April 13, 2006
Private: Tucker Carlson: Strippers are Different
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect about the much-publicized Duke lacrosse case is the media's handling of the often taboo topic of rape and its victims.
Last night on MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson, Carlson invited former prosecutor Wendy Murphy on as a guest to talk about the case. During the course of their conversation, the credibility of the accuser in the case came into question, and Carlson was quick to undermine the alleged victim because she works as a stripper and, therefore, he argued, such testimony differs from that of an "ordinary person."
The exchange between Murphy and Carlson proceeded as follows:
CARLSON: ...Now, everybody, apart from maybe you, knows the truth, which is the testimony of an ordinary person is different from the testimony of someone who hires herself out to dance naked in front of and, yes, in some times sleep with people, strangers, right? They're different. It's OK to have a bias against strippers in this case, isn't it?
MURPHY: No. Look, when you say things out loud like that, do you hear yourself? Do you go home and do you just bang your head on the wall?
CARLSON: What do you mean, do I hear-not only do I hear myself, yes, because that is reality.
MURPHY: Are you kidding me? ...
CARLSON: ...I'm merely saying that her testimony about matters of sex is to be taken by ordinary commonsense people a little differently than the testimony of someone who isn't a crypto-hooker.
MURPHY: She's entitled-she's entitled to less credibility, per se, because of what she does for a living? Are you kidding me? Look. Look, let me tell you something, you want to judge people by their past behavior...
You can read the entire transcript here.