A Million Made-Up Things: Who Exactly Isn’t Thomas Corbett-Dillon?

A typically confused looking Tucker Carlson, modelling the level of uninformed ignorance he expects of his audience, turns to a dapper Englishman he introduces as a former advisor who knows Johnson well, and asks why the British PM resigned, atthe startof a clip that's gone viral for the "million made up things" spouted by that alleged adviser. But who exactly isn’t Thomas Corbett-Dillon?

Craig Dillon, who Fox allowed to appear under an unacknowledged pseudonym, parlayed success offering pranks and lifestyle tips on YouTube and a brief stint at Sky News into his own PR firm Westminster Digital. This firm, nicknamed Digikids of Westminster, has, according to a 2021 Daily Mirror investigation, received over £165,000 of taxpayers’ money to polish Tory MP’s social media.

The Digikids gave social media advice to many of the 2019 Conservative leadership candidates, including the eventual winner. This appears to be where Tucker’s disingenuous introduction of Dillon as a former advisor who knows Johnson well seems to have come from, although Dillon main advice to the then future PM seems to have been to just keep quiet.

Dillon, under his pseudonym, has recently relocated to Washington with his new firm Washington Digital and presumably thought a Fox News appearance replete with the requisite dog-whistles to anti-vaccine/anti-lockdown, climate change denialism, globalist elite conspiracies, anti-wokeness, etc., regardless of the actual facts surrounding Johnson departure, would help launch him in style.

This bold strategy may have however somewhat backfired, showing Dillon to perhaps not be the social media genius he markets himself as. Indeed, following the controversial appearance, his astroturfing on Penny Mordaunt’s then ongoing campaign to be leader of the Tory party was suspended and his own social media profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter were deleted.

One final, somewhat prejudicial and not particular relevant curiosity, is this may not be his alter ego’s first appearance. One Thomas Corbett, claiming to be YouTube management, would request freebies from organizers for then YouTuber Dillon, and during his successful defence from rape allegations, Corbett, claiming to be Dillon’s legal representative, pursued defamation action.

We have previously discussed the media influence of Fox News and other outlets in the 2021 United States Capitol attack on our own YouTube channel as part of our regular Cambridge Skeptics: Live!