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Why was Tucker Carlson sacked by Fox News and why the hell did it take so long? [1]
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Date: 2023-04-24
Multiple reasons for prime time presenter Tucker Carlson to have been fired by Fox News come to mind. Take your pick.
Hypocrisy over the stolen election
Court documents in the recent Dominion v Fox News defamation matter show text exchanges between Fox anchors on 16 November.
“What are we all going to do tmrw night?” Laura Ingraham asked. Tucker Carlson replied that he planned to feature Trump’s lawyer Sidney Powell who was blaming the stolen election on voting machines, which Carlson knew was untrue.
On November 21, Carlson texted colleagues that it was “shockingly reckless” to claim Dominion rigged the election “if there’s no one inside the company willing to talk, or internal Dominion documents or copies of the software showing that they did it” and “as you know there isn’t.”
Despite knowing the election was not stolen, Carlson continued to assure his audience it had been.
Blatant hypocrisy over Donald Trump
Carlson is quoted as asserting, “What [Trump]’s good at is destroying things. He’s the undisputed world champion of that. He could easily destroy us if we play it wrong.”
Also: “We can’t make people think we’ve turned against Trump. Yet also call out the bullshit. You and I see through it. But we have to reassure some in the audience.”
On Jan. 4, 2021, Carlson texted colleagues, “We’re all pretending we’ve got a lot to show for it [Trump’s presidency], because admitting what a disaster it’s been is too tough to digest. But come on. There really isn’t an upside to Trump.”
“We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights,” Carlson continued. “I truly can’t wait.”
One producer replied, “I want nothing more.”
Carlson responded, “I hate him passionately.”
Clearly, Carlson knew Trump was a criminal grifter and a liar. Yet he continued to promote Trump on air.
Vindictive calls to fire honest reporters
Fox anchors Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity expressed anger at the prospect of losing viewers if Fox reported Biden’s victory truthfully in November 2020.
Carlson told his producer on November 12, 2020: “We worked really hard to build what we have. Those f*ckers are destroying our credibility. It enrages me.”
Carlson was referencing here the journalists in the Fox newsroom reporting the actual election outcome.
When Carlson found that a colleague, reporter Jacqui Heinrich, had fact-checked a Trump tweet claiming election fraud and sent her own tweet showing Trump was lying. Carlson complained to Sean Hannity:
“Please get her fired. Seriously. What the f*ck? ... It needs to stop immediately, like tonight. It’s measurably hurting the company. The stock price is down. Not a joke.”
Carlson and the My Pillow guy
Carlson knew My Pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell was making his Dominion machine fraud claims “every single day of the year” ... and that “it is universally known by people who know anything about Mike Lindell” that his beliefs are bogus.
On 20 November 2020, Carlson nevertheless invited Lindell on air to make the same false claims. Lindell was then Fox’s top advertising spender.
On Jan. 26, 2021, three weeks after the US Capitol riots, Carlson invited Lindell again.
Carlson gave Lindell plenty of time to make wild claims about Twitter, the media, and Dominion, saying he had evidence of voting fraud but "they don't want to talk about that."
"No, they don't," Carlson agreed tersely.
Dominion filed its lawsuit against Fox News two months later.
Carlson and Sidney Powell
Carlson told his producer Alex Pfeiffer: “Sidney Powell is lying. F*cking bitch.” Carlson also told Ingraham “Sidney Powell is lying by the way. I caught her. It’s insane.”
Ingraham responded: “Sidney is a complete nut. No one will work with her. Ditto with Rudy.” Carlson replied: “It’s unbelievably offensive to me. Our viewers are good people and they believe it.”
Slammed in court over Jacob Chansley case
In March this year, Carlson pandered to a fresh far-right conspiracy theory: Those who invaded the Capitol on 6 January were peaceful tourists wrongfully portrayed as insurrectionists by the wicked liberal media.
“The protesters were angry,” Carlson said in March. “They believed that the election they had just voted in had been unfairly conducted, and they were right.”
United States Attorney Matthew M. Graves blasted Carlson’s manipulation of events in court filings the following week in the trial of Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola:
“Pezzola’s motion describes “shocking footage” of Chansley “walking calmly through the halls of the Capitol” with two police officers who purportedly “escort Chansley (and apparently other protestors) into the Senate chamber.” Pezzola quotes Chansley’s former attorney for the proposition that the government “withheld” this footage from discovery in Chansley’s and Pezzola’s cases. The footage is not shocking, and it was not withheld from Pezzola (or Chansley, in any material respect, for that matter).”
White supremacy in South Africa
Carlson’s show promoted false white nationalist talking points in August 2018 by claiming South Africa’s government is “is now seizing land from white farmers.” Donald Trump highlighted the segment on Twitter and said he was asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to review the situation. The State Department’s spokesperson subsequently confirmed the pair had discussed the issue. South Africa’s government condemned Trump’s statement, criticizing “this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.”
White Supremacy in the USA
John Oliver presented an entire program in 2021 explaining — sometimes hilariously — how Carson promotes white supremacy and how he is regarded by white supremacists as their guru. See here.
World Health Organisation funding
A Carlson monologue in May 2020 argued against restoring funding to the World Health Organization that Trump had freezed the previous month. That rant was reportedly crucial to the president “leaning toward preserving his total funding cut.” Days later, Trump sent a letter to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus threatening to permanently pull all U.S. funding, and in July 2020, the U.S. formally announced it was leaving the WHO.
The Vascocil ruling
Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, appointed to the US federal court by Donald Trump, ruled in a defamation hearing in September 2021 that Tucker Carlson did not report facts, but fed its viewers concocted falsehoods.
The judge said Carlson, ‘was not stating actual facts … Given Mr Carlson’s reputation, any reasonable viewer arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism…’
She added that "Whether the Court frames Mr. Carlson's statements as 'exaggeration,' 'non-literal commentary,' or simply bloviating for his audience, the conclusion remains the same — the statements are not actionable."
In other words, nothing Carlson ever says can be believed.
Routine systematic lies
Carlson has been fact-checked countless times for his falsehoods, many of which have led to violence and deaths. These include that Barrack Obama was not an American citizen, Hillary Clinton is a criminal who should be in prison, Covid 19 was deliberately spread worldwide by China and the big lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
Philip Bump at the Washington Post documented 13 major damaging falsehoods in January last year.
*
As this is written, no official reason for Carlson’s departure from Fox has been revealed. We have no shortage of possibilities. He should have been sacked years ago.
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