Tucker Carlson and Fox News are at it again. Not satisfied with disseminating deadly disinformation about the coronavirus that has led to tens (hundreds?) of thousands of preventable deaths, or advancing the racist “white replacement theory” to malign immigrants, or undermining American democracy by aiding and abetting Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” that the 2020 election was “rigged,” Carlson and Company are now exalting domestic terrorists and white supremacists.
Carlson is promoting a crock documentary that purports to tell “The True Story Behind 1/6” That, of course, is a lie. The title sequence is crammed with ludicrous talking point subtitles alluding to “The War on Terror 2.0,” and “The Plot Against the People,” and a “Patriot Purge” All of that wingnut sloganeering is deliberately inflammatory code intended to incite further violence. As are the opening frames of the trailer that includes video of the police shooting domestic terrorist Ashli Babbitt as she and her militant comrades are attacking law enforcement officers and smashing through the glass door entrance to the Capitol.
It is seriously difficult at this point to see much daylight between Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones. https://t.co/Y0qdmO6R3S
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) October 28, 2021
The video goes on to feature a quote by Darren Beattie, who left the Trump administration after he was caught at a white nationalist conference. In the video Beattie says that “The domestic war on terror is here. It’s coming after half of the country.” Which is nonsense because not only is there no “domestic war” on these rightist kooks, they don’t comprise anywhere near half the country.
That’s followed by Carlson fear mongering that American soldiers are preparing an assault on citizens here in the U.S. Carlson says that “The helicopters have left Afghanistan. Now they’ve landed here at home.” That in turn is followed by a disembodied voice warning that “The left is hunting the right. Sticking them in Guantanamo Bay, for American citizens, leaving them there to rot.” It goes without saying that that is flagrant fiction. No American is incarcerated at Gitmo. Nor has anyone been waterboarded as is implied by the visual in the video.
Next up is a clip of President Biden saying correctly that “Terrorism from white supremacy is the most lethal threat to to the homeland. […] Not Al Qaeda. White supremacy.” This was an assessment made by the Department of Homeland Security in September of 2020, during the Trump administration. However, Carlson is mocking Biden as his words play over archive footage of a KKK parade.
Finally, the trailer concludes with a bizarre and baseless allegation by a disgraced former Army captain, Emily Rainey, who is being investigated for her participation in the insurrection. She says that “False flags have happened in this country, one of which may have been January 6.” Naturally, there is no evidence whatsoever to support this reckless accusation. But it is one that Carlson has made before, specifically charging the FBI with “orchestrating” the violence. The background visual for this quote is footage of the January 6th insurrection. That segues into a shot of helicopters ominously approaching the Capitol dome with the Battle Hymn of the Republic playing…“Glory, glory hallelujah. His truth is marching on.” What do you suppose that is implying?
The key question raised by Carlson’s propaganda pic is, how can the insurrectionists be both patriotic protesters fighting to MAGA, and false flag provocateurs conspiring against freedom? In order to follow his logic you would have to believe that the same mob that stormed the Capitol are simultaneously heroes and traitors. It’s a paradox that can only reside in the warped mind of a Trump cultist.
This abomination is not just the work of Tucker Carlson. The whole of the Fox News enterprise is responsible, including the network’s CEO Suzanne Scott, president Jay Wallace, and corporate masters Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch. Their culpability was acknowledged by the two Republican members of the House Select Committee Investigating the January 6th Insurrection:
Liz Cheney: “It appears that Fox News is giving Tucker Carlson a platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on January 6. As Fox News knows, the election wasn’t stolen and January 6 was not a ‘false flag’ operation,”
Adam Kinzinger: “Anyone working for @FoxNews must speak out. This is disgusting. It appears @foxnews isn’t even pretending anymore.”
Don’t hold your breath. Fox News is not going to “speak out” or take any action against Carlson because they agree with him 100%. This program isn’t a rogue operation by Carlson. It is fully supported by, paid for, and proudly broadcast by Fox News, with the approval of its editors, executives, and owners. And they are as responsible for the harm it causes as Carlson. But there is something you can do about it: UnFox My Cable Box!
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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.