Barstool Sports blogger Francis Ellis, who is a regular guest on Fox News, was caught on a hot mic clobbering the network and saying it is “trafficking in hate”.
Ellis’s condemnatory remarks came during the wrap-up of an episode of the “Barstool Rundown” podcast on Tuesday.
The unedited audio of the podcast was published online by Barstool in what was an editing error but was quickly taken down, reported Mediaite which obtained the recording.
Ellis was recorded signing off the episode before he began casually talking to his co-host Adam Ferrone, who asked the blogger about his recent appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime”.
“It was ok,” Ellis said, explaining the show. “Well, he wanted me to talk about how Democrats in Massachusetts want to lower the voting age to 16.”
“I did a To Catch a Predator joke,” he said. “I had a QAnon reference in there.”
He said he was “disappointed” in himself following his appearance on the show and he talked to his wife about it.
“Look, I got home. I talked my wife about it cause I was disappointed in myself and she was like, ‘Let’s be honest, like, do you want to be working with these fucking people?’ She was like, ‘I watched the rest of his show — he’s a fucking joke,’” Ellis said of Watters.
His co-host appeared to joke that the conversation was “still part of the rundown” and another person from the audio engineer booth said: “Still rolling, baby!”
However, Ellis continued and spoke about Fox News’s star host Tucker Carlson.
“And then like, Tucker comes on and just screams,” Ellis said. “It’s so weird.”
“They’re just trafficking in hate,” Ellis added.
After a brief conversation, a producer said to Ellis he is being too hard on himself. “Are you Jesus?” the person who was not named said.
“What are you gonna fix everybody? Come on bro. You’re there to tell jokes,” he added.
Ellis responded: “I’m not here to fix people, but I’m certainly not here to like further divide the country.”
