Tucker Carlson  Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson (born May 16, 1969) is an American paleoconservative journalist, author, and political commentator, who has hosted the nightly political talk show "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News since 2016. Carlson became a print journalist in the 1990s, writing for the magazine "The Weekly Standard". He was a CNN commentator from 2000 to 2005, and co-host of the network's prime-time news debate program "Crossfire" from 2001 to 2005. He would go on to host the nightly program "Tucker" on MSNBC from 2005 to 2008. He has been a political analyst for Fox News since 2009, appearing as guest or guest host on various programs before the launch of his current show. In 2010, Carlson co-founded and served as the initial editor-in-chief of the conservative news and opinion website "The Daily Caller". Carlson has written two books: a memoir titled "Politicians, Partisans and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News" (2003); and "Ship of Fools: How a Selfish Ruling Class is Bringing America to the Brink of Revolution" (2018). Carlson was born Tucker McNear Carlson in San Francisco, California. He is the elder son of Richard Warner Carlson, a former "gonzo reporter" who became the director of the Voice of America, president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the U.S. Ambassador to the Seychelles. Carlson's paternal grandparents were Richard Boynton and Dorothy Anderson, teenagers who placed his father in an orphanage where he was adopted when he was two years old by the Carlsons. Richard Carlson's adoptive father was a wool broker. Carlson's mother was artist Lisa McNear (née Lombardi). He also has a brother, Buckley Peck Carlson (later, Buckley Swanson Peck Carlson), who is nearly two years younger. In 1976, Carlson's parents divorced after the nine-year marriage reportedly "turned sour." Carlson's father was granted custody of him and his brother. Carlson's mother left the family when he was six, wanting to pursue a "bohemian" lifestyle. She eventually split her time between Beaufort County, South Carolina and Cazac, France, where she had little contact with Carlson's family and later married artist Michael Vaughn. Dick Carlson was said to be an active father who had a specific outlook in raising his sons:  In 1979, Carlson's father married divorcée Patricia Caroline Swanson, an heiress to Swanson Enterprises.