it takes a special lack of spine to spend months trashing a guy, then act all buddy-buddy with him when he comes on your show (and later endorse him for president).


One can chalk up incidents like these to a change in heart. Or one could identify Carlson as a guy who just sees where the wind is blowing and follows it. If getting angry about sexy M&Ms brings in viewers, fine, he’s angry about that too. People on the internet are mad about a Canadian teacher with giant, fake boobs? Well, now their picture is going all over the news station that your grandparents watch. People think the earth is flat... I mean, he wouldn’t go that far, right?



Oh, no. Tucker, c’mon.


In an interview with Alex Stein for The Blaze, Stein asks Carlson about Flat Earth Theory. The conversation had been preceded by talk about other conspiracies both alleged and confirmed, ranging from extraterrestrials to Operation Paperclip. The Flat Earth question, then, seems to be a move on Stein’s part to set the framework for the conversation. We believe it’s fair to have questions about 9/11, but we’re not crazy — we don’t believe in Flat Earth!


Carlson, presumably unable to sense what’s happening, defaults to his standard response to these sorts of conspiracy queries: fuck it, why not? “Well, I’m open to anything,” he starts. Sensing a joke, Stein laughs and sarcastically asks viewers to cut the clip to take it out of context. Unfortunately for Stein, Carlson then proceeds to put his words very much in context.



“How could I not be open to anything at this point?” Carlson asks. “The most basic stories we’ve been told about history, about the Earth, the physical Earth itself, which has been completely changed by climate change for millions of years, once you realize all of that, then it’s like, I don’t know, what is true?”


Well, the Earth being round, for one. We’ve known both that the Earth was round and approximately how big it is since at least the Ancient Greeks. But if you “still have questions,” I mean, be my guest.


From here, Carlson offers some light backpedaling, saying that the only real reason he has to believe the Earth is round is that he “like[s] rifle shooting” and “past a certain distance you have to take [the curvature of the Earth] in account.”


Carlson is talking about the Coriolis Effect, which is actually due to the rotation of the Earth, but seeing as they’re related we’ll give him a pass. However, I think what’s really happened here is that Carlson is just a bad shot with a rifle, and whoever is coaching him juices him up by saying he hasn’t learned to take the curvature of the Earth into account. Hey Tucker, I think your problem is a lack of magic beans — but don’t worry, I have some for sale right here!


If Carlson eventually fully falls into the Flat Earth trap, he’ll join esteemed colleagues like Kyrie Irving — oh wait, even Irving backtracked. Sorry, Tucker, guess you’re going to have to stick to B.o.B. and Tila Tequila.