Tucker Carlson has long been suspected of being a white nationalist.
His commentary has often sounded like it’s out of the racist handbook.
Now we know his top writer, at least, certainly fits that description.
Blake Neff has resigned from his position at the network after racist posts that he authored surfaced.
Neff, who is originally from South Dakota, posted offensive material over a number of years on an Internet message board called AutoAdmit that often contains bigoted content.
Just this week, Neff responded to a thread started by another user in 2018 with the subject line, “Would u let a JET BLACK congo n****er do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?”
Neff wrote, “I wouldn’t get LASIK from an Asian for free, so no.”
On June 5, Neff wrote, “Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down.”
On June 24, Neff commented, “Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be, maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep.”
On June 26, Neff wrote that the only people who care about changing the name of the NFL’s Washington Redskins are “white libs and their university-‘educated’ pets.”
Neff’s resignation came after the story was broken by CNN who then contacted Fox for a comment.
Carlson is expected to address the resignation on Monday, according to an internal memo sent to employees today.
The internal memo sent out by FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and FOX News Media president and executive editor Jay Wallace and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter reads: “Yesterday we learned that now former employee Blake Neff, a writer on Tucker Carlson Tonight, made horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments under a pseudonym on the forum AutoAdmit.”
“We want to make abundantly clear that FOX News Media strongly condemns this horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior. Neff’s abhorrent conduct on this forum was never divulged to the show or the network until Friday, at which point we swiftly accepted his resignation. Make no mistake, actions such as his cannot and will not be tolerated at any time in any part of our work force. Tucker will be addressing this on his show on Monday night,” the memo stated.
On Friday evening, Neff’s digital public persona had been removed from online sites with his personal Twitter and LinkedIn accounts deactivated.
When asked in a 2018 appearance on Fox’s “The Five” about the writing process for his show, Carlson said he spends hours working on scripts, but referred to Neff by name, saying he was a “wonderful writer” and acknowledging his assistance.
And Carlson credited Neff in the acknowledgments of his book, “Ship of Fools,” for providing research.
In the acknowledgments, Carlson said that Neff and two others who helped with the book “work on and greatly improve our nightly show on Fox.”
Neff attended Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire.
An article written about him in an alumni magazine spoke of the supposed influence he had on the show.
‘Anything he’s reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me,’ says Neff.
In the past three-and-a-half years he has been working on the show, Neff explained that he would Initially speak to Carlson each day about what to cover but said that he shared similar views as the right-wing pundit on many issues.
‘I’ve gotten used to what he likes and what he thinks about,’ he said.
‘We’re very aware that we do have that power to sway the conversation, so we try to use it responsibly,’ he told the magazine.
‘Our show is controversial – that’s just objective – but I don’t believe that we’re stoking conflict. When people accuse us of that, they’re allowing actual firebrands to stir them up.’
At times, Neff’s racist posts even overlapped with Carlson’s on-air lines.
In one example, Neff wrote on the forum, ‘It is your f***ing right as an American to wear whatever T-shirt you want, and hold whatever political views you want. Christ.’
The following night on his show, Carlson mirrored the comments.
‘…And they can wear whatever shirts they want. You thought that was true. You thought that was your right as an American,’ he allegedly wrote.
CNN received an anonymous tip revealing Neff’s username as ‘CharlesXII’.
Researchers were then able to corroborate messages on the noticeboard with public information about him.
In photos which he had allegedly posted to the forum, Neff’s reflection could also be seen taking the picture.
Commentators on the site reportedly knew that the person behind the account worked on Carlson’s show.
Carlson has come under fire a number of times in recent years for racist and sexist comments made both on air and off yet he remains at the top of Fox News ratings.
He has been accused of stoking racism and xenophobia, while also claiming the threat of white supremacy is a ‘hoax.’
In one instance, he implied that accepting immigrants into the county make America ‘poorer and dirtier.’
On Monday, Carlson claimed that decorated war veteran Tammy Duckworth was a ‘coward’ for not wanting to appear on his show.
Following his comments on Monday, Duckworth – who became a double amputee after losing her legs while serving in Iraq – suggested on Twitter that Carlson ‘walk a mile in my legs.’