In an appearance on C-SPAN, Tucker Carlson, the Daily Caller’s top editor, was asked about the recent flap over a misognyistic e-mail that was sent to Amy Spitalnick, a spokeswoman for New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

I never read anything about myself, ever. But someone in my office said that the Washington Post did four stories on it. There’s a guy called Erik Wemple [Blog] — I think that’s how you pronounce his name. He’s like a total mediocrity and a moron and kind of a creepy, finger-sniffer-type character. But anyway, he has written about it all these times because it’s like bigger than the fall of Baghdad.

Total mediocrity always beats partial mediocrity.

Carlson’s comments pertain to a March 25 spat between Spitalnick and the Daily Caller over an article about transportation funding. Spitalnick pushed Daily Caller staffers for a correction on the story — and one of the staffers took umbrage at her stern and straightforward appeal. “We’re reviewing the video now, Amy,” wrote the Daily Caller’s Christopher Bedford, writing part of an e-mail chain exposed by BuzzFeed’s Rosie Gray. “If you annoy me with another whiny email before then, I’m muting this thread, thanks.”

Spitalnick then complained to Carlson about this “appalling” response. In turn, Carlson pledged that the Daily Caller would investigate her request for correction — which they later granted — and appended a note about decorum: “Outside of New York City, adults generally write polite, cheerful emails to one another, even when asking for corrections. Something to keep in mind the next time you communicate with people who don’t live on your island,” wrote Carlson.

Then came history. Carlson copied his brother, Buckley Carlson, on the e-mail chain. Buckley Carlson snarked in perhaps the most misogynistic way possible (highly edited):

Great response. Whiny little self-righteous b[—-]. “Appalling?”
And with such an ironic name, too… Spitalnick? Ironic because you just know she has extreme d[—]-fright; no chance has this girl ever had a pearl necklace. [Synonym for sperm]neck? I don’t think so. More like [unspeakable].

Instead of sending that note just to Tucker Carlson, Buckley Carlson hit “reply all,” landing it in the inbox of Spitalnick. The BuzzFeed post then alerted the world to the exchange. Given a chance to distance himself from such woman-hatred, Tucker Carlson declined, telling BuzzFeed of his brother’s language: “I just talked to my brother about his response, and he assures me he meant it in the nicest way.”

In his chat with C-SPAN’s John McArdle, Tucker Carlson summed things up this way: “So she, recognizing a publicity opportunity, sent it to all these websites that printed it and all of a sudden I was somehow a misogynist because my brother wrote some mean e-mail to this chick accidentally. Or something. No one was ever asked to explain why this was a significant story.”

In any case, Tucker Carlson says that the episode has affected Buckley Carlson. “It really affected his job and he had all kinds of problems as a result….For some reason it became, like, this big thing because, I guess, they don’t like my politics or something. I really don’t know, but it was an accident and he apologized for it and I don’t really see why it was a big news story.”

Reached by e-mail this morning, Spitalnick says she hasn’t received an apology.

Here’s the video (scroll forward to 38:30):