tucker2bak
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320 capt</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/18 see t carlson for older</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see CALLER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320 bak end FBI's...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1119 TAG tukr on impeach defense (plus hannity and ingraham core of fox that keeps base from collapse?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">// djt, too much to track?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/tucker-carlson-says-theres-no-evidence-coronavirus-lockdowns-work-but-hes-totally-wrong/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">tucker Carlson says there’s no ‘evidence’ coronavirus lockdowns work — but he’s totally wrong</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex Henderson</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson is among the far-right opinion hosts at Fox News who has been critical of the stay-at-home orders issued by governors in the United States in response to the…</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/how-tucker-carlson-manipulates-president-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/how-tucker-carlson-manipulates-president-trump</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump apparently changed his mind about whether the United States should fund the World Health Organization in response to a monologue from Fox News host Tucker Carlson. It’s at least the third time this year that Carlson’s program has triggered major changes in U.S. policy, an indication of just how effective the Fox prime-time star is at manipulating the president. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Axios’ Jonathan Swan <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-world-health-organization-funding-cut-e4d0f14f-02f2-4f84-82c3-8e253cae115a.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported Sunday</a> that Trump, who <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/14/trump-world-health-organization-funding-186786" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">declared last month</a> that he was freezing the United States’ $400 million annual payment to the WHO, had been “on the brink of announcing” he would restore roughly 10% of the funding up until “late last week.” But then someone leaked the draft of the announcement to Carlson, who broke the news on his Friday-night show, denounced the WHO’s handling of the novel coronavirus, and argued against the funding</span>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Carlson’s appeal seems to have reached the president, as Swan wrote that in light of the segment, Trump was now “leaning toward preserving his total funding cut.” And indeed, on Monday, Trump <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1262577580718395393" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">sent a letter</a> to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus threatening to permanently pull all U.S. funding if the organization did not “commit to major substantive improvements in the next 30 days."</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Many Fox personalities have used the president’s obsession with their network to influence U.S. public affairs in recent years, dictating everything from <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/president-trumps-fox-obsession-reshaped-political-universe-2019" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">border-wall construction contracts to federal pardons to government shutdowns</a>. But Carlson is better at this game than any of his colleagues. Twice this year, he staked out a position drastically different from virtually everyone else at Fox -- on <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/it-bad-president-takes-advice-his-television" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">whether the U.S. should escalate with Iran</a> and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/tucker-carlson-incapable-holding-trump-administration-acountable" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">whether the administration should take the coronavirus more seriously</a>. And each time, he reportedly succeeded in shifting Trump’s thinking -- and federal policy. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Carlson is particularly adept at winning over the president because of his unique grasp of Trump’s psychology</span>. Trump is a paranoid xenophobe who is fixated on his grievances and cannot handle even the slightest criticism, and Carlson crafts his argument accordingly. He almost never knocks Trump directly for his decisions, instead railing against the purportedly nefarious advisers who must have led the president astray. And his framing of the issues constantly plays to Trump’s hatred of foreigners, Democrats, political correctness, and the media.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Friday’s WHO segment provides a good case study in how Carlson exploits Trump’s weaknesses to shift his opinions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">carlson began his monologue by presenting the potential partial restoration of funding as a surprising decision -- “bet you didn’t see this coming” -- and setting it up as a dispute between “the Trump administration” and Trump himself. He did this by contrasting the pending move with the president’s own harsh criticism of the WHO. </font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Last month, you'll remember, the administration cut off U.S. funding at the president's direction. That amounts to about $400 million a year,” he said. “They did this, as the president explained, because the World Health Organization badly mishandled and lied about the coronavirus pandemic and is of course nauseatingly subservient to the government of China.” </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He then pinned the pending decision on Trump’s advisers, saying, “We're told the president supposedly has agreed to sign the letter, if he hasn't already. It would be interesting to know who convinced him to do that.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson read from the draft letter, which states that the U.S. agrees to pay as much as China does. He then blamed the State Department, saying this would happen “if the State Department gets its way,” before arguing that the U.S. still won’t have as much influence as China with the WHO.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Next, Carlson reminded his audience -- including the president himself -- why Trump opposed the WHO funding in the first place. </b>“Now, there are certainly many reasons that the president was deeply skeptical of the World Health Organization in the first place and stopped funding it,” he said. “Director Tedros Adhanom has thoroughly disgraced himself and his organization for years, but particularly throughout this coronavirus epidemic.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In particular, Carlson homed in on the WHO’s criticism of Trump’s travel restrictions. Trump has <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trumps-snowballing-china-travel-claim/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">described</a> his decision to restrict some travel from China as a crucial move which he baselessly claims saved “hundreds of thousands” of American lives, and his political career has been centered in part on castigating claims of racism as “political correctness.” Carlson knows this, and so he sneered that the WHO had “attacked” the restrictions as “unnecessary and needless to say, racist.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson went on to castigate the WHO for supporting “Chinese propaganda,” which “killed people,” particularly criticizing Tedros’ delay in “calling the virus a pandemic when it clearly was.” In blaming the WHO, Carlson carefully avoided holding Trump accountable for <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/69650/timeline-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic-and-u-s-response/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ignoring months of warnings</a> about the virus from U.S. public health agencies, his advisers, and the intelligence community, and ignored Trump’s <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/15/trump-china-coronavirus-188736" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">own praise of the Chinese government’s response</a> in the early weeks of the virus’ spread. Again, when Carlson is trying to influence Trump, he does not criticize him.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson then provided a scapegoat whom he suggested was responsible for the possible partial restoration of WHO funding. “And yet, there is one person who has long, always through thick and thin, been a fervent fan of Tedros, and that's Dr. Anthony Fauci,” he said, pointing a finger at the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-cabinet-trying-get-fauci-fired" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">frequent target</a> of the program. After airing a clip of Fauci praising Tedros, Carlson concluded, “Well, doubtless, Dr. Fauci will be thrilled with tonight's news that we're going to continue to fund the World Health Organization.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After the monologue, Fox medical contributor Dr. Marc Siegel joined Carlson to discuss the potential restoration of WHO funding</b>. For the most part, both stuck to the same talking points from Carlson’s monologue, praising Trump, blaming the pending decision on advisers like Fauci, and highlighting the importance of travel restrictions. “There are people around him whose instincts are reliably bad as his are on target,” Carlson concluded of the president.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But notably, the interview featured a direct appeal from Siegel to Trump to reverse the pending decision. “I have a message for President Trump tonight, too. Please don't sign anything that restores funding to the World Health Organization before there's a huge overhaul of the World Health Organization,” Siegel said. “Yes,” Carlson replied. While <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTcYhQ49CQQ" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">many at Fox</a> engage in this sort of direct appeal to the president, Carlson largely avoids that strategy in favor of more subtle commentary, using the second-person to make every viewer a stand-in for Trump. But this time it appears to have succeeded, as Trump’s letter to Tedros demanded “major substantive improvements” before funding could be restored.</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Carlson <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/risks-tucker-carlsons-iran-commentary" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">employed similar tactics</a> in trying to convince the president not to further escalate with Iran following the U.S. killing of Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.</span> He argued on his January 2 broadcast that Trump himself is “wary” of war, but may have been “outmaneuvered” by advisers who are “reckless and incompetent,” like former national security adviser John Bolton. And he leaned on the president’s xenophobia, saying that those advisers “are the very same ones demanding that you ignore the invasion of America now in progress from the south.”<b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Carlson’s commentary <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-cabinet-responding-soleimanis-killing" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">diverged dramatically</a> from his colleagues, but <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/it-bad-president-takes-advice-his-television" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reportedly shifted</a> the president’s thinking in his direction. </b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Likewise, the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/tucker-carlson-incapable-holding-trump-administration-acountable" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">March 9 Carlson monologue</a> credited with helping <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/as-much-of-america-takes-drastic-action-some-republicans-remain-skeptical-of-the-severity-of-the-coronavirus-pandemic/2020/03/17/f8b199c8-6786-11ea-b313-df458622c2cc_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">convince Trump to briefly take the coronavirus more seriously</a> includes no direct criticism of the president. Even as Carlson said that “people you trust, people you probably voted for, have spent weeks minimizing what is clearly a very serious problem,” he avoided calling Trump out, thus making it far more likely that the president would listen to him. And the monologue was filled with xenophobic references to the “Chinese coronavirus” and attacks on Trump’s frequent target, the “corrupt media establishment.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson appears to have figured out the secret formula to winning over the president through his television show: No criticism, attacks on his advisers, and a spoonful of racism to help the medicine go down.</font></p></div></div></div><div><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></p></div></div><div><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></span></p><p><span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/richard-grenells-flynn-unmasking-noninformation-campaign"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/richard-grenells-flynn-unmasking-noninformation-campaign</font></a></span></p><header class="editorial-fullheader" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p class="subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing media froth over “<b>Obamagate”</b> and bully press to play along</font></p><p class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.3rem; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="bylinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">WRITTEN BY</span> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz" hreflang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">MATT GERTZ</a></font></p><div class="dateline--group" style="box-sizing: border-box; align-items: center; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><p class="dateline" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 2px; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="datelinelabel" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-right: 0.5rem;">PUBLISHED</span> <time datetime="2020-05-15T14:15:11-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;">05/15/20 2:15 PM EDT</time></font></p></div></header><div class="editorial-fullarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem;"><div class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a former Fox News contributor and Republican Party stalwart who was <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/richard-grenell/foxification-intelligence-community-follows-doj-script" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">appointed</a> to lead the U.S. intelligence community because of his loyalty to President Donald Trump, provided a document of his own devising to Congress on Wednesday. It promptly leaked to the press. Republicans, including Trump <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-weighs-in-on-flynn" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">himself</a>, immediately seized on the content in the document as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rand-paul-rips-biden-over-flynn-unmasking" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">evidence</a> of vast Obama administration malfeasance. Fox hosts spent the next two days incessantly <a href="https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/15894287307906e1a9e9f23a2/raw?utm_term=15894287307906e1a9e9f23a2&utm_source=Reliable+Sources+-+May+13,+2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=206544_1589428730794&bt_ee=rJtXAI/dlRVo19NiqUUDVK/ltAnlkvNMu9mMajvRanVdqAYAnBBHIYyh3CCtfzbubLRE55GUp/sRZ4Gxai5j7Q%3D%3D&bt_ts=1589428730794" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">declaring</a> that it vindicated their conspiracy theories, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-largely-ignores-coronavirus-whistleblower-testimony-favor-obamagate" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">turning their attention away</a> from the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/amid-climbing-coronavirus-death-toll-fox-friends-devotes-twice-much-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">coronavirus pandemic</a>. And more credible media outlets, buffeted by the partisan claims, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynn-unmasking-obama-biden/2020/05/13/d9593030-9545-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">responded</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-than-one-dozen-obama-officials-may-have-requested-unmasking-that-revealed-michael-flynn-in-intelligence-reports-11589396531" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">with</a> a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-than-one-dozen-obama-officials-may-have-requested-unmasking-that-revealed-michael-flynn-in-intelligence-reports-11589396531" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">flurry</a> of <a href="https://apnews.com/ebcd45c5d89ac3cf8cc61ed3d6e1ac1a" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">stories</a>, at times <a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1261256342137946112?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">failing</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1261092546433908741?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">properly contextualize</a> the story.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trumpists have declared Grenell’s document a smoking gun showing that disgraced former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, was a victim of an Obama administration conspiracy, and Fox is hyping that narrative with wall-to-wall coverage. In reality, the document provides almost no information whatsoever. It is simply a list of senior Obama administration officials who received Flynn’s name after they followed the National Security Agency’s standard process and asked the agency to unmask the identity of an individual generically referenced in an NSA report they were authorized to read. It does nothing to establish that any of the individuals named acted improperly in any way -- or even how many unmaskings were related to the Kislyak calls.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We’ve seen <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">misinformation campaigns</em>, where false or deceptive information is distributed, and <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">disinformation campaigns</em>, when that distribution is done with the full knowledge of its inaccuracy. Grenell is engaged in a <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">noninformation campaign</em>. He deliberately crafted and propagated a data point so vague that it is virtually meaningless on its own. But pro-Trump partisans -- particularly at Fox -- have easily picked up, misread (deliberately or not), and promoted the point, aligining it with their wild assumptions. Those furious misinterpretations have in turn spurred attention from the mainstream press, driving the conspiratorial thinking into the broader public. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is an intentional plan that corresponds with what the president wants from his director of national intelligence. “Trump hopes enough information will be released by his intelligence appointees to muddy the waters and lend a patina of confusion about what Mr. Obama may have done, according to people familiar with his thinking,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/politics/trump-obama.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a> Thursday. As the president struggles in reelection polling, Trump and his Fox propagandists are using the Flynn story to try to damage the credibility of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s 2020 opponent.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grenell’s noninformation campaign is the latest salvo in a years-long campaign by Trump and his Fox propagandists to turn the <a href="https://crooked.com/articles/trump-final-authoritarian-push/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Russia investigation inside out</a>, presenting the Trump associates who pleaded or were found guilty under its auspices as victims and those involved in carrying out the probe as criminals. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With vast swathes of the federal bureaucracy in the hands of partisans selected for their loyalty to the president, including the DNI and Justice Department, we should <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannitys-deep-state-special-harbinger-trump-and-barrs-coming-propaganda" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">expect more of these releases</a> -- and perhaps <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-led-sean-hannity-has-been-begging-attorney-general-bill-barr-investigate-or" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">more dangerous actions</a> -- in the coming months, as Trump’s supporters try to push the political debate away from the ongoing pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 Americans so far in order to secure his reelection.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trumpist defense of Michael Flynn</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Flynn is a retired general who served as Trump’s national security adviser during the 2016 presidential campaign, the transition, and the early days of his White House tenure. At various points during that timeline, Flynn was also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/politics/clinton-emails-trump-russia.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">assigned</a> by Trump to find the Hillary Clinton emails he had publicly asked Russia to procure; was under <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-flynn-interview-was-predicated" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">investigation</a> by the FBI, which was concerned with whether he was serving as a witting or unwitting agent of the Russian government; was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-sentencing.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">illegally acting</a> as an unregistered agent of the Turkish government, for which he was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/flynn-face-pressure-russia-probe-dems-allege-concealed/story?id=49809864" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reportedly involved</a> in discussions of a kidnapping plot; and was seeking Trump’s approval for a plan to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/flynn-backed-plan-transfer-nuclear-tech-saudis-may-have-broken-n973021" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">working as a paid adviser</a> for the group behind the proposal. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On December 29, 2016, the day the Obama administration placed sanctions on Russia in response to its interference in the presidential election, Flynn <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2017/12/michael-flynns-russia-timeline/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">called</a> Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and urged him that Russia not retaliate for those sanctions. Flynn was fired as Trump’s national security adviser after reports surfaced that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations, which opened Flynn up to blackmail from the Russian government. He would later repeatedly plead guilty as part of Mueller’s probe to lying to the FBI about those calls before renouncing that plea last year.