Fox News host Tucker Carlson was given a real-time correction on his show on Tuesday night and he was certainly not thrilled.
Throughout his nightly show Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson repeatedly mispronounced the first name of Senator Kamala Harris, who earlier that evening was selected by presidential candidate Joe Biden to be his vice presidential nominee.
Richard Goodstein, a guest on the show who has served as an adviser to several Democratic presidential campaigns, called him out.
“This is something that will serve you and your fellow hosts on Fox,” Goodstein said. “Her name is pronounced ‘comma’ – like the punctuation mark – ‘la.’ Kamala.”
Tucker Carlson loses it when a guest corrects his pronunciation of Kamala Harris's name https://t.co/1fHIrPGuwN— nikki mccann ramírez (@nikki mccann ramírez) 1597191252
Instead of graciously correcting his mistake Carlson, who was visibly disturbed, said, “So what?”
Goodstein replied that pronouncing someone’s name correctly is “kind of a bare minimum” when it comes to showing respect.
“So I’m disrespecting her by mispronouncing her name unintentionally,” Carlson said angrily.
“So, it begins. You’re not allowed to criticise Kamala Harris, or Kamala Harris, or whatever,” he said, mispronouncing her name again.
“It’s not ‘whatever,’” Goodstein said.
“I love the idea that she’s immune from criticism,” he said, which is irrelevant to the issue.
Tucker, You’re not “criticizing" Kamala or "holding her to account” when you refuse to learn how to pronounce her n… https://t.co/2Uj0eXU4VD— Young Daddy (@Young Daddy) 1597199963
Again dodging the point, he said, “On this show, nobody is immune from criticism. Our political leaders must be held to account. That’s our job.”
While it seems that Carlson’s job as a television presenter is to be able to pronounce politicians’ names correctly, some say it wasn't even really a mistake at all.
Paul Mooney tweeted that Carlson "often mispronounces names of people he doesn't like" and others on Twitter tended to agree.
Refusing to pronounce Kamala’s name correctly when you’re a broadcast « journalist » is racist. But we already k… https://t.co/NTFL1pkjM8— Warren Leight (@Warren Leight) 1597198483
Because I wanted a good laugh, I just watched the first few minutes of @TuckerCarlson. All I can tell you is that T… https://t.co/ZnTxxkTdgX— Joe Walsh (@Joe Walsh) 1597190926
Even so, most people just watched the encounter just to have "a good laugh" at Carlson's behaviour.