THE SELF-CORRECTING NATURE OF THE BLOGOSPHERE AND GEORGETOWN RESTROOMS. Tucker Carlson responded yesterday evening to the flurry of criticisms of his description of attacking a gay man in a Georgetown restroom. His explanation of the event is plausible and does justify his actions completely:
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.
Being one of those several bloggers I apologize (I wrote my original post based on his description on MSNBC). However, I still find the original clip pretty creepy. Dan Abrams and Joe Scarborough, who didn't have this explanation in front of them, giggle uproariously at what seems to be a story about a hate crime. They, I think, have something to explain. Carlson could have been clearer, but he's guilty only of being insufficiently clear.
--Sam Boyd