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/sean-hannity-michael-flynn-james-comey-fbi" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">position on Flynn</a> among Trumpists like Fox host Sean Hannity is that he is an American hero, that there was no good-faith reason to probe any of his actions during that period, and that anyone involved in such an effort was a participant in the broad-ranging Obama administration conspiracy to take down Trump, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/157726/obamagate-ultimate-republican-non-scandal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">which the president terms</a> “OBAMAGATE.” </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Their argument features Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak in two ways: They <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/fox-news-why-trump-thinks-he-can-get-away-nixonian-corruption-barrs-doj" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">argue</a> that the FBI’s interview with Flynn was a nefarious “setup” and suggest that the leak about the conversation from a “senior government official” to The Washington Post’s David Ignatius for his 2017 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-did-obama-dawdle-on-russias-hacking/2017/01/12/75f878a0-d90c-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">column</a>, which brought the call into public light, was an illegal attempt to take down Flynn and Trump by someone who had improperly “unmasked” his identity from intelligence intercepts. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">William Barr’s Justice Department showed last week that the Trump administration is putting the force of the federal government behind Fox’s conspiracy theories when it <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/fox-news-why-trump-thinks-he-can-get-away-nixonian-corruption-barrs-doj" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">filed a dubious and virtually unprecedented motion</a> seeking to drop the government’s case against Flynn, citing the FBI’s interview tactics. And on Wednesday, Grenell tried to use his own power as the director of national intelligence to provide grist in support of the other fork of the Flynn defense. </font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Unmasking” and what Grenell’s document shows</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/politics/richard-grenell-declassification-unmasking-list.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a> that Grenell had declassified and provided to the Justice Department what the paper described as “an Obama-era document related to President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn” and “a list of Obama administration officials who sought to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials.” Later that day, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05-12%20RHJ%20CEG%20to%20ODNI%20%28Unmaskings%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">sent a letter</a> to Grenell and Barr asking for the document. Grenell <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272/photo/1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">provided</a> it to the senators on Wednesday, and it was immediately leaked to CBS News’ Catherine Herridge, a former Fox reporter <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/catherine-herridge/catherine-herridge-joins-foxs-news-side-exodus" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">whose work</a> often <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-cbs-reporter-catherine-herridge-is-driving-democratsand-some-of-her-own-colleaguescrazy?ref=home" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">promotes</a> Republican talking points. Herridge then <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">published</a> the letter on <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635872271228928" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Twitter.</a> (The document <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1260941163516887040" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">did not turn out</a> to be precisely what the Times had reported. It had been generated on May 4, not during the “Obama era,” and dealt solely with cases involving Flynn, not “Trump associates” more generally.) </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/qanda-what-is-unmasking-who-does-it-and-why/2020/05/14/ae254782-95ea-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">NSA reports</a> derived from the legal surveillance of foreign targets, analysts anonymize (“mask”) the names of U.S. persons to protect their privacy. It is routine for senior officials to ask the NSA to reveal (“unmask”) those identities in cases where they believe that information is necessary to understand the intelligence. The NSA has a standard procedure for doing this, including a review of the justification of the person seeking the unmasking. For context, Trump administration officials sought and received the unmasking of U.S. persons from the NSA more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynn-unmasking-obama-biden/2020/05/13/d9593030-9545-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">10,000 times</a> in 2019 and nearly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nsa-reports-75-increase-in-unmasking-u-s-identities-under-foreign-surveillance-law-in-2018-11556641509" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">17,000 times</a> in 2018. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The document is a list created at Grenell’s request of <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05-13%20ODNI%20to%20CEG%20RHJ%20%28Unmasking%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">several dozen</a> “officials who submitted requests” to the NSA between Trump’s election and the end of January 2017 to unmask an identity which turned out to be Flynn, as detailed in an <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272/photo/2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attached memorandum</a> to Grenell from NSA Director Paul Nakasone. It provides the names of the officials, which include then-Vice President Biden, Cabinet secretaries, and intelligence agency leaders, and the date on which their requests were processed. It is the second version of the document -- as Nakasone detailed, the list was originally provided in alphabetical order but revised to be chronological. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s it. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contrary to the insinuations from the right-wing figures, the document provides no evidence that any single unmasking was related to Flynn’s calls with Kislyak. In fact, the <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/13/of-over-40-potential-unmaskings-of-mike-flynn-during-the-transition-just-one-led-to-criminal-charges/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">record suggests</a> none of them were the original unmasking that first discovered Flynn had made the call, as that one was done by the FBI from its own intercept, not the NSA’s. Nor does it show that Flynn was in some way targeted -- by definition, unmasking occurs when senior administration officials don’t know the name of an American referenced in an intelligence report.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, there is no indication in the document that anyone listed behaved inappropriately -- in fact, it <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635872271228928/photo/1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">makes clear</a> that the Obama-era unmaskings happened by the book. “Each individual was an authorized recipient of the original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process, which includes a review of the justification for the request,” it states. It also points out that the NSA cannot confirm that any of the persons who requested the unmaskings eventually saw the information.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grenell’s noninformation plot</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grenell is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/opinion/richard-grenell-trump.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">totally unqualified</a> for his post. While previous occupants of his position ran intelligence agencies, he at most was a consumer of their products during a brief stint as U.S. ambassador to Germany. What he brings to the table instead, along with unswerving loyalty to the president, is broad experience in public relations and shaping news cycles, which he <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180608010453/http:/richardgrenell.com/about/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">honed</a> as a spokesperson for Republican politicians and for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, a strategic communications consultant for domestic and foreign clients, a Fox contributor, and a notably unhinged Twitter troll.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Grenell personally requested, sought revisions to, declassified, and provided the document to Congress in precisely this form, showing precisely what he wanted to become public. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If he wanted the document to include <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">more</em> information -- by for example, including the actual documents for which Flynn’s name was unmasked, or summaries thereof -- it would. Without that, despite the right-wing chorus linking Grenell’s document to Flynn’s Kislyak calls, <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">it doesn’t provide evidence that any single unmasking had anything to do with them. </em>In fact the majority of the unmaskings predate the calls and thus could not be related. Indeed, it doesn’t even indicate that Flynn was a participant in the intercepts used in the intelligence reports in which his name was unmasked, as the New York Times’ Charlie Savage points out:</font></p></div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Grenell had wanted the document to include <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">less</em> information -- by, for example, limiting the date range to after Flynn’s December 29 calls with Kislyak, which would <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">reduce the list from 39 names to only eight</em> -- it would. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What he produced is a very long list of names that maximized its impact, with no information whatsoever that any of them were involved in something the least bit inappropriate. That is, presumably, exactly what he wanted to do. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps Grenell has no evidence of wrongdoing, and few or none of the unmaskings reference the Kislyak calls (which is not implausible, as the FBI <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/13/of-over-40-potential-unmaskings-of-mike-flynn-during-the-transition-just-one-led-to-criminal-charges/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">derived and distributed</a> its own intercepts of the call with no masking as part of their already in-progress counterintelligence probe of Flynn). In that case, he’s declassified and released this information for a political purpose.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps he does have that evidence, but isn’t releasing it for now so he can continue to dribble documents out and generate more news stories as the presidential election approaches. In that case, he’s withholding that information for a political purpose.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox’s propagandists understand that their role in this noninformation campaign is to fill in the gaps left by the document with feverish, often fact-free speculation. Fox’s Tucker Carlson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-amoral-obama-administration-creeps-should-be-punished-for-ruining-michael-flynns-life" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">described</a> Flynn’s unmasking as a “domestic spying operation” that was “hidden under the pretext of national security,” and that the Obama administration officials involved are “amoral creeps” who committed “felonies” and should be “punished.” His prime-time colleague Hannity <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXaE8lKBTA" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">opened his Monday show</a> by asking, “What did Barack Hussein Obama know and when did he know it? Tonight, we will unravel the biggest abuse of power scandal in American history.” He also <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-warns-biden-flynn-unmasking-story-straight" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attacked</a> Biden for “lying” about the story and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/sean-hannity-great-american-republic-will-disintegrate-your-eyes-if-obama-officials" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">claimed</a> on Wednesday that if the officials involved in Flynn’s unmasking don’t face “justice,” “the great American republic will disintegrate before your eyes.” Despite how little information the Grenell document provides, they are convinced that it vindicates their conspiracy theories. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, Fox personalities are <a href="https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1260876847396597761" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attacking</a> the mainstream press for <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/sean-hannity-great-american-republic-will-disintegrate-your-eyes-if-obama-officials" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">not obsessing over</a> the story, with Hannity arguing that this proves they are “Democratic shills.” On Friday, Trump himself picked up that angle, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1261270084644896768" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">praising</a> the Fox morning show for “covering, supremely, the greatest political scandal in the history of the United States, OBAMAGATE,” while pillorying CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times as “Fake News” for failing to do so. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s no coincidence that Trump and Fox are trying to bully the mainstream press into giving the story more attention. They are counting on journalists to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/2016-nightmare-is-already-repeating-itself/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">repeat the failures of the 2016 election </a>and flood the zone with context-free scandal coverage that dirties up the president’s opponent. That’s the play Trump is calling, and the leaders of the Justice Department and intelligence community are eagerly supporting the effort, and will likely continue dropping noninformation and disinformation until Election Day.</font></p></div></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-im-worried-california-only-people-left-will-be-homeless-all-normal">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-im-worried-california-only-people-left-will-be-homeless-all-normal</a></div><div>
</div><div>---</div><div>
</div><div>might re related to black guy shot in back and no arrrests till TRMS?</div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-launches-unhinged-attack-rep-ilhan-omar-calling-her-repulsive">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-launches-unhinged-attack-rep-ilhan-omar-calling-her-repulsive</a></div><div>
</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.937px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">CARLSON (HOST): This isn't about Michael Flynn, it's about you. It's scary to think about that. Most people in Washington seemed determined not to think about it, they are intent on excusing all of this.<b> Ilhan Omar was among the first to chime in on the news today, "white privilege at work," she tweeted.</b></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.937px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);">Omar didn't explain what in the world make Flynn's case might have to do with his skin color, which he cannot control, but she denounced the decision as racist anyway. Surprised? You shouldn't be surprised.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; color: rgb(58, 67, 78); font-family: bagatela, serif; font-size: 19.937px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><b>Ilhan Omar is a person who clearly married her own brother in an immigration scam, who passionately hates the country that saved her, who reduces every conceivable issue to the most vicious kind of race-baiting. Can a single human being actually be as loathsome as Ilhan Omar is? It's hard to believe, she's like a parody of her repulsiveness. Sometimes you doubt she really exists, the RNC must have created her -- we can't confirm that, of course.</b></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/study-finds-people-who-watched-sean-hannity-were-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/study-finds-people-who-watched-sean-hannity-were-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19/</font></a></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Study finds people who watched Sean Hannity were more likely to die from COVID-19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by <b>Igor Derysh / Salon</b> April 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">A new study from the</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> University of Chicago’s Becker </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Friedman</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Institute for Economics</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> found that “<b>greater viewership of ‘Hannity’ relative to ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ was strongly associated with a greater number of COVID-19 cases and deaths in the early stages of the pandemic.”</b></span></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Sean Hannity has been heavily criticized for echoing President Donald Trump’s initial attempts to downplay the threat posed by the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, his colleague at the right-leaning network who has framed the issue in more nationalistic terms, has been credited with convincing the president to take the pandemic seriously.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Carlson warned viewers about the threat posed by the coronavirus from early February, while Hannity originally dismissed the risks associated with the virus before gradually adjusting his position starting late February,” the researchers wrote in the working paper.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two hosts diverged greatly on the issue in February. While Hannity expressed optimism that “zero people in the United States have died from the coronavirus,” Carlson warned viewers that the virus could kill 1 million people across the country.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers commissioned a poll of more than 1,000 Fox News viewers, which found that Carlson’s viewers were more likely to change their behavior earlier than Hannity’s viewers.</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We find that Hannity’s viewers on average changed their behavior in response to the coronavirus five days later than other Fox News viewers, while Carlson’s viewers changed behavior three days earlier than other Fox News viewers,” the paper said.</font></b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The researchers then compared the death rate in counties that favored either host, finding “approximately 30% more COVID-19 cases” in areas that preferred Hannity than those that watched Carlson.</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Already by mid-March, we see a statistically significant difference — that there are greater case loads in places that favor Hannity over Tucker,” researcher David Yanagizawa-Drott told The Chicago Tribune. “Then weeks later, we see a similar trajectory increase for deaths.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Hannity’s “shift in tone,” however, “the diverging trajectories . . . began to revert,” the study said.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The researchers argued that their findings were consistent with “misinformation being an important mechanism driving the effects in the data.</span>”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Polls have similarly found that Fox News viewers as a whole are far more likely to believe the threat of the virus is exaggerated. Another poll showed that Republicans, in general, were less likely to change their behavior in response to the threat than Democrats.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The attempts by certain Fox News opinion hosts to downplay the virus early in the outbreak came in stark contrast to steps the network’s executives and owners took to protect themselves against the virus.</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The selective cherry-picked clips of Sean Hannity’s coverage used in this study are not only reckless and irresponsible, but down right factually wrong,” a spokesperson for Fox News said in a statement. “As this timeline proves, Hannity has covered Covid-19 since the early days of the story. The ‘study’ almost completely ignores his coverage and repeated, specific warnings and concerns from January 27-February 26 including an early interview with Dr. Fauci in January. This is a reckless disregard for the truth.”</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity likewise defended his coverage of the virus in an interview with Newsweek earlier this month, arguing that his January interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, showed that his viewers were getting accurate information.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Go to my web site, and you’ll see irrefutable evidence that I have taken this seriously way before most in the media did. I warned in January that it was dangerous because it was highly contagious, but some people were asymptomatic, so it would spread quickly,” he said, though he also argued months later that the flu was “much more dangerous” than the new coronavirus and compared the associated death rate to the murder rate in Chicago.</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity’s comments came in response to a letter from <b>74 journalism professors to Fox owner Rupert Murdoch and CEO Lachlan Murdoch calling on the network to stop spreading “misinformation” about the virus.</b></font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The misinformation that reaches the Fox News audience is a danger to public health. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that your misreporting endangers your own viewers — and not only them, for in a pandemic, individual behavior affects significant numbers of other people as well,” the letter said. “. . . Inexcusably, Fox News has violated elementary canons of journalism. In so doing, it has contributed to the spread of a grave pandemic. Urgently, therefore, in the name of both good journalism and public health, we call upon you to help protect the lives of all Americans — including your elderly viewers — by ensuring that the information you deliver is based on scientific facts.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/daily-caller/despite-health-care-shortages-and-pleas-daily-caller-sold-n95-masks-pricey-survival</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3/26/20 2:12 PM EDT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Until just recently, an “outbreak” store operated by the Daily Caller was selling N95 respirator masks as part of a “survival kit” that retailed for up to $254.99. Health care professionals have faced a large shortage of the masks, which are not recommended for the public, and have pleaded with consumers to stop hoarding them. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the Food and Drug Administration states, “N95 respirators and surgical masks (face masks) are examples of personal protective equipment that are used to protect the wearer from airborne particles and from liquid contaminating the face.” It adds that the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend that the general public wear N95 respirators to protect themselves from respiratory diseases, including coronavirus (COVID-19). The best way to prevent illness is to avoid being exposed to this virus.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Medical professionals around the country have faced a shortage of N95 masks for various reasons, including hoarding. As a result, they have spent weeks pleading with the public to stop hoarding the masks and to donate them to medical facilities. On February 27, CDC Director Robert Redfield told a congressional subcommittee: “We need to make sure those N95 masks are available for the doctors and nurses that are going to be taking care of individuals that have this illness.