Post by the Scribe on Feb 15, 2021 8:19:57 GMT
Opinion: In office, Trump was the greatest threat to U.S. democracy. Now it may be Tucker Carlson.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/12/tucker-carlson-conspiracies-fox-news-dangerous/
Tucker Carlson poses in a Fox News Channel studio in New York in 2017. (Richard Drew/AP)
Opinion by
Max Boot
Columnist
Feb. 12, 2021 at 12:05 p.m. MST
When Donald Trump was in office, he posed the most dangerous threat to American democracy. With the former president now golfing full-time, the most dangerous threat may well emanate from the Fox “News” Channel — and specifically from its top-rated host, Tucker Carlson. He seems to be on a mission to make America’s worst problems even worse.
Carlson has a long history of pushing vaccine conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives. On Tuesday night, he attacked covid-19 vaccines, claiming without providing any evidence that “the way the authorities handled the covid vaccine did not inspire confidence,” “all these people [were] lying about it” and “the most powerful people in America worked to make certain that no one could criticize it.” He never did say what these lies supposedly were — he just left his audience with the impression that the vaccines are part of a plot against them by powerful, shadowy forces. One fact Carlson did not mention: His boss, Rupert Murdoch, has already been vaccinated. His conspiracy mongering is likely to discourage Fox News’s elderly viewers — who are at the highest risk of dying of covid-19 — from getting safe and effective vaccines that could save their lives.
www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/tucker-carlsons-history-pushing-vaccine-conspiracy-theories
www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-says-health-experts-are-clearly-lying-about-safety-and-effectiveness
www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-murdoch/murdoch-receives-covid-19-vaccine-as-fox-news-host-casts-suspicion-on-campaign-idUSKBN28S2J7
www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-old-is-the-average-fox-news-viewer-in-america.html/
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html
Having done his level best to injure public health, the next night Carlson sought to exacerbate racial and political divisions. On Wednesday, he argued that “they” (whoever they are) are lying to “you” — the Fox News viewer — about the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. “The known facts bear no resemblance to the story they’re telling — they’re just flat-out lying,” Carlson said. He didn’t say what the real story was — perhaps, like half of Republicans in a recent poll, he thinks antifa was responsible for the assault?
www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/02/11/tucker_carlson_we_know_very_little_about_the_capitol_riot_facts_bear_no_resemblance_to_story_left_is_telling.html
Rather than try to make his case for an alternative reality, Carlson segued into a diatribe about the Black Lives Matter rallies last year that were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He claimed that protests “changed this country more in five months than it changed in the previous 50 years” — and it was all based on “an utter lie.” Floyd wasn’t “murdered by a cop,” Carlson told viewers. He “almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl.”
www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/george-floyd-america/systemic-racism/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8
This is the claim advanced by attorneys representing the cop who pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck for roughly nine minutes, but it’s not true. The medical examiner ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide. While Floyd had fentanyl in his system, the cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” A private autopsy requested by Floyd’s family found he died of asphyxia, or suffocation.
www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/25/blog-posting/two-autopsies-found-george-floyds-death-was-homici/
content.govdelivery.com/attachments/MNHENNE/2020/06/01/file_attachments/1464238/2020-3700%20Floyd,%20George%20Perry%20Update%206.1.2020.pdf
www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-autopsy-michael-baden.html
That Carlson is spreading dingbat, dishonest conspiracy theories from such a powerful perch is certain to have deleterious, even deadly, consequences for the country. Already his promotion of “Stop the Steal” lies helped to lead to the attack on the Capitol that left five people dead and at least 138 cops injured. That is why I, and other commentators such as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, have called for Fox News to exercise greater restraint — and, if it doesn’t, for the cable systems that carry it to drop its programming.
wapo.st/3rJaJ3j
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/opinion/fox-news-accountability.html
This provoked another Carlson diatribe. On Thursday night, he claimed that there was a plot involving everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) to Post owner Jeff Bezos to, well, me designed to “silence” Fox News. To make his case, he employed his trademark combination of hyperbole, paranoia and ignorance.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-why-left-wants-to-shut-down-fox-news
He bizarrely compared Pelosi and Schiff to the Ottomans, who, he said, “destroyed the cities they captured” because “they enjoyed it.” Perhaps Carlson is thinking of the Mongols? The Ottomans were not city-destroyers — as he would know if he visited Istanbul, Cairo or Belgrade. He’s just casually maligning Muslims along with Democrats.
