Tucker Carlson's biggest advertiser, the MyPillow guy, refuses to agitate for host to apologize for former writer's hate

On Monday night, Fox News host Tucker Carlson took 75 seconds out of his show to try to stem a tide of backlash that has flowed since Friday, when his top writer, Blake Neff, resigned from the network after being linked to offensive online posts.

Fox News chief executive Suzanne Scott and network president Jay Wallace had condemned Neff's "horrendous and deeply offensive racist, sexist and homophobic comments" in a memo on Saturday and told staff that Carlson would "address" the controversy on Monday.

While stopping short of an apology, Carlson called Neff's anonymous chat forum comments "wrong" - but he denied any rhetorical link to Neff's work for him: "We don't endorse those words. They have no connection to this show."

One person who doesn't think that Carlson needed to say anything apologetic on Monday night was Mike Lindell, of Minnesota-based pillow manufacturer MyPillow - Carlson's top advertiser.

"Why should someone apologize for something someone else does?" Lindell asked in an email exchange with The Washington Post on Tuesday.

The company founder and CEO thought the host handled the situation properly. "He said what he should have said," Lindell said. "He said the comments were terrible."

Lindell's comments hold additional weight because of the outsize role his company plays in supporting Carlson's show. Over the past three months, ending June 30, MyPillow was responsible for nearly 40 percent of all paid advertising on Carlson's show, according to data from measurement company iSpot.tv.

Just in the month of July, MyPillow has spent 44 percent of the nearly $5 million in advertising that has aired on the prime-time show.

Carlson's Monday night show included two spots from the company, totaling just over four minutes in run time.

Lindell is something of a folk hero in conservative media circles, referred to colloquially as "the MyPillow guy" by supporters who swarm him at political conferences and events. He appeared at the White House on March 30 to talk about his company's efforts to produce masks for health-care workers.

But, he's especially familiar to Fox News viewers, considering how frequently his ads run on the channel - particularly during the network's prime-time opinion programming. In the three-month period ending June 30, MyPillow was the network's top advertiser, according to iSpot.tv, and spent more than double the second-biggest advertiser, Nutrisystem.

"I feel blessed to be able to advertise on all of the major networks and national cable stations, including on Tucker Carlson Tonight," Lindell said. "I advertise MyPillow to help people across the country. I support my business, our customers and my employees."

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