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After receiving criticism, Target recently apologized for selling N95 masks in certain stores in Washington state. 3M CEO Mike Roman, whose company is the largest manufacturer of N95 masks, said that the masks shouldn’t be sold in retail stores to the public because of the shortage. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The N95 masks were recently being sold at Outbreak Provisions, an online store which says that it wishes “to provide you and your family peace of mind by providing essential emergency supplies that can help keep your family safe in a time like this.” Fine print on the website states that it “is operated by Daily Caller Inc” and doing business as OutbreakProvisions.com. The site appears to be relatively new: Its domain name was privately registered on February 28, 2020. The Daily Caller sent a March 25 email to its list which advertised the site. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The store had been selling “N95 Respirator Dust Masks” in various “survival kits.” Those included its “Survival Kit for Children” (two versions); “1 Person Elite Survival Kit” (two versions); “2 Person Survival Kit” (two versions); “4 Person Elite Survival Kit”; “5 Person Survival Kit”; and “10 Person Survival Kit.” The 10-person kit was the most expensive, selling for $254.99. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outbreak Provisions is no longer selling the N95 masks but the site indicated it was the supplier’s decision, stating, “Due to the increased need for N95 masks at hospitals and other institutions, our supplier has decided to donate the remaining inventory to aid those most impacted by the COVID-19 virus. All orders placed prior to 03/21/20 will still receive masks in their kits however all orders going forward will no longer have this item included.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite that notice, a March 25 commerce article on the Daily Caller still claimed that the Outbreak Provisions had “N95 Respirator Dust Masks.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Caller has frequently promoted its Outbreak Provisions store in recent days in commerce articles about the coronavirus. Those articles carry headlines like: “Stronger Together: Here’s How You Can Help Protect Your Family And Close Friends”; “As Experts Warn Covid Crisis Could Drag…Stocking Up On Essentials Remains Key”; and “Worried About Covid-19? Here Are Three Things You Should Be Doing To Prepare Right Now.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a February 26 article, the Daily Caller discussed N95 masks by writing that “some aspiring disaster profiteers have taken to listing masks at exorbitant rates on Ebay. Prices for these upcharged masks range from $40 to $1,000 for common 3M brand masks that can usually be had for only a few dollars.” </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Update (3/27/20): The article has been updated to include additional information about the “survival kits” that included the N95 masks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">growing a spine/conscience? nope, the band is baaack</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ Tucker Carlson goes off on GOP senator caught dumping stocks — says he must explain or resign</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/fox-news-tucker-carlson-goes-off-on-gop-senator-caught-dumping-stocks-says-he-must-explain-or-resign/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tactic 4: Attack science</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The backbone of most climate disinformation is a feigned or real mistrust of science and scientific evidence. It is from this place that climate science, scientists, and the institution where they work are attacked by those whose narratives, worldviews, or values they inconvenience, including Fox News. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The spread of the coronavirus has put our experts in the scientific community in the national spotlight as we rightfully turn to them for information and sound recommendations. It has also triggered one of Fox News’ most oft-employed attacks on the scientific community: They are politicized and therefore compromised.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the March 6 edition of Lou Dobbs Tonight, Fox’s Dr. Marc Siegel claims coronavirus concerns are being intentionally overblown to hurt Trump politically by dismissing the World Health Organization as “overly political” and “incompetent.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the March 4 edition of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham’s guest attempted to discredit the Center for Disease Control by calling it a “highly politicized organization.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tactic 5: Legitimize and spread conspiracy theories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The most notorious climate change conspiracy theory -- originating from then-future President Trump -- is that it is a hoax “created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Another commonly cited conspiracy theory is that climate scientists distort findings or tamper with evidence for financial gain. This claim, which Fox has peddled, was the basis for the manufactured scandal “Climategate,” which Fox News seized on and ferociously promoted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the lethal outbreak of coronavirus spread around the world and the U.S. government warned that it would spread within the United States, Fox News was among the right-wing media outlets spreading conspiracy theories. That included one of the most prominent theories, which claims that coronavirus was manufactured and leaked by the Chinese government, and one of the most racist claims, that it was a result of people consuming animals alive.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 10, Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson speculated about the unsubstantiated bioweapon theory, asking his guest whether COVID-19 is “not a naturally occurring virus” or was “somehow created by the Chinese government.” His theory was debunked by his guest Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, a medical director of a chain of urgent care clinics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even though this theory has been widely debunked (even on air during a Fox program), on February 25, Fox Business host Lou Dobbs claimed that “we don’t know yet whether or not this was an engineered virus” and said that there is “a research lab some 300 yards from the epicenter of this outbreak.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson, on his January 23 show, also blamed the emergence of the virus on Chinese culture, advancing the unproven theory that it was a result of people consuming animals “alive.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While many of the tactics Fox News has used to misinform and mislead its views about the climate crisis and the coronavirus outbreak are the same, its goals are different. As applied to the climate crisis, Fox wields these tactics in an attempt to blunt aggressive climate action. As applied to the coronavirus, Fox has deployed them to shield Trump from political backlash. Either way, these tactics are shameful and dangerous -- and their impact is not easily corrected.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">maybe too soon on spine?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">covid sacrifice zone</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aN 320 next day sr found abandoned/dead in spain, after italy said cd not cope</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former FBI agent stunned by GOP’s willingness to die for 401ks: I dealt with suicidal cults — this is a ‘new level of craziness’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Sky Palma / Raw Story March 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During an interview with Tucker Carlson on Fox News this Monday, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick said that he’s willing to bet there’s plenty of senior citizens in America who would be willing to risk contracting COVID-19 if it meant getting the economy back on track.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Patrick said that he, as a senior citizen himself, would be “willing to take a chance” on his survival “in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves” for his children and grandchildren, adding that people he’s talked to say the same thing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The interview went viral and plenty of critics weighed in with reactions, including former FBI Special Agent Ali H. Soufan, who suggested Patrick’s sentiment isn’t unlike the “suicidal death cults” he’s dealt with in the past.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I dealt with suicidal cults before,” he tweeted. “I encountered people who are willing to die for their faith, ideology, race, etc. But, I never encountered anyone who is willing to die for someone else’s 401k. This is a whole new level of craziness.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ali H. Soufan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@Ali_H_Soufan</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I dealt with suicidal cults before. I encountered people who are willing to die for their faith, ideology, race, etc. But, I never encountered anyone who is willing to die for someone else’s 401k. This is a whole new level of craziness. https://twitter.com/ndrew_lawrence/status/1242245135129346050 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ndrew_lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tx Lt Gov Dan Patrick says grandparents would be willing to die to save the economy for their grandchildren</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-elizabeth-warren-really-bottomless-well-venom</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 220?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stone was convicted on all counts the next day, November 15. Reacting to the news on air, Jones read an angry text message from one of Stone’s lawyers that said Jones’ broadcast of Stone’s pardon request almost caused Stone to be remanded into custody immediately upon conviction, as the ongoing gag order also prohibited Stone from commenting on his case in public forums through surrogates. Jones defended his conduct by saying he was just “doing what Roger said.” Post-conviction, many other members of right-wing media -- most notably Tucker Carlson on his Fox News broadcast -- publicly pleaded with Trump to issue a pardon. According to reporting from The Daily Beast, sources close to Trump say that “as a platform for pro-Stone messaging,” Carlson’s show “is potent enough that Trump allies who seek leniency for the Stone have specifically sought to appear … in order to get the message to the president” and that Trump watches segments about Stone on the show and discusses them with others. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Between conviction and sentencing, Infowars’ advocacy for Stone crossed into the territory of violent rhetoric. During a late November broadcast, Stone’s former co-host Owen Shroyer said, “Roger Stone’s fate is our fate. So if Roger Stone gets thrown in jail and dies in jail, that’s the rest of our fate. We’re all going to die from these left-wing politicos, whether that’s in jail or from a bullet [in] the head.” Stone’s assistant Engels cited the saying “would you rather die on your knees or die fighting standing up?” and Shroyer responded, “We’re not calling for violence. … But let me tell you, when you start to use the government and these bureaucracies against us, and you take away our freedom of speech, and you take away our right to a fair trial, and you take away our right to bear arms, what are we supposed to do? We’re not going to be your damn slaves.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Video file</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-identity-politics-has-left-us-vulnerable-coronavirus</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-its-obvious-sanders-hates-country-he-seeks-lead</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">220</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-roger-stones-arrest-means-anyone-can-be-arrested-just-supporting</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 part series pix of poop needle and crazy homeless in SF? kpfa</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trumpista base held together by evil fox trinity: hanty, ingraham and tucker</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha 1/20 promote primary, evil pending; trump only hope to stay in power, so pander to end times homo trans phobia, 1st anti-abortion march; 2x whammy b/c smash and grab anti BO voodoo tax cut to oligarch and corps</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daily Caller News Foundation—$5.2 million</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) funds much of the content of the Daily Caller website, a site that has several ties to white nationalists and was co-founded by now-Fox News host Tucker Carlson with $3 million from right-wing donor Foster Freiss. As of 2018, Carlson was secretary of the DCNF board of directors.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Koch Foundation officials may express concern over the site’s extremism, but the foundation is DCNF’s biggest donor–by a mile. The Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute combined to give over $3.3 million to the Daily Caller News Foundation from 2015-18, representing 37 percent of the group’s contribution revenue during that time period. Including grants from DonorsTrust, the Sarah Scaife Foundation and others, conservative nonprofits researched by CMD provided the DCNF with 58 percent of its donation revenue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charles Koch alleges he is not a fan of Trump, but Daily Caller and other Koch grant recipients has often been generous to the president. In fact, Daily Caller accepted an estimated $150,000 from the 2016 Trump campaign to rent its email list. Recently, reporting revealed that Trump family friend Tom Hicks, Jr. said last year that the Daily Caller editor could be counted on to advance Trump’s personal political goals regarding Ukraine.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Middle East Media and Research Institute—$5.1 million</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cf mma RU solanli 1/24/20 split screen silent // scroll of djt accomplishments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/fox-news-coverage-of-trumps-impeachment-trial-has-been-an-embarrassing-joke/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ coverage of Trump’s impeachment trial has been an embarrassing joke</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson January 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Rep. Hakeem Jeffries addressed the U.S. Senate on Thursday night as part of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, there was a crucial difference between how Jeffries’ speech was covered on different cable news outlets: while CNN and MSNBC broadcast the speech, Fox News muted the speech while its pundits offered pro-Trump talking points. CNN and MSNBC allowed viewers to hear Jeffries making a compelling case for removing Trump from office; Fox News let views see Jeffries but not hear him. And that Trump-friendly way of covering the trial is the subject of an article journalist Aaron Rupar wrote for Vox this week.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Starting with ‘The Five,’ the network’s early evening roundtable commentary show, and continuing throughout the evening, Fox News broadcast portions of screen-in-screen video of the trial,” Rupar explains in his Vox article. “But instead of playing the audio, network hosts provided the normal Trumpian spin. So while someone who just looked at the screen may have concluded Fox News was covering the trial, in fact it wasn’t covering it at all.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News, Rupar adds, “went as far as to broadcast screen-in-screen video of the trial during commercial breaks — but again, without the sound that was necessary to make any sense of what was being discussed.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News has the optics of covering the #ImpeachmentTrial without actually covering it. They've been showing screen-in-screen video of the proceedings without audio. Instead, hosts are providing Trumpian spin. It's propaganda giving the illusion of journalism. Remarkable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lis Power</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@LisPower1</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Step 1: Dems try repeatedly to get new evidence into the trial</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Step 2: Republicans repeatedly vote it down</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Step 3: Fox criticizes Dems for having no new evidence. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rinse and repeat.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox's Jason Chaffetz: "It had nothing to do with proving the facts, there was no new evidence"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Millions of Fox News viewers, Rupar points out, have been fed a steady diet of “propaganda” and misinformation during Trump’s impeachment trial.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The 2.7 million people who have been watching Fox News’ impeachment trial coverage at any given time are being told a story about it that’s completely untethered from reality — one that reinforces America’s deep polarization between the roughly 50% of voters who want Trump removed from office and the 40 to 45% who continue to support him through scandal after scandal.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like Jeffries, Rep. Adam Schiff (the California Democrat who chairs the House Intelligence Committee) has, during the trial, made convincing arguments in favor of removing Trump from office for his impeachable offenses — which, according to Schiff, include trying to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, and withholding military aid to Ukraine in the hope of getting that investigation. Someone who watched MSNBC or CNN got to hear Schiff skillfully laying out fact after fact after fact showing that Trump committed impeachable offenses. But Fox News carnival barkers like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, as Rupar points out in Vox, haven’t seriously addressed the facts Schiff presented — only insulted and defamed him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson began his show dismissing the #ImpeachmentTrial by comparing it to "a movie written & directed by children whose ending you already know, & by the way, it's 20 hours long, in Hungarian, with misspelled subtitles." That's how his viewers will process things.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ndrew_lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News added scary music and, in one section, a red overtone to an Adam Schiff supercut from today</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There’s nothing Schiff could have said on Wednesday that Fox News’ evening and primetime hosts wouldn’t have spun as evidence of his mental instability, his obsession with taking down Trump,” Rupar asserts. “And while viewers were being spun on Wednesday, they were shown soundless video of the trial, the misleading implication being that they don’t have to bother watching it since Fox News is on top of it for them.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-open-bigot-nihilist-whos-got-no-kids-and</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> CARLSON (HOST): Well, I kind of agree, and it -- and it -- maybe it seems like the problem is nobody's in charge. I mean, you have [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi who's, you know, clearly no genius, but she does understand politics. And I think, you know, she -- she does have grandchildren in real life and she wants the country to continue. She's on the one side, and then you have people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who's like an open bigot nihilist who's got no kids and, like, doesn't care at all about the country and she's pushing it in another direction. So maybe, that -- like, nobody's running the thing. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/fox-news-year-climate-denial-and-conspiracy-theories</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> 12/21/19 9:18 AM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2019, Fox took climate change denial to insane new levels even as global temperatures reached record heights, natural disasters wreaked havoc, and youth environmental activism led millions of people in protests around the world. Even if you just look at news of the past few weeks, Australia is on fire, the oceans are running out of oxygen, and the Amazon rainforest is at a “tipping point.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The climate denial narratives on Fox run the gamut from claims that “there’s science on both sides of this issue” to dismissals of the climate crisis as “medieval witchcraft.” Naturally, the hosts and guests also pushed a number of right-wing agenda items like government deregulation and protecting the wealthy. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, Fox host Tucker Carlson managed to bring discussion of the issue back to his own racist agenda, noting in one segment that “more people were killed last year in the United States by illegal aliens than were killed by climate change.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[vid]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">payne</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/charles-payne/fox-host-likens-action-climate-change-people-who-sacrifice-humans-volcano-god</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/white-nationalism/list-tucker-carlson-guests-who-have-links-white-nationalism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On December 6, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson hosted Pete D’Abrosca, a blogger with ties to white nationalist movements, to promote his run for Congress. This is not the first time the Fox host, who has a long history of promoting white supremacy, has brought on a guest who associates with far-right extremism or has promoted narratives championed by the movement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s a noncomprehensive list of past guests on Tucker Carlson Tonight who have connections to far-right extremism:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Scott Greer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson hosted Greer to promote his book No Campus for White Men in February 2017. Greer, who at the time of his appearance on Fox was a columnist at The Daily Caller, was outed in July 2018 by The Atlantic as having written for the white supremacist journal Radix under a pseudonym. This wasn’t the first time The Daily Caller, a website co-founded by Carlson, has published a white nationalist.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In August 2018, Carlson hosted far-right British activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, who goes by the name Tommy Robinson, after he was released from prison pending trial for contempt of court charges. Robinson is the former leader of the English Defense League, an anti-Muslim extremist group.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Katie Hopkins</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hopkins has appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight 15 times in 2017 and 2018 according to Media Matters’ internal database. Hopkins is a far-right British commentator, (thought she appears to have left her employer) who has built a media grift around being virulently xenophobic. Her racist comments include calling for a “final solution” following a terror attack in the U.K., labeling refugees as “cockroaches,” and calling for London police to profile young Black men. Hopkins has also promoted a conspiracy theory about “white genocide” in South Africa circulated by white nationalists (she shares this position with Carlson). She has numerous ties to far-right figures, including Robinson, Infowars’ Alex Jones, white nationalist and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theorist Brittany Pettibone, and white nationalist Lauren Southern.