Carlson is full of off-the-wall analogies that demonstrate his invincible ignorance of history. “The moment they took power, Democrats began a kind of Counter-Reformation against the free Internet,” he claimed. “They started the most sweeping mass censorship campaign in the history of this country.” (Guess he’s never heard of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts or the 1873 Comstock Act or the 1917 Espionage Act.) Later, he compared the Democrats to the “Red Guards.” He can’t decide if the targets of his ire are militant Catholics or militant Communists.
www.britannica.com/event/Alien-and-Sedition-Acts
www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1038/comstock-act-of-1873
www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1045/espionage-act-of-1917
Carlson went on to paint Fox News as a lonely, embattled champion of free speech: “Everyone else in the media is standing in crisp formation, in their starched matching uniforms and their little caps, patiently awaiting orders from the billionaire class. And then there’s Fox News off by itself, occasionally saying things that are slightly different.” Pretty rich coming from a TV star who is reportedly paid $10 million a year by a giant corporation controlled by two billionaires, Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan.
www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/media/fox-news-pays-10m-tucker-carlson/index.html
No one is trying to punish Fox News for expressing “slightly different” views. I am a staunch believer in free speech. I spent most of my life in the conservative movement. (Carlson and I were once affiliated with the same magazine — the Weekly Standard.) I welcome a debate that features conservative views.
But that is not what Carlson represents. He is peddling lunatic conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives and shred our social fabric. The executives at Fox News — and at the cable systems that carry it — should be ashamed of themselves for beaming this dangerous claptrap into millions of homes.
Read more:
Max Boot: Trump couldn’t have incited sedition without the help of Fox News
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/18/trump-couldnt-have-incited-sedition-without-help-fox-news/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22
Erik Wemple: In attacking Ocasio-Cortez, Tucker Carlson maxes out on hypocrisy
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/attacking-ocasio-cortez-tucker-carlson-maxes-out-hypocrisy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_23
Erik Wemple: Never forget Fox News’s promotion of the ‘Big Lie’
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/19/never-forget-fox-newss-promotion-big-lie/?itid=lk_inline_manual_24
Greg Sargent: Lindsey Graham’s toadyism on Fox News shows where the GOP is heading
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/lindsey-graham-fox-news-impeachment/?itid=lk_inline_manual_25
Dana Milbank: If Republican senators acquit Trump, they will own the violence that follows
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/if-republican-senators-acquit-trump-they-will-own-violence-that-follows/?itid=lk_inline_manual_26
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/12/tucker-carlson-conspiracies-fox-news-dangerous/
Tucker Carlson poses in a Fox News Channel studio in New York in 2017. (Richard Drew/AP)
Opinion by
Max Boot
Columnist
Feb. 12, 2021 at 12:05 p.m. MST
When Donald Trump was in office, he posed the most dangerous threat to American democracy. With the former president now golfing full-time, the most dangerous threat may well emanate from the Fox “News” Channel — and specifically from its top-rated host, Tucker Carlson. He seems to be on a mission to make America’s worst problems even worse.
Carlson has a long history of pushing vaccine conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives. On Tuesday night, he attacked covid-19 vaccines, claiming without providing any evidence that “the way the authorities handled the covid vaccine did not inspire confidence,” “all these people [were] lying about it” and “the most powerful people in America worked to make certain that no one could criticize it.” He never did say what these lies supposedly were — he just left his audience with the impression that the vaccines are part of a plot against them by powerful, shadowy forces. One fact Carlson did not mention: His boss, Rupert Murdoch, has already been vaccinated. His conspiracy mongering is likely to discourage Fox News’s elderly viewers — who are at the highest risk of dying of covid-19 — from getting safe and effective vaccines that could save their lives.
www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/tucker-carlsons-history-pushing-vaccine-conspiracy-theories
www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-says-health-experts-are-clearly-lying-about-safety-and-effectiveness
www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-murdoch/murdoch-receives-covid-19-vaccine-as-fox-news-host-casts-suspicion-on-campaign-idUSKBN28S2J7
www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/how-old-is-the-average-fox-news-viewer-in-america.html/
www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html
Having done his level best to injure public health, the next night Carlson sought to exacerbate racial and political divisions. On Wednesday, he argued that “they” (whoever they are) are lying to “you” — the Fox News viewer — about the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6. “The known facts bear no resemblance to the story they’re telling — they’re just flat-out lying,” Carlson said. He didn’t say what the real story was — perhaps, like half of Republicans in a recent poll, he thinks antifa was responsible for the assault?
www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2021/02/11/tucker_carlson_we_know_very_little_about_the_capitol_riot_facts_bear_no_resemblance_to_story_left_is_telling.html
Rather than try to make his case for an alternative reality, Carlson segued into a diatribe about the Black Lives Matter rallies last year that were sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He claimed that protests “changed this country more in five months than it changed in the previous 50 years” — and it was all based on “an utter lie.” Floyd wasn’t “murdered by a cop,” Carlson told viewers. He “almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl.”
