What liberal media?

Thanks to Bradford Plumer of The New Republic's The Plank (subscription req'd), we get this wonderful clip (via Wonkette) of right-wing boyface wonder Tucker Carlson admitting that he's a gay-bashing, homophobic piece of crap while claiming the title of "least anti-gay right-winger out there." At least, so long as you don't hit on him. Otherwise he'll smash your homo face in while his friends from MSNBC point and laugh.

For the 24-watchers out there, getting hit on in a bathroom is not a risible offence, even if you don't like teh ghey sexx0rz (or, in true Republican Senator fashion, deny it for some 25 or more years). Under the law practically everywhere (except I think Florida and maybe Texas), self-defense implies a proportional response. Going to fetch one of your pals and then bouncing the offending individual's skull off a bathroom stall isn't self-defense: it's assault.

This bit also points to a complete news media abrogation of its classic responsibilities. In the past (and, interestingly, in Britain today), opinion journalism was just that: journalism that gave a shit, that had an opinion and reported on the facts from that perspective openly and with a commitment to intellectual honesty. In today's American media culture, opinion journalism means you can say whatever you want and be considered a pillar of political punditry and claim that you're the most gay-friendly conservative on the block. I mean, after all, it's not like Carlson tied that fag to a truck's bumper and took a long drive on a dirt road. And Scarborough thought it was funny, so it's okay.

Update: Via Brad Plumer again, here's how Tucker Carlson says the incident in question went down. This is most definitely not how it was portrayed on-air (he did not say that he and a friend "seized" the man, for one thing - watch it yourself). However, if Mr. Carlson is telling the truth, then he deserves an apology from me, and I so tender it.

"Let me be clear about an incident I referred to on MSNBC last night: In the mid-1980s, while I was a high school student, a man physically grabbed me in a men's room in Washington, DC. I yelled, pulled away from him and ran out of the room. Twenty-five minutes later, a friend of mine and I returned to the men's room. The man was still there, presumably waiting to do to someone else what he had done to me. My friend and I seized the man and held him until a security guard arrived.

"Several bloggers have characterized this is a sort of gay bashing. That's absurd, and an insult to anybody who has fought back against an unsolicited sexual attack. I wasn't angry with the man because he was gay. I was angry because he assaulted me."

[link to video fixed -- ed.]