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ernst Roets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson hosted apartheid apologist Ernst Roets of AfriForum in May 2018 to fearmonger about the South African government’s effort to correct unequal distribution of land ownership that occurred during apartheid. AfriForum is the South African Afrikaners’ rights group pushing the white nationalist conspiracy theory that a land reform proposal in South Africa is part of a plot for “white genocide.” Roets was on a tour of America promoting the conspiracy theory with his AfriForum colleague Kallie Kriel, who is also an apartheid apologist. Roets has appeared on white nationalist Stefan Molyneux’s YouTube talk show and gave an interview to The New American, the magazine founded by the conspiratorial far-right group the John Birch Society. When Carlson held a subsequent segment on the conspiracy theory a few months later, President Donald Trump asked the secretary of state to look into the issue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Steve King (R-IA)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson has hosted white supremacist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) seven times since 2017. One of these appearances included a cleanup interview after King tweeted that Americans “can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies” (which echoes the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory). During the interview, Carlson defended the congressman’s racist comments, saying, “Everything you said I think is defensible and probably right.” After King expressed explicit support for white nationalists and white supremacy in an interview with The New York Times, Carlson first ignored the interview except to attack the media and then deflected when pressed, saying, “Steve King, whatever he said, he didn’t call for an ethnostate.” King’s racist views have been known for years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Torba</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In September 2017, Carlson hosted Andrew Torba, the founder of Gab, an alternative social media platform dubbed a “haven for white nationalists” and a “magnet for the alt-right,” after it was removed from the Apple and Google app stores for violating hate speech rules. A little over a year later, Torba and Gab were in the news again after one of the site’s users posted a message there before murdering 11 Jewish people during a worship service at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pennsylvania. The site has since almost completely fallen apart.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joey Gibson</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson has four times hosted Joey Gibson, leader of the Portland, Oregon-based far-right group Patriot Prayer, which has been involved in violent street fights. Gibson is currently facing criminal and civil charges related to a fight that broke out at a bar this past May in which a woman was knocked unconscious. The group is also closely connected to the violent far-right extremist group the Proud Boys. In 2015, Carlson gave an interview to Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes in which Carlson defended statutory rape. He also posed for a picture with members of the group in 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roger Stone</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since 2017, Tucker Carlson has hosted racist conspiracy theorist Roger Stone eight times. Stone has been an Infowars regular, has close connections to the violent street gang the Proud Boys, and has a long legacy of violent, racist, and sexist comments. Carlson has repeatedly used his show to lobby President Trump to pardon Stone, who in November 2019 was found guilty on charges related to his September 2017 testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. Carlson has also appeared in a documentary on Stone's life and wrote an introduction to one of his books.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1219</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ocasio-Cortez calls out Fox News host Tucker Carlson as a ‘white supremacist sympathizer’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.vox.com/2019/10/1/20893112/fox-news-trump-identity-crisis-ukraine-whistleblower-chris-wallace-andrew-napolitano</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many, vid</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">48 hours illustrating how Trump’s abuse-of-power scandal has split Fox News</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity is pushing Clinton conspiracy theories while the network’s top judicial analyst talks about impeachment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Aaron Rupar@atrupar Oct 1, 2019, 12:30pm EDT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sean Hannity at the Republican National Convention.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix Fox News personality Sean Hannity at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 18, 2016. Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What a difference a few hours makes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Had you tuned in to Fox News for Monday’s edition of Sean Hannity’s show, you would’ve been treated to President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, pushing nonsensical conspiracy theories about prominent Democrats colluding with Ukraine after the 2016 presidential election to dig up dirt on Trump — claims that were met with zero pushback from Hannity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Giuliani begins his Hannity interview by pushing a conspiracy theory about Obama and Hillary Clinton colluding with Ukraine to dig up dirt on Trump in January 2017 -- which doesn't make much sense since the presidential election had come and gone by then</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But had you been watching Neil Cavuto’s late-afternoon show earlier that day, you would’ve seen Fox News senior legal analyst Andrew Napolitano making a case for Trump’s impeachment.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano: "The president of the United States using foreign governments to influence domestic politics -- that was the fear of the framers when they put that impeachment clause in the Constitution."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To be clear, none of the above is especially new. Hannity has been the staunchest of staunch Trump backers for years, while more establishment conservative figures like Napolitano and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace have established reputations as bastions of rationality amid the surrounding sea of MAGA on their network.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the juxtaposition between Monday’s versions of Cavuto and Hannity illustrates the split that Trump’s abuse-of-power scandal and the growing support for Trump’s impeachment has wrought at Fox News. The network has spent years serving as something akin to an unofficial arm of the Trump campaign, but it reportedly has started thinking about life after Trump, at least behind the scenes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The split between daytime and primetime burst into public view</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Fox News has a well-earned reputation for riding the Trump train, network personalities like Napolitano and Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace haven’t been shy about occasionally criticizing Trump. But now, with a presidency seemingly on the line, the stakes are a bit higher.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Primetime hosts like Hannity and Tucker Carlson along with Fox & Friends are still doing everything possible to spin for the president — including, in Carlson’s case, devoting part of Monday’s show to pushing conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton — but any criticisms of Trump made elsewhere on the network are increasingly being interpreted as veiled shots at other Fox News personalities. For instance, Wallace went viral last Thursday for sounding off about the “astonishing” and “deeply misleading” talking points being used by Trump’s defenders in the wake of the whistleblower report that accused Trump of abusing his office during his dealings with Ukraine.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here's Fox News' Chris Wallace saying that "the spinning that's been done by the president's defenders over the last 24 hours since this very damaging whistleblower complaint came out ... [is] not surprising but it is astonishing and I think deeply misleading." ??</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump — who has been slowly souring on Fox News for weeks now, in part because it won’t rig polls for him — indicated on Sunday that he’s especially sensitive to even the mildest criticism coming from network personalities. After chief national correspondent and occasional Fox & Friends host Ed Henry did an interview with right-wing pundit Mark Levin in which Henry gently pushed back on Levin’s pro-Trump talking points, Trump became so incensed that he started retweeting any and all anti-Henry tweets he could find, including one posted by a parody account that makes fun of him for disliking sharks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The President of the United States retweeted a parody account that makes fun of him for disliking sharks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notably, however, Trump has had nothing to say about Wallace’s remarkably hard-hitting interview with White House adviser Stephen Miller on Fox News Sunday a few hours later — one in which Wallace demolished Miller’s talking points and wouldn’t let him get away with deflections that are standard fare on Hannity.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"This is an exercise in obfuscation" -- Stephen Miller has no response when Chris Wallace presses him about why Trump went against his own Pentagon & State Department and withheld Ukrainian aid</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Trump has posted many tweets over the years praising Wallace but attacked him for interviewing Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg in May, writing, “Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems ... They forgot the people [who] got them there. Chris Wallace said, ‘I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance ... fascinating biography.’ Gee, he never speaks well of me — I like Mike Wallace better.)”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Again, Wallace conducting a tough interview with a Trump administration official is far from unprecedented. But the split between Fox News’ daytime and primetime burst into public view last week when afternoon host (and arguably the network’s most outspoken Trump critic) Shepard Smith feuded for two days with Tucker Carlson, a primetime host who, like Hannity, reliably defends the president. The conflict erupted after Smith’s show featured commentary from Napolitano last Tuesday in which he suggested Trump’s dealings with Ukraine amounted to crimes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson fired back that night by giving former prosecutor and frequent Fox News primetime guest Joseph diGenova a platform to bash Napolitano, calling him “a fool.” Smith responded the next day by characterizing diGenova as “a partisan guest” and criticizing Carlson for not defending his colleague. According to Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, the feud only came to an end after network brass admonished Smith to stop attacking Carlson or risk losing his show.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Sherman’s reporting is correct about Carlson effectively winning that feud, he and diGenova weren’t able to savor it for long. In yet another stark illustration of how complicated the dynamic at Fox News has become, Wallace reported on the same edition of Fox News Sunday in which he interviewed Miller that diGenova has been “working off the books” with Giuliani to help Trump dig up dirt on Joe Biden — a revelation diGenova has since admitted to. And yet Wallace, while breaking that news, failed to mention that despite his secret work for Trump, diGenova and his wife, Victoria Toensing, have made over 90 Fox News appearances this year alone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News execs are reportedly tiring of Trump’s act — but you wouldn’t know it from watching the product yet</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The split that erupted in front of cameras last week reportedly reflects behind-the-scenes tensions. In his Vanity Fair piece, Sherman reports that Lachlan Murdoch, eldest son of Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch, has recently “been holding strategy conversations with Fox executives and anchors about how Fox News should prepare for life after Trump.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those conversations have apparently been expedited by the whistleblower complaint and the broader abuse-of-power scandal, which Sherman reports that even Hannity is concerned about:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sean Hannity told friends the whistle-blower’s allegations are “really bad,” a person briefed on Hannity’s conversations told me. (Hannity did not respond to a request for comment). And according to four sources, Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch is already thinking about how to position the network for a post-Trump future. A person close to Lachlan told me that Fox News has been the highest rated cable network for seventeen years, and “the success has never depended on any one administration.” (A Fox Corp spokesperson declined to comment.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But whatever private concerns Hannity has, they haven’t yet manifested themselves on his show, which remains all Trump talking points all the time — even if he seems to be a little less enthusiastic about the act than he used to be.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Aaron Rupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Replying to @atrupar</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I gotta say, Hannity's heart doesn't really seem to be in this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Sherman is right about network brass siding with Carlson instead of Smith, that indicates that higher-ups aren’t dismounting the Trump train just yet. Ultimately, viewers will know that Fox News is really changing when primetime hosts either start criticizing the president or are replaced with hosts who will — and we aren’t anywhere near that point yet.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson defends Vladimir Putin and says American media hate the United States more than Putin</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">12/02/19 8:38 PM EST</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump accuser Karen McDougal sues Fox News for slander after Tucker Carlson alleges ‘extortion’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Igor Derysh / Salon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-spreads-disinformation-about-deadly-chemical-attack-syria</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1119</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">DNC vice chair asks Fox News host point-blank: Why the hell does Carlson still have a job?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked on live air about Carlson's predictions about Michelle…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/fox-news-host-tucker-carlson-invokes-adam-schiffs-body-fluids-in-bizarre-rant-about-impeachment</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">jodi foster movie ref</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1119</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson is not ‘just joking’ about rooting for Russia. His anti-democratic goal suits the current iteration of the Republican Party</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Image via Screengrab.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon November 26, 2019 </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is an air of inevitability to Fox News host Tucker Carlson declaring, as he did on Monday night, “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The topic on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the highly rated cable news program that is a particular favorite of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, was the impeachment of Donald Trump. Carlson, unsurprisingly, wants to minimize the evidence that Trump was running an extortion scheme aimed at forcing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to offer public support for a smear campaign against former Vice President Joe Biden. The crux of Carlson’s argument was that it’s silly to care about all this: So Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine in an effort to blackmail Zelensky into backing Trump’s lies. So what?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“[P]eople are dying on the front lines,” said Richard Goodstein, a former adviser to Hillary Clinton who foolishly accepted the role of the evening’s punching bag during Carlson’s propaganda blitz. “You think it’s a joke.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson was not to be shamed about his total indifference to the lives of Ukrainians who trying to defend their nation against Russian aggression.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?” he declared. “And I’m serious. Why do I care? Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Towards the end of the episode, Carlson moved to cover his booty by claiming, “Of course, I’m joking,” arguing that he only said it to troll the left.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Notably, however, Carlson declined to offer any support for Ukrainian independence, obnoxiously hiding behind some pablum about how he’s “only rooting for America.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">No one should be fooled by this half-hearted retcon. Of course Carlson is rooting for Russia, an anti-democratic autocracy, to overwhelm and destroy Ukraine’s efforts to establish a free and open democracy. That’s completely on-brand for Carlson, who has been a champion of Trump’s more fascistic urges and who has been the most aggressive Fox News personality in helping reshape American conservatism into an openly white nationalist movement.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ever since he took over his prime-time spot from the disgraced Bill O’Reilly, Carlson has acted as the tip of the spear for a more authoritarian and frankly fascist brand of conservatism. Carlson has kept up a steady drumbeat of segments designed to mainstream talking points from neo-Nazis and other white nationalist groups as “common sense” conservatism. This, of course, aligns with the agenda of Trump, who employs Stephen Miller, an overt white nationalist, as his primary speechwriter and one of his main advisers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump also adores Russian President Vladimir Putin — for reasons that have never been adequately explained — and openly longs for Putin’s dictator-style powers to assassinate journalists, steal elections and otherwise crush dissent. And so, just as he has promoted Trump’s racist values, Carlson is now moving more openly toward helping justify Trump’s enthusiasm for Russia’s authoritarian government.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The “just joking” gambit should be familiar to anyone who has observed the behavior of the fascist trolls who adore Carlson so much. It’s a standard rhetorical strategy for testing and pushing boundaries. By hiding behind the claim to be “joking,” fascists can gauge reactions to their ideas and help gradually normalize certain ideas or areas of discussion. Online neo-Nazis, for instance, hid for years behind claims that their racism was “ironic” and “just for the lulz” in order to test and popularize racist ideas. The neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer even put out a guide for how to use the fake “just joking” stance to spread racist propaganda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson is playing the same game with his Russia “joke.” For years now, there’s been genuine, if sublimated, conflict on the right over how to think about Russia and the war it’s waging in Ukraine. Ostensibly, Republicans support the spread of Western-style democracy and oppose Russian efforts to undermine democracy around the world. But in the face of Trump’s flagrant preference for Russia and for dictatorships over democracy, Republicans have gone squishy on Russia, starting with the party’s decision to weaken its support for Ukrainian independence and democracy in the 2016 party platform, at Trump’s behest.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That internal confusion was on full display over the past two weeks of impeachment hearings. A series of witnesses — some of whom, like former National Security Council Russia adviser Fiona Hill, are pretty clearly conservatives — reiterated the importance of supporting Ukraine in the war with Russia. But Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., along with others of the Trump faithful on the House Intelligence Committee, spent much their time demonizing Ukraine and defending Trump’s hatred of that country. Other Republicans, however, insisted that, even though they were defending Trump, they still believed in Ukrainian independence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clearly, the question of whom to “root for,” between Ukrainian democracy and Russian authoritarianism, remains unresolved in the Republican Party. Which is why Carlson popped a “just joking” on there to cover his bases. But it’s also clear that he’s moving closer to Moscow, and if history is predictive, Carlson will gradually turn up the heat on this issue, as he did in promoting white nationalist ideas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Honestly, it makes sense for Carlson, and Republicans generally, to do this. While the Putin-directed hacking conspiracy to interfere with the 2016 election was done to benefit Trump, the point was more to benefit Putin’s long-term goal of undermining democracy worldwide.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unfortunately, that anti-democratic goal also suits the current iteration of the Republican Party which, for demographic reasons, cannot win nationally in truly democratic elections. Instead, the party has been relying on our outdated constitutional design, which awards disproportionate electoral weight to rural areas over urban ones. So even though Democrats get far more votes in almost every election than Republicans do, the latter cling to a share of power they haven’t earned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But even with that unfair advantage, Republican power is threatened. So the party has turned ever more to undermining democracy: Voter suppression, gerrymandering and campaign finance deregulation. All of it is meant to ensure that voters are unable to determine their own leaders in fair and free elections. So it’s not surprising that Republicans aren’t just minimizing the amount of Russian-directed cheating in the 2016 election, but also the evident fact that Trump was conspiring to cheat in the 2020 election as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s segment on the Ukraine-Russian war was, in large part, about turning impeachment into an incomprehensible foreign policy issue, so he can convince Fox News viewers that it has nothing to do with them and they can safely ignore it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Adam Serwer of the Atlantic pointed out, it isn’t just Ukraine Trump has victimized. Indeed, “the core reason for the impeachment inquiry” is that “the Trump administration was engaged in a conspiracy against American democracy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But, of course, the Trumpian opposition to Ukrainian democracy goes hand in hand with the Trumpian opposition to American democracy. The thread throughout is a hostility to the idea that people should actually get to choose their own leaders — an anti-democratic stance Trump shares with Putin.