Tucker Carlson and the Court of Public Opinion

Words broadcast via television and radio waves once drifted off into the ether, rendered harmless by fading human memory as they traversed the vacuum of space-time — though perhaps bound for aliens who’ll find cause in them to punish us. Today, humanity dutifully preserves most content and posts it online. We even archive the most unpleasant output of our most polarizing figures.

Take Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Prior to his current gig, there was a five- or six-year period when he occasionally called into The Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a radio program run by a Tampa, Florida, shock jock who will make it more difficult to blame the least merciful of those aforementioned aliens. On Monday, offense archaeologists working for the progressive group Media Matters for America resurfaced archival material from those decade-old appearances. They hope to force the highly rated cable-news commentator off the air.

Among the offensive remarks in question:

• “Iraq is