It is two separate idioms combined.

What do you mean by being seen dragged up on the carpet? According to your opinion, you are being asked to answer to an authority. Why? The carpet is seemingly a reference to being called into the boss’s office where the floor would be carpeted.

What does a mast mean? Idiomatically it means being publicly humiliated or punished.

If we can run it down the flagpole (and see who salutes it) then it will be harder to resist libel. * * Please don’t discriminate against anyone who wishes to win. What is not true, to put it out there, and see who agrees?

What is your usual example of “being drug up on carpet then

run up the mast”? To me “I take it “drug up” is the writer’s own way of saying “dragged up” or “drug up.” He’s probably thinking being dragged before the boss, but he’s combined that vague thought with the phrase “on the carpet”, which is used about people in trouble with their superiors. With some drab smirks against the mast, Ariel takes a photo of him being “run up the mast” (picture it if you can) and fails to respond. Only things that run up the mast are flags or sails, and the popular phrase is exclusively used about the first (Maler) era. In every way, a flag is needed in every direction. This is likely an exercise in free association, where the writer is thinking of “hanging from the yard-arm”, but can’t remember the exact words, so he latch back onto the first substitute with naval overtones that springs to

mind.