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s also a stance Carlson has been selling to Fox News viewers for years by framing white conservatives as the only legitimate Americans, a view incompatible with democracy. Gradually turning up the volume of support for Russia’s worldwide assault on democracy is an unsurprising and inevitable — if deeply disturbing — part of Carlson’s larger agenda.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">fox News’ Tucker Carlson smears Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as an ‘unapologetic bigot’ toward white people</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Matthew Rozsa / Salon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson and YouTube personality Dave Rubin on Tuesday attempted Tuesday to cast blame on the wildfires ravaging California on “woke” culture.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“PG&E strikes me as almost a metaphor for the destruction of the state,” Carlson said in reference to how some (though not all) of the California wildfires may have been caused by PG&E’s technical errors. He claimed that the company “doesn’t really know anything about its own infrastructure” even though it “knows everything about the race of its employees.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rubin replied by saying that “the problem right now is that everything — everything from academia, to public utilities, to politics, everything that goes woke, that buys into this ridiculous progressive ideology that cares about what contractors are LGBT, or how many black firemen we have, or white this or Asian — that everything that goes that road eventually breaks down.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson agreed with Rubin, who said that this is “not how freedom is supposed to operate” and compared it to people asking about the “gender or sexuality” of the people who came to put out a fire in their home. He also cited the preemptive blackouts occurring in California. Rubin blamed the problem on the fact that California does not have “enough clear thinking, say, more libertarian or conservative-minded people in California to fight what the progressives are doing to the state.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson agreed, adding that “if you can’t keep the lights on and you can’t keep the place from burning down, you’ve reached the point where there is no kind of lying about it anymore. Like it’s falling apart. It’s a disaster. It’s not civilized anymore."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no evidence that the incidents with PG&E had anything to do with the demographic composition of their employees, despite Carlson’s and Rubin’s assertions. There is also no evidence that PG&E’s technical issues were the primary factor behind the California wildfires. Global warming, however, has been a major contributor to the fires.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As climatologist Kevin Trenberth told Salon earlier this week, “the increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by human activities create extra heating. While it is small on a daily basis, it is always in the same direction. And in dry conditions, it accumulates so that plants dry out faster and wilt, and wild fire risk increases on the time scale of a month.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson has long been a critic of what he describes as “identity politics,” telling Salon earlier this year that “I would never make the case that racism doesn’t exist, or it’s not a factor. Of course it does and it is. But in the end, our racial differences or sex differences are immutable differences that can’t be fixed. They can’t be changed.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He added, “They’re set at birth, so it’s not only counterproductive, but in my opinion, it is an intentional diversion away from conversations about things that we could potentially change, like tax rates.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 1019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the last credible journalist to have a daily show on Fox News, Shep Smith probably should have resigned a long time ago. The network has been a right-wing propaganda network for years, and under Trump has turned into regime TV. On Friday, he finally did resign, and initial reports have indicated that his actions were driven by how bad the network has gotten.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith's resignation comes shortly after Fox News executives reportedly sided against him in an on-air feud with Fox News host Tucker Carlson over the seriousness of Trump's behavior in regards to Ukraine. In the end, Carlson said that Smith was giving partisan opinion and not news. The entire episode was extremely telling: Tucker Carlson portrayed Smith's show -- at first implicitly and then explicitly -- as leftist fake news, much the same way he does nightly with CNN and MSNBC, even teaming up with close Trump ally Joseph diGenova. And Fox News executives were fine with it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Smith's departure is a disaster for Fox News. As Media Matters' Matt Gertz wrote in the wake of Smith's announcement, "Smith’s willingness to push back against the misinformation rampant elsewhere on the network had made him extremely valuable to Fox. It provided the network’s executives with a fig leaf they could wave whenever critics argued that Fox was nothing more than a propaganda apparatus on behalf of the president and his allies. That fig leaf is gone. Fox belongs to the Seans Hannity and Lous Dobbs. And now, everyone knows it."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gird your loins: Fox News is about to get even worse.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/fox-news-outs-two-network-analysts-for-working-off-the-books-with-trump-and-giuliani-to-find-biden-dirt/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kos</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace broke a bit of genuine news on Sunday morning when he reported that two of Fox News’ own frequent guests and Trump supporters may themselves be enmeshed in the Trump-Ukraine scandal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lawyers Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing have been working with Rudy Giuliani in his attempts to conduct opposition research on former Vice President Joe Biden, said Wallace. “According to a top U.S. official, all three were working off the books apart from the administration. The only person in government who knows what they were doing is President Trump.” This is a significant nugget for several reasons. First, Rudy Giuliani is still flatly denying he worked with other lawyers to collect Biden “dirt”; the Fox News anchor is therefore calling Giuliani a liar. Well, even more of a liar.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And second, the top-of-the-program callout of two of the network’s own frequent guests and analysts for undisclosed, “off the books” involvement in one of the scandals the network has been hosting them to opine on is, regardless of the obvious conflict of interest, nearly unheard of. From Lou Dobbs to Sean Hannity, the network has taken a notably lax attitude when it comes to network mouths splitting their time between the network and the needs of the Trump administration. They normally wouldn’t so much as peep about overtly conflicted guests!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/09/life-after-trump-paul-ryan-is-now-embarrassed-by-the-president-and-is-pushing-fox-news-to-dump-the-him</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">report describes the behind-the-scenes crisis emerging at Fox, which has been thrown into turmoil as the Democrats’ rapid impeachment push knocks the network off-kilter. Most dramatically, that disruption has played out in an on-air feud between hosts Shep Smith and Tucker Carlson. Sherman found that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace felt compelled to intervene and tell Smith to back off, though a spokesperson for the network denied this claim.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The report continued:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The ultimate referee of this fight will be Lachlan Murdoch. In recent months, Rupert’s oldest son has been holding strategy conversations with Fox executives and anchors about how Fox News should prepare for life after Trump. Among the powerful voices advising Lachlan that Fox should decisively break with the president is former House speaker Paul Ryan, who joined the Fox board in March. “Paul is embarrassed about Trump and now he has the power to do something about it,” an executive who’s spoken with Ryan told me. (Ryan did not return a call seeking comment.) But a person more sympathetic to Trump has told Lachlan that Fox should remain loyal to Trump’s supporters, even if the network has to break from the man.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the latest attempt to blame anything but guns, Tucker Carlson suggested a link between mass shootings and marijuana use.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Leaked e-mails reveal the ways white nationalists have infiltrated right-wing media: report</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson August 30, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of the racism that comes from the right-wing media uses dog whistles rather outright slurs. But in a report for Splinter News, journalist Hannah Gais addresses the ways in which white nationalist views have successfully infiltrated some right-wing media outlets — and screenshots of leaked alt-right e-mails published with Gais’ article aren’t the least bit subtle in their racism and anti-Semitism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Indeed, there is a burgeoning underground network of group chats, message boards and e-mail chains serving as the breeding ground for incubating white nationalist ideas, and as a forum to strategize around how to launder those ideas through mainstream conservative publications,” Gais reports. “And, judging from a large series of messages from one of those e-mail groups obtained by Splinter, it’s working.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gais cites some links between right-wing media and white nationalists, noting that in September 2018, for example, The Atlantic reported that Scott Greer (former editor/columnist for the Daily Caller — which was co-founded by Fox News’ Tucker Carlson) had written for white nationalist Richard Spencer’s Radix Journal under the name Michael McGregor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gais reports that Splinter has obtained a “trove of e-mails from a private white nationalist group chat” that Jonah Bennett, a former Daily Caller employee, was a big part of. Bennett, according to Gais, “repeatedly used his perch at the site” to incorporate extremist viewpoints “into an ostensibly mainstream publication.” Those 2015-2018 e-mails, Gais reports, demonstrate that white nationalists “have steadily increased their influence within the conservative media infrastructure.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the surface, Gais writes, Bennett’s career seems like that of a “run-of-the-mill” conservative. But the 2015-2018 e-mails came from a private thread called Morning Hate, which according to Gais, was “steered in large part” by an extremist named John Elliott — and where participants “were free to make their racist opinions known, while laying the groundwork for leading their double lives, of sorts, in more mainstream conservative institutions.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the thread, Gais reports, participants used code words for racial slurs — for example, “Alaskans” for the n-word when insulting blacks, or “Hawaiians” as a substitute for “Hebes” when insulting Jews. “Our Good Friend” referred to Adolf Hitler, while “Our Good Friend’s Son” referred to Donald Trump. The code names were outlined in an e-mail dated December 17, 2015.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Splinter News published screenshots of some of those e-mails with Gais’ article, and the bigotry was overt. For example, a December 26, 2016 e-mail from Elliott contained the subject heading, “Take a shower, Jew Boy,” and Bennett was among the many recipients.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a screenshot of a January 7, 2016 e-mail, Morning Hate is seen praising “Our Friend” — that is, Hitler — for being “way ahead of his enemies” in 1932. And in a May 12, 2017 e-mail, Morning Hate discusses friendly interactions with white nationalist Richard Spencer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gais describes Elliott as “the most prolific and undoubtedly the most well-connected” Morning Hate participant, noting that he had a history of “helping libertarian and conservative journalists make their way into the media world by placing them at various affiliated media organizations for internships.” But the Morning Hate e-mails, Gais observes, “show that Elliott was leading something of a shadow life.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gais wraps up the report by asserting that the alt-right has become an integral part of right-wing media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“People like Bennett and Elliott have long been aware of the weaknesses of conservative institutions, and it is through this knowledge that the ‘alt-right’ has, far from disappearing, made itself an almost indispensable part of the American conservative movement,” Gais stresses. “It has, in that sense, succeeded well beyond its proponents’ vile, hate-fueled dreams.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Tucker Carlson has insisted that white supremacist violence is not a pressing issue in America. But such a declaration has not stoppedactual white supremacists in several instances of apparent domestic terror plots that have been thwarted by authorities in just the past two weeks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the August 6 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight — broadcast just days after a suspected gunman killed 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, TX, and after the gunman allegedly posted a white nationalist manifesto online — Carlson declared that it was a “lie” that white supremacy is even an urgent problem in America.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since that statement, however, multiple suspects across the country have been arrested on charges related to plotting attacks motivated by white nationalism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MSNBC host Chris Hayes did a very strong monologue on how white supremacist violence and the threat of it fits into American history, going back to the fallout from the Civil War. It's worth your time, especially considering, as Hayes mentions, that many Americans simply are not taught this history.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mebbe like trump sometimes pouts leftist or mebbe just (pseudo-) populist eg booktv interview?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/08/this-is-the-path-to-civil-war-fox-news-tucker-carlson-spouts-nonsensical-conspiracy-theory-about-why-hes-called-racist/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AN et all ID as key enabler/ of white supr, so mebbe desperate deflection defense?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘This is the path to civil war’: Fox News’ Tucker Carlson spouts nonsensical conspiracy theory about why he’s called racist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cody Fenwick August 8, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ resident white supremacist Tucker Carlson is outraged that anyone cares about white supremacy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday night, he issued the inflammatory declaration that white supremacy is not a problem in the United States and is, he claimed, “a hoax.” He was, of course, maliciously lying.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But on Wednesday he dug in his heels, spinning a delusional conspiracy theory about why people are lobbing around accusations of white supremacy — including at him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Ever wonder why rich people seem most hysterical on this subject?” Carlson pondered, offering no evidence for this baseless claim. “Ever notice that it’s the highest-paid people on television who are the most determined to convince you that white supremacy is America’s biggest problem?” Again, he provided no evidence for this implied assertion and absurdly suggested that viewers know who is most highly paid on television.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He then argued that these rich people [the global elite?] talk about white supremacy so that Americans “aren’t thinking about class, which, of course, is the real divide in this country.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He continued: “They whip you into a frenzy of racial fear so that it never enters your mind. It’s a diversion. Everyone else hates each other, they get to keep their money. Pretty tricky. Unfortunately, it’s also destroying the country. This is the path to civil war. Obviously.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was actually a Marxist argument, a rather simplistic one that has been made repeatedly on the far left. But that simple fact exposes the obvious falsity of Carlson’s version of the claim. Carlson, of course, hates the left. It’s the Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warrens, Kamala Harrises, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezes of the world who talk about the problem of racism in politics, and they also argue for greatly redistributive policies in the United States. These policies would, in fact, address class disparities — and thus also reduce race inequality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s Carlson, Trump, and their allies who actively oppose redistributive policies. They call a higher minimum wage, universal health care, and higher taxes “socialist” and “communist” and “class warfare.” And, indeed, they drum up fears about immigrants taking jobs and “welfare queens” on the government dole to scare voters out of supporting policies that would actually make the poor and middle class better off. While screaming about immigrants and the supposed horrors of Obamacare, Trump and his defenders worked to pass a massive tax cut for the rich and ensure that more low-income Americans go without health coverage.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And, for what it’s worth, even as he attacks other news anchors for being rich, it’s Carlson who called himself a “trust fund baby.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m like extraordinarily loaded, just like from money I inherited from my number of trust funds… I go out and beat some servants, I’ll wrap my Lamborghini around a tree, go pick up a kilo,” he said in 2008. “I never needed to work, the whole cable news thing was just a total pose, it was just like a phase I was going through.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, the history of the conservative movement is wealthy, powerful people exploiting racism in the United States to prevent the federal government from adopting more left-wing policies. Tucker Carlson wants you to think the exact opposite — but his version of the theory makes no sense.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch the clip below:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Andrew Lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@ndrew_lawrence</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Jesus Christ, Tucker Carlson just said that calling out and criticizing white supremacy is leading us down "the path to civil war. Obviously"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">819 3x mass shooter several ppl note that he and laura I (and trump?) hannity </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">soft peddle white nat'l</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘A new low’: Washington Post media critic blows up Tucker Carlson’s absurd lies about white nationalism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Alex HendersonAugust 7, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Saturday, August 3, El Paso became the scene of a terrorist attack that left 22 people dead — and the suspect, according to police, had written a manifesto indicating…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2/28/19</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">GND no </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cars, no planes, no kids burger, AOC cos ate one, [crawler aoc: "I'm the boss"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">prez of env progress</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg see tucker b/c of quilette ~ wind and solar, unreliable 40% of year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">he calims to be on BO team on 1st try of new green deal 2003-7 orig founder, $150 billion on renewables, 10-40% of year</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">low density of fuel, the bigger envir impact eg lots of land [ "WE"] our friends said what about nuke? how few ppl died in chernbly (no #)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bio-mass kills ppl (wood smoke, he does say ff too) 7 mil/yr (coal? charcoal?) in nuke accident only a tiny am't escapes ?! how much _ escapes?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">3 reasons: 1) assoc w/ atomic bomb but 2 diff technol; 60's cheap too much energy --> pop explosion, overconsumption 3) harmonize w/ natural world</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">marcotte</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/07/fox-news-has-gone-so-deep-into-white-nationalism-that-donald-trump-now-believes-its-how-hell-win-in-2020/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump thinks white nationalism is going to win him the 2020 election. This much is clear. Trump’s racist Twitter rant on Sunday — in which he suggested that four nonwhite congresswomen, three of whom were born in the United States, are “originally” from somewhere else and should therefore “go back” — might have seemed at first like a spontaneous eruption of racist rage from the simmering bigot in the White House.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Soon, however, it became clear that this was strategic. Trump thinks it’s a winning move to echo the claims of David Duke and other white nationalists who believe the United States is for white people. He justified his racism by saying that “many people agree with me,” and by continuing to rave on Twitter abou As Heather Digby Parton argued for Salon, this is more than an explosion of racist anger. Trump “believes that most Americans are as racist as he is and that he will be rewarded for this indecency with a second term.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s good reason to think Trump and his boosters are wrong about this. As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie pointed out on Twitter, “Trump’s popularity has taken its sharpest dips whenever he goes full racist,” and that even that seemingly rock-solid level of support that sits right around 42% in opinion polls has dipped into the 30s when Trump openly aligns himself with white nationalist views. Thanks largely to his racism (as well as his stunning lack of competence), Trump has spent his entire term in office with lower overall approval ratings than any president in more than 60 years.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So where does Trump getting this idea that ever more extreme racism is the way to win over voters? One major source is likely his favorite TV network and the only source of information he tends to take seriously: Fox News.