Tucker Carlson Gets Blogger Fired from Video Store

In the world of blogs today it is not uncommon for people to blog about their jobs. It is also not uncommon to blog about their interactions with celebrities and semi-celebrities. This is exactly what Charles Williamson, who goes by the name of Chuckles online, was doing when he made a post on his blog Freelance Genius about how Tucker Carlson had opened up an account at his video store.

Tucker Carlson, best known for his time on CNN's Crossfire and now host of his own show Tucker on MSNBC (as well as appearing briefly on Dancing With the Stars on NBC), opened up an account at the video store where Chuckles worked in Washington, DC. Like so many other people, Chuckles thought it would be fun to write a post about his brief encounter with Mr. Carlson.

In the post Chuckles joked about sending multiple copies of America: the Book to Carlson's house. (America: the Book, was written by Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who had a run-in with Mr. Carlson while Carlson was still a co-host of Crossfire), which he said would be more fun than sending frozen urine treats. However, Chuckles pointed out in his post that he would be doing nothing of the sort since he knew such actions to be wrong, he was simply having fun.

Tucker Carlson, however, was not having so much fun. Some time later he returned to the video store where Chuckles worked, and told him "If you keep this sh*t up I will f*cking destroy you," as reported on Chuckles's blog Freelance Genius. Chuckles told Carlson not to threaten him, where upon Carlson immediately replied "I didn't threaten you."

After this angry exchange, the blogger decided that it would be best to take down the offending post about Mr. Carlson. It was obvious that Mr. Carlson was not happy with the post and Chuckles decided it would be best just to bring it down, being a nice guy. Within three hours of his run-in with Tucker Carlson the offending post was removed.

But that was not enough for Tucker Carlson. Three days later, Chuckles received a phone call from his employer. Apparently he was fired from his job. The reason? His employer had received threats of legal action from Tucker Carlson, and he wanted no part of it so he was letting Chuckles go.

Being a blogger, Chuckles began blogging about how Tucker Carlson had gotten him fired from his job. Soon enough, several other bloggers who were close friends with Chuckles began blogging about it to. Freelance Genius, Chuckles's blog, was a minor blog, mainly written for a handful of friends and family members. But like so many things in the blogosphere, the tale of a blogger fired at the hands of Tucker Carlson soon began to grow like a virus. Chuckles, who was used to getting relatively few hits a day, was suddenly getting thousands of hits a day.

The story of Tucker Carlson and the video store does not end there, though. Chuckles soon found out that his friends and former co-workers were being harassed by a man claiming to be representing Mr. Carlson. When Chuckles went back to the video store to talk to management about the situation, he found out that he was not only fired but he was banned from the video store.

Tucker Carlson claims that his actions toward Chuckles were made out of self-defense, as he felt that the blogger was threatening his home and his family, although Chuckles never mentioned his family (outside of mentioning the "wasped-out" woman Carlson was with at the time of the video rental), and in fact Chuckles deliberately pointed out that he would not threaten Carlson or his home in any way, shape or form nor reveal any private information about Carlson. Carlson also claims, according to the Washington Post, that no lawyer of his has been harassing anyone, since he does not have a lawyer.

As of now, the story is still continuing to grow in prominence. A story in the Washington Post greatly increased its exposure. More and more people are finding out what has happened to this blogger after his run-in with Tucker Carlson, a story that without the blogosphere might have simply dissipated into nothingness.