Tucker Carlson’s top writer, Blake Neff, resigned from his post at Fox News after racist and sexist comments he secretly posted online came to light.
“Blake Neff has resigned,” Fox News told the Washington Examiner on Friday. A day later, after the publication of this report, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and Fox News President Jay Wallace sent a memo to all staff condemning the “horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments.”
“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,” the statement continued, while noting that Carlson will be addressing the matter on his show Monday night.
Neff has been a frequent poster on a web forum called AutoAdmit, according to CNN. Using the pseudonym CharlesXII, Neff repeatedly posted inappropriate slurs and remarks for the past several years.
In a post just this week, Neff responded to a thread titled “Would u let a JET BLACK congo n—– do lasik eye surgery on u for 50% off?” He responded, “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.”
In March, Neff began making fun of a woman who had made the decision to freeze her eggs. He titled a thread, “Disaster: WuFlu outbreak endangers aging shrew’s quest to freeze eggs.”
In 2016, Neff commented on a thread titled “Mary Poppins getting raped by a pack of wild n—–s at the park; kids watching.” The same year, he responded to a thread titled “DIKES get wrong C– at C–BANK. N—– pops out.”
Fox News told CNN that Carlson could not be reached for comment, and Neff did not respond to their repeated requests for further information.
Carlson now has the most highly rated show on cable news. His monologues have become must-watch TV for conservatives, and President Trump and other Republicans often amplify his show by tweeting out clips from it. Meanwhile, his critics have placed increased scrutiny on his more controversial statements on topics ranging from the coronavirus to Black Lives Matter.
“Anything [Carlson is] reading off the teleprompter, the first draft was written by me,” Neff recently told the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine.
Mike Brest contributed to this report.