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For years now, Fox News has been mainstreaming arguments that used to be the province of fringe websites run by neo-Nazis and other groups who believe the U.S. is meant to be a country of white people and for white people — perhaps with others permitted in small numbers of they stay quiet and keep to themselves. Trump was a major factor in the early rumblings of white nationalism on the network, which gave him considerable airtime during his reality TV days to air conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Such “birther” theories rested fairly obviously, in the first place, on the belief that black people cannot be “real” Americans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Trump was elected, the Fox News programming that promotes white nationalist ideas has slowly grown both in airtime and in severity. At Salon, we sounded the alarm in the early months of Trump’s presidency, when prime-time Fox News host Tucker Carlson began to experiment with segments that used euphemisms like “Western civilization” to package the idea that white people are inherently more civilized while people of color are a threat to national stability.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since then, Carlson and many of other Fox News pundits have only grown bolder. “Replacement theory” — the white nationalist idea that has spurred multiple terrorist attacks, holding that white people will somehow be removed and “replaced” by people of color — used to be confined to fringe neo-Nazi websites with atrocious early-2000s design aesthetics. Now that’s become a regular feature of slick Fox News segments, which suggest that immigrants of color are “invading the country” and can never be “fully American,” and that demographic changes from immigration are “more change than human beings are designed to digest” and inherently a threat to “your neighborhood.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The network also hypes the idea that nonwhite immigrants are dirty and diseased, as well as inherently criminal. (For about the 400th time: Immigrants, documented or otherwise, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens. There is no serious dispute about this.) Furthermore, because many immigrants speak languages other than English and may eat unfamiliar food or bring cultural practices that appear foreign to some, American society will soon be “tipping over a cliff.” is is the same kind of rhetoric that was used to demonize the Irish and Italian immigrants of the past, who were seen as threats to American culture due to scary foreign practices like putting garlic in food and praying with the Rosary. One hardly needs to mention the bigotry and discrimination directed at Jewish immigrants, who were barred from certain neighborhoods and many commercial establishments well into the 20th century. Unfortunately, most of the Fox News audience for this rhetoric, the president included, doesn’t know anything about that history, or care to learn.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s true that Fox News ratings are high, and that is incredibly meaningful to Trump, who has a long-standing obsession with TV ratings dating back to his days as host of “The Apprentice.” More important still, Trump tends to view TV ratings as the single most meaningful metric of public opinion, one that far outweighs more statistically significant measures like political polling.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In looking over Trump’s Twitter obsession with TV ratings, it’s clear that he believes — or at least pretends to believe — that ratings are tied tightly to alliance with his racist agenda. It’s not just that he routinely mocks CNN and MSNBC for supposedly having poor ratings. Any TV product that deviates too far from a racist agenda, he believes, takes a ratings hit for it. When NFL players were protesting racism, Trump gleefully declared it was hurting TV ratings. When the Oscars tried to improve racial diversity and attendees decried Trump’s bigotry, he gloated that it was the “Lowest rated Oscars in HISTORY”. He even repeatedly (and falsely) tried to argue that his inauguration ratings exceeded Barack Obama’s.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The pattern is clear: Trump believes racism is more popular than anti-racism, because, he believes, racism gets TV viewers and anti-racism doesn’t. And getting TV viewers is the only measurement he takes seriously.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By any measure of cable viewership, there is no denying that Fox News has disturbingly high ratings. Its daytime audience is 1.3 million viewers on average and the prime time shows pull 2.4 million people. That doesn’t just outdo other cable news networks, but mainstays like TNT and HGTV. Carlson gets nearly 3 million viewers a night, numbers that far exceed his rabid fan base of open white nationalists. Racism does sell, and the audience for white nationalist rhetoric is not small. Nearly 129 million Americans voted in 2016, meaning that only about 2% of the electorate is tuning into Carlson’s show on any given night. By contrast, the CBS sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” has nearly 19 million viewers. Racism sells, sure — but exponentially less well than unfunny sitcoms with aggressive laugh tracks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s racism is wildly popular with his base, in other words, but a large majority of Americans find it repulsive. No amount of the president’s obsessive dissection of cable ratings will change that. That’s not to say Trump’s opponents should become complacent or assume that his unpopularity will automatically translate into a 2020 defeat. Unfortunately, racists are dramatically overrepresented in politics, due to the outdated mechanism of the Electoral College, which is how Trump won the 2016 election while getting nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. He could certainly pull it off again.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, Trump’s apparently adamant belief that white nationalism will pay off in electoral terms doesn’t reflect any reputable political polling. It appears instead to be an artifact of his obsession with TV and with Fox News in particular. It’s a closed loop of awfulness: The more Trump pushes his racist agenda, the more the network amplifies his message, and the more he believes his bigotry is massively popular. Unless and until Trump takes a decisive L in 2020, he’s going to keep believing the majority of Americans are secretly on his side.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/tucker-carlson-fox-news-ilhan-omar-857295/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Using their “public whatever,” Ocasio-Cortez, Omar, Pressley, and Tlaib pushed back against Pelosi’s comments, bringing themselves to the forefront of the news cycle.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson was waiting for them. The Fox News host devoted time on his first two shows of the week to making clear that he feels the lawmakers are speaking out of turn. Considering Carlson’s history of attacking immigrants and people of color, it isn’t difficult to figure out why.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Tuesday night, Carlson took aim at Omar, an immigrant from Somalia who last November became (along with Tlaib) the first Muslim woman elected to Congress. Like her colleagues who voted against the bill, Omar has been a vocal critic of the conditions of federal facilities housing migrants at the border.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Omar isn’t disappointed by America, she’s enraged by it,” Carlson said. “This is an immoral country, she says. She has undisguised contempt for the United States and its people. This should worry you, and not just because Omar is now a sitting member of Congress. Ilhan Omar is living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country. A system designed to strengthen America is instead undermining it. Some of the very people we try hardest to help have come to hate us passionately."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[twt]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Feigning confusion, Carlson then wondered if maybe America should be asking more of its immigrants, or if the nation should stop “importing” people nations whose “values are antithetical” to those of the United States. “No country can import large numbers of people who hate it and expect to survive,” he said, going on to call Omar a “fire alarm” signaling what could happen if America doesn’t change its immigration system — presumably to keep out anyone who won’t swear a blood oath to defend the Trump administration’s treatment of migrants at the border.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Omar was quick to respond to the segment. “Not gonna lie, it’s kinda fun watching a racist fool like this weeping about my presence in Congress,” she tweeted. “No lies will stamp out my love for this country or my resolve to make our union more perfect. They will just have to get used to calling me Congresswoman!”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A night earlier, Carlson attacked Reps. Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez, calling their suggestion that more women of color should be represented in Congress “repugnant.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Give us power because of our skin color,” he said. “By definition, it is a racist pitch. It’s every bit as repugnant as a white candidate making the same appeal. Many Democrats did make that appeal, that racial appeal, under Jim Crow: Vote for me because of my race. It’s disgusting.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">619 mma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson guest attacks credibility of E. Jean Carroll: "She’s selling a book”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson shames rape victims who don't immediately report the assault</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before Tucker Carlson's Tuesday show, Fox News has spent just four minutes covering Carroll’s report Trump sexually assaulted her</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Major newspapers largely left Carroll's story off their front pages</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/06/what-war-with-iran-really-depends-on/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">tucker oppose iran strike so called off?!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/tucker-carlson-metric-system-tyranny-global</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cristina Cabrera</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">June 6, 2019 10:53 am</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a red-blooded American, Fox News host Tucker Carlson will not give in to the tyranny of measuring things using units of 10, thank you very much!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Near the end of his show on Wednesday night, Carlson spared a few minutes to rip the metric system and its “milinmeters” and “keye-lo-grams.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Almost every nation on Earth has fallen under the yoke of tyranny: The metric system,” Carlson declared. “The United States is the only country that has resisted, but we have no reason to be ashamed for using feet and pounds.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m taking a stand against the metric system,” show guest James Panero told Carlson. “The original system of global revolution and new world orders.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“God bless you, and that’s exactly what it is,” the Fox host responded. “Esperanto died, but the metric system continues, this weird utopian, inelegant, creepy system that we alone have resisted.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At the end of the program, Carlson swore to “keep fighting against the global tyranny of the metric system.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’ll accept the kilometer when we accept the Euro: Never!” Carlson vowed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch below:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/the-mask-on-the-beltway-medias-embrace-of-white-nationalism-keeps-rearing-its-ugly-head/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the important factors in the rise of white nationalism is the way it has been normalized within the national media — treated at best as an afterthought, a purely fringe phenomenon that we really needn’t worry our heads about, with coverage often accompanied by warm fuzzy features remarking on how normal these neo-Nazi types can seem in real life.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">People both inside and outside the media business often wind up scratching their heads in wonder that this sort of thing can happen even in an age when there is ample information on the toxicity that white nationalism represents. But the more we learn about the alt-right and its tentacles, the clearer it’s become that there are people situated within the media mainstream who in reality are silently sympathetic to these causes, and they are influencing the decisions over what gets covered and how. BuzzFeed piece by Rosie Gray does an excellent job of exposing how white nationalism has managed to insinuate itself inside the Beltway media ecosystem, mainly through a coterie of ostensibly mainstream conservatives who, it seems, are extraordinarily tolerant of neo-Nazism. It recounts the saga of Katie McHugh, an alt-right provocateur who moved in the right-wing Washington circles of Breitbart, The Daily Caller, GotNews, and WorldNetDaily, and who now deeply regrets the error of her ways.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s not entirely clear from the piece that McHugh has come to terms with the deeper issues around the work she did in helping propagate a vicious brand of white nationalism surreptitiously, under the guise of “conservatism.” It’s certainly not clear that she has yet reckoned with the real damage she did and her obligation now to do what she can to repair it, but time will tell on that front.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, she clearly is regretful for her past actions, which is where everyone needs to start on the road to recovery from the grip of hateful ideologies. And she deserves credit for taking that biggest of all steps.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She also has started out by performing what is probably a huge public service in exposing much of the inner workings of the Beltway media white nationalist coterie. Editors and other reporters who operate with supposedly mainstream credentials are shown to be co-players in the white nationalist propaganda they all engaged in, though they all deny doing so.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Appropriately enough, the nexus of this coterie is none other than Tucker Carlson, both his Daily Caller news operation, of which he is co-founder but no longer publisher, as well as his daily Fox News program. As McHugh describes it, the vast majority of the surreptitious white nationalist organizing occurred within the ranks of Daily Caller staffers, heavily flanked by a full complement of Breitbart writers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of the more prominent white nationalist movement figures—such as Kevin DeAnna, McHugh’s former boyfriend, who has long been on the radar of the Southern Poverty Law Center for his youthful organization of campus white nationalists in the 2000s—apparently operated more on the periphery, while their close friends occupied media positions inside the Beltway.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McHugh, you may recall, was fired from Breitbart for an overtly racist tweet about Muslims (“There would be no terror attacks in the UK if Muslims didn’t live there”). Of course, it was not actually the most racist thing she had ever tweeted out, but her timing was indiscreet, and she got caught in a media crossfire and was shown the door after having been a protégé of Steve Bannon’s, all while attending truly weird neopagan events:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">McHugh sometimes accompanied DeAnna on weekend trips down to the Wolves’ headquarters for what they called a “moot” — a ceremony in which the assembled Wolves would smear ash on their bodies around a fire and give what McHugh described as “dramatic speeches” about self-sufficiency and relying on the other group members. They would then sit around the fire and drink beers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Wolves placed a heavy emphasis on masculinity. The women would prepare food for the gatherings earlier in the day before the moot commenced, according to McHugh. The Wolves were into a “Centurion Method” of physical fitness; a video still on YouTube shows DeAnna and Paul Waggener, one of the founders of the group who used the pseudonym “Grimnir,” taking turns lifting up the trunk of a car filled with cement blocks, scrambling around on a bunch of debris, and squatting while holding logs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What we also learn is that there is a reason the same fellows grunting around campfires to establish their masculinity are eager viewers of Tucker Carlson: his news operation has provided a home for a number of them. Indeed, Snopes.com last year explored the striking extent to which Daily Caller writers have expressed white-nationalist views. Now it’s also clear why that is.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is a reason that white nationalists avidly watch Carlson’s nightly Fox program in hopes of gleaning talking points and ideas. There is a reason the neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer’s favorite pundit is Carlson (Andrew Anglin calls him “literally our greatest ally”). There is a reason the chat boards and other white nationalist haunts positively hum with chatter over Carlson’s TV broadcasts (“Tucker is a national treasure and will be the catalyst for real social change”; “At best, he’s a gateway for us and they know it”).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, Carlson is not alone in the Beltway media in promoting white nationalist talking points. His cohort at Fox Business, Lou Dobbs—one of Donald Trump’s favorite pundits—mouths an endless stream of white nationalist and authoritarian talking points as well.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, it’s obvious that Carlson’s sphere extends well beyond just the frame of the Fox network, and into a much darker world altogether. Nor is he alone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.ecowatch.com/facebook-factchecking-science-climate-denial-2635927165.html</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx twits</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CLIMATE DENIER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Facebook Hires Koch-Funded Climate Deniers for 'Fact-Checking'</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Oil Change International Apr. 30, 2019 10:10AM EST BUSINESS</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Isriya Paireepairit / Flickr</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Andy Rowell</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It may not come as a surprise that leading climate denier Donald Trump has made more than 10,000 false or misleading claims since he became president, according to fact-checkers at the Washington Post.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the Post reports, Trump's "tsunami of untruths just keeps looming larger and larger."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Much of this tsunami of untruths will get reposted on Facebook as fact. Those hoping that Facebook will accurately check Trump's statements and clean up the torrent of fake news on its platform will have to think again, especially if you are concerned about climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In what can only be described as verging on the bizarre, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has given the contract to fight fake news to an organization that pushes fake news on climate change.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to reports in Think Progress and Grist, Facebook has announced that it was teaming up with CheckYourFact.com, which is an offshoot of the anti-science media site, The Daily Caller.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CheckYourFact website brags that: "Our mission is a non-partisan one. We're loyal to neither people nor parties — only the truth. And while the fact-checking industry continues to grow, there are still countless assertions that go unchecked. We exist to fill in the gaps."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, the opposite seems to be true. As Think Progress outlines:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Caller, which has published misinformation about climate science for years, was co-founded by the science-denying Fox News host Tucker Carlson and is backed by major conservative donors, including Charles and David Koch, the billionaire fossil fuel barons who are the single biggest funders of climate science misinformation.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Think Progress includes a link back to 2015, when a peer-reviewed paper from scientists at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. The Daily Caller tried to twist the research to argue that "global warming is nothing new."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is hardly surprising that leading climate scientists and academics are outspoken about the Facebook fact-check tie up.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the world's leading climatologists, professor Michael Mann, whose own work has been distorted by The Daily Caller, told Think Progress: "It is appalling that Facebook has teamed up with a Koch-funded organization that promotes climate change denial. Facebook must disassociate itself from this organization."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mann also tweeted:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael E. Mann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@MichaelEMann</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> "The Koch brothers are funding @Facebook’s newest fact-checking partner" by Paola Rosa-Aquino (@prosaaquino) for @Grist:https://grist.org/article/the-koch-brothers-are-funding-facebooks-newest-fact-checking-partner/ …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">88</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2:55 PM - Apr 29, 2019</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch brothers are funding Facebook’s newest fact-checking partner</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Is Facebook trying to solve its fake news problem by partnering with … climate deniers?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">grist.org</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental sociologist, professor Robert Brulle, who is an authority on the climate denial network, asked, "Why they are partnering with an organization that is part of the right wing echo chamber?" He added that: "Facebook should cancel this contract."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But as both websites point out this is not the first time Facebook has joined forces with a climate denial website: In the fall of 2017, Facebook named the right-wing, partisan Weekly Standard as a fact-checking partner.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year, Tessa Lyons, a product manager for Facebook wrote about the company's actions on Fake News:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">False news is a money maker for spammers and a weapon of state actors and agitators around the world … Misinformation is bad for our community and bad for our business. It's why we're investing significant time and resources to fight it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fighting fake news with more fake news is a sure recipe for disaster. Especially during a climate emergency.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">EcoWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@EcoWatch</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> @Greenpeace Calls BS After Trump Cites 'Paid Lobbyist' Masquerading as Co-Founder to Peddle Climate Denial @greenpeaceusa @AOC #GreenNewDeal http://bit.ly/2Ty5bfd </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greenpeace Calls BS After Trump Cites 'Paid Lobbyist' Masquerading as Co-Founder to Peddle Climate...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Patrick Moore was not a co-founder of Greenpeace. He does not represent Greenpeace," the group wrote.