www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/national/george-floyd-america/systemic-racism/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8
This is the claim advanced by attorneys representing the cop who pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck for roughly nine minutes, but it’s not true. The medical examiner ruled that Floyd’s death was a homicide. While Floyd had fentanyl in his system, the cause of death was “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” A private autopsy requested by Floyd’s family found he died of asphyxia, or suffocation.
www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/25/blog-posting/two-autopsies-found-george-floyds-death-was-homici/
content.govdelivery.com/attachments/MNHENNE/2020/06/01/file_attachments/1464238/2020-3700%20Floyd,%20George%20Perry%20Update%206.1.2020.pdf
www.nytimes.com/article/george-floyd-autopsy-michael-baden.html
That Carlson is spreading dingbat, dishonest conspiracy theories from such a powerful perch is certain to have deleterious, even deadly, consequences for the country. Already his promotion of “Stop the Steal” lies helped to lead to the attack on the Capitol that left five people dead and at least 138 cops injured. That is why I, and other commentators such as Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, have called for Fox News to exercise greater restraint — and, if it doesn’t, for the cable systems that carry it to drop its programming.
wapo.st/3rJaJ3j
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html
www.nytimes.com/2021/02/10/opinion/fox-news-accountability.html
This provoked another Carlson diatribe. On Thursday night, he claimed that there was a plot involving everyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) to Post owner Jeff Bezos to, well, me designed to “silence” Fox News. To make his case, he employed his trademark combination of hyperbole, paranoia and ignorance.
www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-why-left-wants-to-shut-down-fox-news
He bizarrely compared Pelosi and Schiff to the Ottomans, who, he said, “destroyed the cities they captured” because “they enjoyed it.” Perhaps Carlson is thinking of the Mongols? The Ottomans were not city-destroyers — as he would know if he visited Istanbul, Cairo or Belgrade. He’s just casually maligning Muslims along with Democrats.
Carlson is full of off-the-wall analogies that demonstrate his invincible ignorance of history. “The moment they took power, Democrats began a kind of Counter-Reformation against the free Internet,” he claimed. “They started the most sweeping mass censorship campaign in the history of this country.” (Guess he’s never heard of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts or the 1873 Comstock Act or the 1917 Espionage Act.) Later, he compared the Democrats to the “Red Guards.” He can’t decide if the targets of his ire are militant Catholics or militant Communists.
www.britannica.com/event/Alien-and-Sedition-Acts
www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1038/comstock-act-of-1873
www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1045/espionage-act-of-1917
Carlson went on to paint Fox News as a lonely, embattled champion of free speech: “Everyone else in the media is standing in crisp formation, in their starched matching uniforms and their little caps, patiently awaiting orders from the billionaire class. And then there’s Fox News off by itself, occasionally saying things that are slightly different.” Pretty rich coming from a TV star who is reportedly paid $10 million a year by a giant corporation controlled by two billionaires, Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan.
www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/media/fox-news-pays-10m-tucker-carlson/index.html
No one is trying to punish Fox News for expressing “slightly different” views. I am a staunch believer in free speech. I spent most of my life in the conservative movement. (Carlson and I were once affiliated with the same magazine — the Weekly Standard.) I welcome a debate that features conservative views.
But that is not what Carlson represents. He is peddling lunatic conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives and shred our social fabric. The executives at Fox News — and at the cable systems that carry it — should be ashamed of themselves for beaming this dangerous claptrap into millions of homes.
Read more:
Max Boot: Trump couldn’t have incited sedition without the help of Fox News
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/18/trump-couldnt-have-incited-sedition-without-help-fox-news/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22
Erik Wemple: In attacking Ocasio-Cortez, Tucker Carlson maxes out on hypocrisy
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/04/attacking-ocasio-cortez-tucker-carlson-maxes-out-hypocrisy/?itid=lk_inline_manual_23
Erik Wemple: Never forget Fox News’s promotion of the ‘Big Lie’
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/19/never-forget-fox-newss-promotion-big-lie/?itid=lk_inline_manual_24
Greg Sargent: Lindsey Graham’s toadyism on Fox News shows where the GOP is heading
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/lindsey-graham-fox-news-impeachment/?itid=lk_inline_manual_25
Dana Milbank: If Republican senators acquit Trump, they will own the violence that follows
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/02/11/if-republican-senators-acquit-trump-they-will-own-violence-that-follows/?itid=lk_inline_manual_26