Speed Reads
plan b

Tucker Carlson tried to join the CIA

Fox News' Tucker Carlson was never any good at school. The conservative firebrand only managed to get into Trinity College, in Hartford, after his boarding school's headmaster — the father of his then-girlfriend and now wife — pulled some strings on his behalf.

Today, Carlson is the host of the popular Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News, which draws even more viewers than Megyn Kelly did when she previously held his 9 p.m. time slot. Despite being a household name for the right-leaning network, Carlson is technically a registered Democrat. He says it is so he can vote in D.C.'s predominately Democratic primaries.

ADVERTISEMENT: Article continues below

But as The New Yorker reveals, it took Carlson many years — and a few stumbles, including a failed attempt to join the CIA — to get from Trinity to television screens across the country:

After college, [Carlson] tried and failed to persuade the CIA to employ him; the real-life agency, unlike its fictional counterparts, prefers not to hire young men who are gabby and insubordinate. Instead, he got a job in Little Rock, working for Paul Greenberg, the exacting editorial-page editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. [The New Yorker]

Read more about Carlson, including his attempt to name his son "Flashman," at The New Yorker.

Recommended

Fossil fuels contributed to more than one-third of western wildfires
feel the burn

Fossil fuels contributed to more than one-third of western wildfires

Nikki Haley: A federal abortion ban is 'not realistic'
let's be honest

Nikki Haley: A federal abortion ban is 'not realistic'

Will Twitter save Tucker Carlson?
Talking point

Will Twitter save Tucker Carlson?

Drug-resistant ringworm makes appearance in the U.S.
new in town

Drug-resistant ringworm makes appearance in the U.S.

Most Popular

Disney hits back against DeSantis
Feature

Disney hits back against DeSantis

What the shifting religious landscape means for American politics
Talking point

What the shifting religious landscape means for American politics

Censoring ideas and rewriting history
Briefing

Censoring ideas and rewriting history