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ecowatch.com</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See EcoWatch's other Tweets</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reposted with permission from our media associate Oil Change International.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wheeler Appoints Climate Denier to EPA Science Board - EcoWatch ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former 'climate change denier' explains his shift » Yale Climate ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How to change the minds of climate deniers | US news | The Guardian ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PolitiFact statements about Climate Change ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A climate denial video has 6 million views. Facebook doesn't care ... ›</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma week in dumb 419 random</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing outlets like The Wall Street Journal editorial page are touting a deeply flawed new study attacking electric vehicles.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump Fed pick Stephen Moore repeatedly said that he liked working at Fox News because he met "a lot of beautiful women" there. Moore has also praised slave-owning Confederate general Robert E. Lee and hates climate science so much that he even attacked Ivanka Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson's wild new talking point is that abortion is somehow a tool of "corporate" oppression.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A Fox host blamed bank regulation for high tuition and the student loan crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/far-right-tucker-carlson-guest-given-airtime-to-rage-against-godless-and-post-christian-france-after-notre-dame-fire/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After surviving everything from two world wars to the French Revolution to the Black Plague of the 1340s-1350s, the historic Medieval cathedral, Notre Dame de Paris, was rocked by a major blaze on Monday. The fire has been extinguished, although the building suffered extensive damage and will need to be rebuilt. And when he appeared on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News on Monday night, far-right pundit Mark Steyn used the fire as an opportunity to insult France as a “godless” and “post-Christian” society that is being overtaken by Muslims.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steyn, who has guest-hosted “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News as well as Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, told Carlson, “Christendom is in retreat in Europe, and in France particularly. France has actually quite an aggressive belief in secularism, and according to some polls, the French are—even by the standards of the modern Western world—among the most godless people.” Steyn went on to describe the Basilica of St. Denis north of Paris as “a Christian museum in the heart of what is now a Muslim suburb, in effect.” And he claimed that at Notre Dame Cathedral, Christianity is not a “living, breathing faith” but rather, “is just becoming, actually, a museum, an art gallery, a storage facility.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Speaking to Carlson, Steyn had a hard time pinpointing exactly why France is mourning the damage at Notre Dame. Steyn told Carlson, “The French who were on the streets in tears this evening on the streets of Paris—I don’t think they’re mourning just history or architecture or art or culture. They are mourning something else. But what that something else, post-Christian France—can’t quite identify it. That’s really the conundrum.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Steyn added that when French President Emmanuel Macron “says we’re going to rebuild it—rebuild it for what? When people talk about, ‘Oh, the heart of France has died’—what is in the soul of France? What is this? Is it just the building or something more?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The notion that Muslims are overrunning western countries with the help of secular liberals has been a recurring theme in Steyn’s books, which include 2006’s “America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It” and 2011’s “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lachlan Murdoch stands by Tucker Carlson's white nationalism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson regularly echoes talking points from white nationalists, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis, and leaders of these groups regularly praisehis rhetoric. Just this week, a former white nationalist who is the son of the founder of Stormfront said that his family watches Tucker Carlson "because they feel that he is making the white nationalist talking points better than they have."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But now it's clear that at Fox News, Carlson's white nationalism is looked upon fondly. When Carlson was under intense public pressure and began losing advertisers after saying that immigrants make America "dirtier," Carlson received personal support from the CEO of Fox's parent company, Lachlan Murdoch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times Magazine reported that Lachlan Murdoch reassured Carlson of his support in a text message to Carlson. In a public appearance in November of 2018, Murdoch explained that viewers should empathize with the Fox hosts that push racism, saying "I'm not embarrassed by what they do at all. ... I frankly feel in this country, we all have to be more tolerant of each other's views."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NYT report on the Murdochs is worth reading in full. It is crystal clear now, if there was ever any doubt, that the Murdochs are happy to encourage and profit from the rise of nationalism globally. In America, that means deliberately stoking nativism and, at least, tolerating racism from within the company and even encouraging it in our politics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News ratchets up the nativism and racism</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2x?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is under fire this week for racist, sexist, and homophobic comments he made while chatting on “Bubba the Love Sponge” a shock jock radio show between 2006-2011. Groups are scrutinizing Fox’s advertisers and demanding that they drop the show.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Carlson also publishes The Daily Caller, a controversial online media outlet with ties to white nationalists that has infamously peddled everything from climate denial and anti-Islamic tropes to false prostitution charges and violence against protesters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s moonlighting as an extremist at The Daily Caller is heavily bankrolled by — you guessed it — the Koch brothers. An investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) finds that the Charles Koch Foundation has poured more than $2.7 million into the Daily Caller’s non-profit “charity” since 2012, which generates the lion’s share of the “news” that the Caller publishes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, in 2016, Koch cash accounted for 83 percent of the The Daily Caller News Foundation’s $1.1 million in revenues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson Under Fire</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As if catering to white supremacists was not bad enough, Media Matters published an inventory of hateful comments made by Carlson as a guest on the show between 2006-2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The radio host discusses Warren Jeffs, the religious leader who was investigated in 2007 for marrying off underage girls to older men and was eventually jailed for sexual assault of minors in 2011. When the radio host condemned Jeffs for being an “accessory to the rape of children,” Carlson said “whatever the hell that means,” and going on to suggest that forcible underage marriage is not as serious as forcible child rape. Listen to the tape here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other interviews, Carlson called Iraqis “semi-literate primitive monkeys,” who “don’t use toilet paper or forks.” They should just “shut the fuck up and obey.” Carlson spoke about his desire for a presidential candidate to blame the “lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals.” That candidate would be “elected king” if they vowed to “kill as many of them as [they] can.” Carlson also said Afghanistan is “never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.” Listen to the tape here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The release of the older audio tapes gives “context and insight” on his nightly programming today, said Media Matters President Angelo Carusone on MSNBC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So far, Carlson has failed to apologize. As Fox News scrambles to control the damage, at least three advertisers — Allergan, letgo, and GreatCall — have had enough.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But with the focus on advertisers, it’s important to remember who else bankrolls Carlson’s mini media empire.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch Caller?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kochs have long underwritten The Daily Caller. Previously, CMD reported that the Kochs gave $805,512 to The Daily Caller News Foundation between 2012 and 2015, predominantly from the Charles G. Koch Foundation. Since then, the numbers have continued to grow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch foundation gave another $946,000 in 2016 and $960,000 in 2017, the last year publicly available — for a total of $2.7 million.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2017, CMD analyzed emails sent by the Trump campaign to The Daily Caller subscribers and estimated that the outlet also received at least $150,000 from the Trump campaign in the months right before the November election, based on the fee charged for mailings to its list. The funding was never disclosed by Carlson or The Daily Caller as they reported on the Trump campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, CMD also examined the relationship between the non-profit and for-profit arms of Tucker Carlson’s operation. The mechanics of how they operate together raise serious concerns about whether Carlson’s tax-free nonprofit is operating primarily for the private benefit of his for-profit media outlet, which would be a violation of tax law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD’s story was picked up by numerous media outlets including the Washington Post, which interviewed tax experts on the legality of the scheme.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It really does look like the reason for the existence of this 501(c)(3) organization is to provide benefits to the for-profit company, and that should be a private benefit that is not acceptable,” Linda Sugin, a law professor at Fordham University, told the Post and other media outlets. “You can’t have money going into the foundation being used for purposes that are really to support the for-profit organization.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">random week in dumb</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson on Russia's 2016 election interference: "I don't think it really hurt the country, actually."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Turning Point USA's Benny Johnson kicked off a speech by saying that "Oh my god, I've never seen so many white people in one room, this is incredible!"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox & Friends does not see any reason to release the entire Mueller report.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox's flagship news show hosted Rush Limbaugh for a softball interview. Limbaugh's recent conspiracy theory that the New Zealand shootings were a false flag never came up.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Laura Ingraham and Pat Buchanan agreed that immigration is pushing "Western civilization" off a "cliff." Buchanan also told Ingraham that "we haven't fully assimilated African-American citizens."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson said that climate change may make natural disasters less catastrophic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">n Austrian Identitarian leader with a presence on YouTube reportedly received a payment from the man charged over the Christchurch attacks. According to Reuters, Martin Sellner received roughly $1,690 last year from a man with the same name as the suspect, which prompted Austrian law enforcement to raid Sellner’s house on March 25.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sellner subsequently acknowledged that he had pointed the New Zealand shooter to his English-language YouTube videos after receiving praise for his work. Sellner addressed the Christchurch shooter donation in a YouTube video, and in doing so, collected donations via the "super chats" feature.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sellner’s group is a white supremacist organization focused on sanitizing its image to maintain mainstream appeal. Aided by glossy media coverage and YouTube influencers, Sellner has been able to get donations by spreading anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messaging to a global far-right audience.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Daily Beast's Kelly Weill described Sellner's "fascist" organization thusly:"This fascist movement falsely characterizes itself as under attack by immigrants, people of color, Muslims, and Jews. Sellner and his movement spread conspiracy theories about these racial and religious groups “replacing” white people. Generation Identity hosts a web page explaining the conspiracy theory. That page’s title was the also title of the manifesto Tarrant released before opening fire on Muslims, killing children as young as three."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2018, Tucker Carlson passionately defended Sellner and his partner Brittany Pettibone when they were refused entry to the United Kingdom, claiming the U.K.’s actions were evidence that the country “hates itself, its heritage, [and] its own people.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/03/22/sean-hannity-hosts-tucker-carlson-thumb-nose-advertisers/223219</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TUCKER CARLSON (FOX NEWS HOST): A very surprising appearance tonight from the Empire State, 215 miles to the North, Sean Hannity, in tonight at 9 o'clock. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">SEAN HANNITY (HOST): You know, I am really proud of you because you have been a champion of speaking out for freedom of speech. And you've never been better, and everybody's got to understand that we're under fire all the time, and you have been strong, articulate, in the face of many attacks. And we all support you, so congratulations. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: If our viewers knew how much time you and I spend on the phone together talking about this and how grateful we are that the Fox News channel supports us, as strongly as it does.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANNITY: Absolutely. Yes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: Thank you.Thanks Sean. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">HANNITY: The country needs at least some conservative voices. They want 99.9 percent liberal voices only.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These are Tucker Carlson’s leading advertisers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Unearthed audio shows Tucker Carlson using white nationalist rhetoric and making racist remarks</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In unearthed audio, Tucker Carlson makes numerous misogynistic and perverted comments</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American Action Forum, a nonprofit organization with considerable ties to the fossil fuel industry, recently produced deeply flawed analysis about the cost of the Green New Deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing, industry-funded organization's, like AAF, exist to produce academic analysis that look and feel legitimate, but have no basis in reality. Their recent analysis that proclaimed the Green New Deal would come with the absurd price tag of "$93 trillion," or "94 trillion," was quickly shot down byPolitico, PolitiFact, and more. Because the Green New Deal at this point is just a broad outline of goals with no policy specifics, determining a cost is practically impossible. PolitiFact described the cost as "only about as strong as a clothespin in high wind."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">However, these seemingly authentic analyses give license to Fox News and other right-wing outlets to amplify radical claims about the Green New Deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sean Hannity, Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt, The Daily Caller, and many others have uncritically used the industry-funded analysis to push misinformation about the Green New Deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Defining any attempt to address climate change off limits politically is the new climate denial. Tucker Carlson wasn't specifically talking about the Green New Deal this week, but he might as well have been, when he complained that taking action on climate change is "clearly political, not science speaking." Carlson was speaking with a longtime climate change denier.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson: "I don't care how the U.S. government treats foreign citizens. I don't care on the border, and I don't care if they are Russian agents"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">March 22, 2019 9:02 PM EDT</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson: Roger Stone should be pardoned </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2019/03/20/hosting-climate-change-denier-tucker-carlson-complains-about-relentless-propaganda-about-climate/223199 [vid]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> CARLSON (HOST): Is it surprising to you that after 25 years of really relentless propaganda beginning in children's cartoons going all the way up, probably, [un]til the moment of death that Americans rate climate change at 2 percent concern -- 2 percent are most concerned about climate change. Are you shocked?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">JOE BASTARDI (GUEST): Well, not really that shocked because I think my experience is, is a much greater percentage of people in their 20s that believe what's going on. I think it's because they don't look at everything. I have said hundreds of times that if all I looked at and all that I was told was the global warming issue, I'd say "Well, I believe it too. CO2 is causing this." But when you start looking at the entire picture, the totality of the picture and you put some perspective into it, that the last forty years are the equivalent of six seconds out of an eighty-year-old man's life, you realize that there is a very, very different story here. It is like, it is like one scene in a movie for five seconds determining the whole movie. That's not the case here at all. The foundation you stand on today was built yesterday to reach for tomorrow. It's the same thing with weather and climate, folks. What happens is you have to go back and look at the big picture. In our business, and what I do at weather bell is, we need to supply accurate forecasts for energy companies -- that includes wind and solar, retail companies -- and knowing what happened yesterday, and putting in perspective and say, "guys, this can happen again," is something that we do.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: So I just want to be clear. I'm not denying -- and I'm not a meteorologist, unlike you, or a climate expert -- that climate changes. It does change of course and ... has from the beginning, since the planet cooled. Can I ask a question?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BASTARDI: Absolutely.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: Why, since more people were killed last year in the United States by illegal aliens than were killed by climate change -- why do you think they are so focused on scaring us, and telling us that we are all going to die? Why did they need to tell us that, when they don't know that?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BASTARDI: Well, I think H. L. Mencken -- and I quoted this in my book, said it best, that practical politics always tries to whip up this kind of thing. Most of them are imaginary, and the urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, that is a Democrat that said that, he passed away, 1956, but since I come from that kind of background, from an old Democrat background, I knew who H. L. Mencken was. So, I think that's what's involved here. I wrote that book because the purity of what I've loved since I was three -- my dad is a meteorologist, right? This is all I ever wanted to do. I can't believe that this is what it's come to.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: That's right.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BASTARDI: It's turned into this political football or whatever. It's really bad.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CARLSON: It is, and it's clearly political, not science speaking.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Previously:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Hannity segment attacking Green New Deal, climate denier Joe Bastardi says “people are ungrateful” for fossil fuels</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Fox News, climate denier Joe Bastardi calls Green New Deal "the weaponization of weather, the weaponization of climate"</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Hannity invites climate denier Joe Bastardi on his show to deny link between climate change and extreme weather -- again</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2019/03/13/who-bankrolls-tucker-carlsons-hateful-propaganda-why-the-kochs-of-course/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is under fire this week for racist, sexist, and homophobic comments he made while chatting on “Bubba the Love Sponge” a shock jock radio show between 2006-2011. Groups are scrutinizing Fox’s advertisers and demanding that they drop the show.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Carlson also publishes The Daily Caller, a controversial online media outlet with ties to white nationalists that has infamously peddled everything from climate denial and anti-Islamic tropes to false prostitution charges and violence against protesters.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s moonlighting as an extremist at The Daily Caller is heavily bankrolled by — you guessed it — the Koch brothers. An investigation by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) finds that the Charles Koch Foundation has poured more than $2.7 million into the Daily Caller’s non-profit “charity” since 2012, which generates the lion’s share of the “news” that the Caller publishes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Indeed, in 2016, Koch cash accounted for 83 percent of the The Daily Caller News Foundation’s $1.1 million in revenues.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson Under Fire</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As if catering to white supremacists was not bad enough, Media Matters published an inventory of hateful comments made by Carlson as a guest on the show between 2006-2011.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The radio host discusses Warren Jeffs, the religious leader who was investigated in 2007 for marrying off underage girls to older men and was eventually jailed for sexual assault of minors in 2011. When the radio host condemned Jeffs for being an “accessory to the rape of children,” Carlson said “whatever the hell that means,” and going on to suggest that forcible underage marriage is not as serious as forcible child rape. Listen to the tape here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other interviews, Carlson called Iraqis “semi-literate primitive monkeys,” who “don’t use toilet paper or forks.” They should just “shut the fuck up and obey.” Carlson spoke about his desire for a presidential candidate to blame the “lunatic Muslims who are behaving like animals.” That candidate would be “elected king” if they vowed to “kill as many of them as [they] can.” Carlson also said Afghanistan is “never going to be a civilized country because the people aren’t civilized.” Listen to the tape here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The release of the older audio tapes gives “context and insight” on his nightly programming today, said Media Matters President Angelo Carusone on MSNBC.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So far, Carlson has failed to apologize. As Fox News scrambles to control the damage, at least three advertisers — Allergan, letgo, and GreatCall — have had enough.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But with the focus on advertisers, it’s important to remember who else bankrolls Carlson’s mini media empire.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch Caller?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kochs have long underwritten The Daily Caller. Previously, CMD reported that the Kochs gave $805,512 to The Daily Caller News Foundation between 2012 and 2015, predominantly from the Charles G. Koch Foundation. Since then, the numbers have continued to grow.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch foundation gave another $946,000 in 2016 and $960,000 in 2017, the last year publicly available — for a total of $2.7 million.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2017, CMD analyzed emails sent by the Trump campaign to The Daily Caller subscribers and estimated that the outlet also received at least $150,000 from the Trump campaign in the months right before the November election, based on the fee charged for mailings to its list. The funding was never disclosed by Carlson or The Daily Caller as they reported on the Trump campaign.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In addition, CMD also examined the relationship between the non-profit and for-profit arms of Tucker Carlson’s operation. The mechanics of how they operate together raise serious concerns about whether Carlson’s tax-free nonprofit is operating primarily for the private benefit of his for-profit media outlet, which would be a violation of tax law.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD’s story was picked up by numerous media outlets including the Washington Post, which interviewed tax experts on the legality of the scheme.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It really does look like the reason for the existence of this 501(c)(3) organization is to provide benefits to the for-profit company, and that should be a private benefit that is not acceptable,” Linda Sugin, a law professor at Fordham University, told the Post and other media outlets. “You can’t have money going into the foundation being used for purposes that are really to support the for-profit organization.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> trove of leaked chat messages reportedly from members of white supremacist group Identity Evropa shows the group’s appreciation for Fox News host Tucker Carlson. Members praised segments from Tucker Carlson Tonight and fantasized about the idea of him running for president someday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The nonprofit media organization Unicorn Riot released chat logs used by members of Identity Evropa, a group attempting to sanitize white supremacy by rebranding its racist beliefs as pro-white “identitarianism.” We reviewed hundreds of these messages mentioning Carlson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The chats show many users praising Carlson for his subtlety in delivering extremist talking points as a strategic way of remaining on the airwaves, explicitly crediting Carlson with “normalizing 80% of [Identity Evropa’s] talking points,” and pointing out that figures like Carlson and Nazi sympathizer Ann Coulter “know exactly what they’re doing” to “nudge people further to the right.” Members praise Carlson for “doing divine work” that has “done more for” white supremacists than they “could ever hope to” do.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson has also been praised by white supremacist and neo-Nazi podcasts. We've also put together a full timeline of Carlson's white supremacy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> news broke Sunday evening, and spread virally. Now there are calls for Fox News to fire its top host, Tucker Carlson, and some on social media are urging a boycott of Carlson’s advertisers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Media Matters revealed in audio recordings they unearthed that Carlson over a five year period (2006 – 2011) repeatedly made extremely misogynistic remarks and grotesquely attacked about a half-dozen women by name. But perhaps most disturbing, Carlson, 49 and a father of four, appeared to condone statutory rape of both girls and boys and admitted he “would love” a “scenario” in which two underaged girls “explore” each others’ bodies. Carlson sloughed off his remarks as just “something naughty,” adamantly refusing to apologize.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Twitter, the hashtag #FireTuckerCarlson is trending:...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">just saw him on booktv, bit of populism there, is he getting ready to jump ship trump?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/fox-news-tucker-carlson-bashes-capitalism-and-says-he-might-vote-for-elizabeth-warren/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/viral-video-showing-covington-catholic-high-school-students-prompts-propaganda-warfare-2</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> many lnx images (vid?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Viral Video Showing Covington Catholic High School Students Prompts Propaganda Warfare</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Jared Holt | January 22, 2019 2:33 pm</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Screenshot / Fox News Channel)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a video that went viral, a group of students from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky appeared to mock indigenous activist Nathan Phillips, who encountered the teens at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after participating in last weekend’s Indigenous Peoples March. The teens had just taken part in the annual March for Life, a parade of Catholic high schools and right-wing groups who oppose reproductive rights and hope to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal in all 50 states. After the video spread on Twitter over the weekend, the teens’ families hired a communications firm to launch multi-level public relations campaign to wage war against the press.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The viral video shows a young man who has publicly identified himself as Nicholas Sandmann, grinning and standing silently, facing Phillips, just inches from the Omaha tribe elder’s face, while Phillips plays a drum and sings. Sandmann’s classmates parody Phillips as he plays. Twitter has suspended the account that first sent video of the incident viral. Since that video achieved virality, more video clips of the events that day have emerged.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With each new video clip, right-wing hucksters alleged there was additional proof that the Covington Catholic boys should be exonerated for their display, despite the fact that none of the subsequent video clips prove that the boys did not demonstrate disrespectful behavior toward Phillips—rather, all video evidence reaffirmed that interpretation. What the clips did do, however, is provide documentation of verbal harassment of the boys by demonstrators from a Black Hebrew Israelite group prior to their encounter with indigenous activists. Despite the fact that additional footage showed the kids had been riled up before encountering Phillips, the clips do not change the facts of what happened after they did.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A response to the viral video first launched in a part of right-wing internet that could be aptly likened to a landfill and ascended into the stratosphere. The pushback campaign first took off with fame-hungry media personalities like YouTube hoaxer Joey Salads, climbed through a mill of pro-Trump propagandists, thrust itself into “respectable” conservative outlets, and eventually reached its cruising altitude at Fox News—an elevation where President Donald Trump encountered the narrative and tweeted out its message to the nation[djt tweet]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Right-wing activists created and spread hashtags like #VerifiedBullies and #StandWithCovington. Others began building a database of verified Twitter users who had criticized the teens—and in extreme cases provoked harassment and violent rhetoric against the students—and demanded that those users be suspended and, if they were media professionals, to be fired. So far, that campaign has cost at least one media professional their job. All the while, right-wing personalities siphoned off the outrage campaign to promote their own personally branded media efforts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Charlie Kirk, president of Turning Point USA, asked how “anyone still trust the media after this weekend” and declared that journalism “is dead.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5 dumb wk 1/19 AN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson warns women being paid more than men will destroy society.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is by now well-known for his on-air appeals to white nationalism. Last month, his remarks that immigrants make America “poorer and dirtier” have caused him to lose a raft of advertisers in recent weeks. But he also has a serious problem with women — and according to his broadcast on Wednesday, rising pay for women will lead to “men in decline.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson claimed that because “male-dominated” industries like manufacturing are in decline in some parts of the country, but schools, hospitals, and other places that employ large numbers of women are in as high demand as ever, “in many areas, women suddenly made more than men … Study after study shows that when men make less than women, women generally no longer want to marry them.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Over big populations this causes a drop in marriage, a spike in out-of-wedlock births and all the familiar disasters that inevitably follow. More drug and alcohol abuse, higher incarceration rates, fewer families formed in the next generation,” Carlson warned.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch below:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tucker Carlson says women making more money than men leads to “more drug and alcohol abuse, higher incarceration rates, fewer families formed for the next generation” >Naturally, Carlson doesn’t provide any sourcing for these claims. Nor does he seem to have noticed that women in fact earn less than men on average, not more.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lou Dobbs calls Mitt Romney “treasonous” for his op-ed mildly criticizing Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson was not the only right-wing anchor eager to share his opinion this week. Also in the spotlight was Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs, a psychotically pro-Trump anchor who lost itover the Washington Post op-ed by incoming Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), rebuking Trump’s failure of leadership and moral character.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We have Romney,” said Dobbs, “who is basically saying to all of the great Americans in Utah, ‘Go to hell, please! You were a bunch of suckers! And I accepted the Trump endorsement. And now I’m telling Trump what I really think of him.’ What an ignorant — his character?! He’s talking about character?! He’s a traitor, he is treasonous, and betrayed the people of Utah!”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Contrary to Dobbs’ assertion, it is not “treasonous” for a member of a co-equal branch of government to criticize the presidency. And in reality, 64 percent of Utah voters wantRomney to stand up to Trump in office. The good news for Dobbs, though, is that Romney is unlikely to follow through on his anti-Trump posturing beyond empty words. He noted in his op-ed that he supports Trump’s policy agenda, and clarified he intends to vote for Trump’s border wall.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-losing-advertisers-fox-news-response</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Tucker Carlson is facing an advertiser boycott in response to his racist attacks on immigrants. As of Tuesday afternoon, 11 companies have pulled advertising from Carlson's program, including Pacific Life, Indeed, SmileDirectClub, Minted, IHOP, Ancestry.com, ScotteVest, Nerdwallet, Zenni, TD Ameritrade, and Nautilus.[many just switch show? kpfa]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the response from Fox News [lnx lost] is not to take any responsibility for his hateful rhetoric. Rather, they are attacking Sleeping Giants and Media Matters for America, two of the groups spearheading the boycott on social media: ... Fox News is referring to an incident in November in which protestors surrounded Carlson's house, called him a racist, and spray-painted his driveway. The event drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle, although some reports now suggest the unruliness of the demonstrators was somewhat exaggerated. Ironically, given they now claim they "do not advocate boycotts," Fox News responded to that incident by boycotting Twitter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In recent months, Carlson has been engaging in increasingly racist bile on his show, with his rhetoric sometimes bordering on outright white nationalism to the point where neo-Nazi Richard Spencer and KKK grand wizard David Duke have praised him for mainstreaming their beliefs. Carlson has claimed that white people aren't "designed" to live around immigrants, that the original motto of the United States proves diversity is bad, and promoted a white nationalist conspiracy theory that South Africa is trying to push white farmers off their land and kill them (which President Donald Trump then tweeted about and caused an international incident).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the remark that prompted the advertiser boycott was a segment on Thursday in which Carlson openly disdained immigrants as unclean. "Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world's poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided," he said. On Monday, he doubled down on this attack.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News has reason to be jittery about advertiser boycotts. In April 2017, Bill O'Reilly, the longtime right-wing host who previously held Carlson's time slot, was forced out after revelations about his multimillion-dollar settlements to female colleagues he sexually harassed prompted advertisers to flee. Another boycott this March targeted Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham after she mocked Parkland shooting survivor David Hogg for not getting into his top choice of college, although she managed to weather the firestorm.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Fox News wants to prevent advertiser boycotts, they should stop giving legitimacy on air to morally reprehensible people.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Tucker Carlson is currently facing a crisis with one of his advertisers due to controversial remarks he made last week about immigration.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The insurance company Pacific Life issued a statement on Friday expressing extreme dissatisfaction with comments made by Carlson about immigration on the previous night's program. In a public statement, Pacific Life explained that "as a company, we strongly disagree with Mr. Carlson's statements. Our customer base and our workforce reflect the diversity of our great nation, something we take great pride in. We will not be advertising on Mr. Carlson's show in the coming weeks as we reevaluate our relationship with his program."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/tucker-carlson.php</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">myst of tc 9/18</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TUCKER CARLSON IS SHOUTING when he tells me he isn’t shouting. The barrage of his voice has been relentless throughout the interview.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I don’t want to be John McLaughlin yelling at people. Why would I want to do that? I don’t need to do that,” he insists. “I actually don’t think the audience likes that. I don’t like it. But the idea that I win debates because I yell louder, it’s, like, absurd.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I didn’t say you win because you shouted. I just said there is a lot of shouting.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There is not a lot of shouting. I do the show every night. I know what’s on it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Okay,” I say, “but you are shouting right now.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s because I talk loud. I was shouting before."</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am confused. “You were definitely shouting before. That’s why this is funny,” I say laughing nervously. “Because you are like, “I AM NOT SHOUTING!”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson then tells me how he is the loudest person in the restaurant. Just ask his family. I mean, sure he was shouting, but he’s a loud guy, We’ve moved from denial to acceptance in less than a minute. It’s pure Tucker Carlson, a move I’ve seen hundreds of times in the over 40 hours of Tucker Carlson Tonight clips I’ve watched on Fox News in recent months. Reporters go on his show believing they’ll be discussing health care or Donald Trump’s mental health, only to be met with the question, “Do you think you are practicing journalism?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reeling guests stumble and fall. “Answer the question,” Carlson demands. “Answer the question!” But the question is unanswerable.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WHAT HAPPENED TO TUCKER CARLSON? People in media ask themselves this question with the same pearl-clutching, righteous tone they use when discussing their aunt in Connecticut who voted for Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a tweet, Jon Lovett of Crooked Media and Pod Save America, noted, “Tucker Carlson’s transition from conservative serious-ish writer to blustery CNN guy to Daily Caller troll to race-baiting Fox News host is like ice core data on what led to this moment in our politics.” Carlson squandered his considerable God-given talent for scrupulously true commentary, opting instead for clickbait at The Daily Caller or dumbed-down demagoguery at Fox.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s something to all the liberal hand-wringing. In a speech Carlson gave to CPAC in 2009, he pleaded with conservative journalists to focus on reporting rather than punditry. He held up The New York Times as a standard bearer, begging writers “to go out there and find what is happening….not just interpret things they hear in the mainstream media.” His pleas were met with boos.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But just six years later, Carlson was calling out The New York Times for pro-Clinton advocacy, and in June 2018 accused the paper of blatantly lying to the American people about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, Bashar Al-Assad, and Russian interference in the 2016 elections.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If we can figure out how an intelligent writer and conservative can go from writing National Magazine Award–nominated articles to shouting about immigrants on Fox News, perhaps we can understand what is happening to this country, or at least to journalism, in 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If you ask his former editors, they’ll say they’re wistful when they think about the old Tucker Carlson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mark Warren, who edited him at Esquire: “He is an extremely talented writer. [Tucker’s] writing was done with such energy and vitality.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Paul Greenberg, who edited Carlson at The Arkansas Democrat Gazette: “Tucker was a pleasure to work with. I knew he would fit right in in Arkansas when I discovered that he chewed tobacco.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Adam Myerson, Policy Review: “Tucker was an enterprising, hard-working shoe-leather reporter.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tina Brown, who worked with Carlson at her short-lived Talk magazine: “Tucker is a tremendously good writer and I always thought it was a real shame that he kind of like got sucked into this TV mania thing. “</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps fearful of what Carlson has become, few of his former editors were willing to talk on the record about his evolution, except for Brown, who noted crisply in an efficient, six-minute phone interview, “I really think Tucker is better than that.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ICYMI: In a front-page story, NYT summed up McCain’s’s ability to control media—even in death </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ask Tucker Carlson whatever happened to Tucker Carlson, and he gets upset.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Who thinks I’ve changed?” he demands. I didn’t want to give up any of my sources, a few of whom still count him as a friend, so I stammered out my editor’s name.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Uh, Kyle Pope,” I said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Is Kyle kind of dumb?” Carlson responds.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Editor’s note: Arguable.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The question, What happened to Tucker Carlson? is worth answering. If we can figure out how an intelligent writer and conservative can go from writing National Magazine Award–nominated articles and being hailed by some of the best editors in the business, to shouting about immigrants on Fox News, perhaps we can understand what is happening to this country, or at least to journalism, in 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TUCKER MCNEAR SWANSON CARLSON was always going to be a journalist, if only through inertia and nepotism; the talent was a bonus. Carlson is the son of Dick Carlson, a media executive, who used to direct the Voice of America and is a former CEO of The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Tucker was born in 1969, the older of two boys. Their mother, Lisa McNear Carlson, left the family when he was six. “Totally bizarre situation—which I never talk about, because it was actually not really part of my life at all,” Carlson told The New Yorker in 2017.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When Tucker was 10, Dick remarried to Patricia Swanson of the Swanson frozen dinner fortune; her uncle was Senator J. William Fulbright. Carlson and his brother Buckley went to the Rhode Island private school St. George’s and, later, Tucker attended Trinity College, where, as he told the CJR in an interview, he spent his days mostly drunk. He graduated in 1992 and married his high school sweetheart, Susan Anderson.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson applied to the CIA, but his application was denied, so he turned to journalism. “You should consider journalism,” his father told him. “They’ll take anybody.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And they did.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson began working for Policy Review as a fact-checker. “I ended up working for this magazine because the standards are so low,” he explains.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The quip is Carlsonesque—disarming, self-effacing, self-aggrandizing, and a tad insulting. I’m a single mom, a freelance writer with two kids, swiftly facing a future with no healthcare. I’m cobbling together ghostwriting jobs, but it’s not enough. I tell Carlson this and he tells me it’s “all impressive.” The implication is clear. It’s fine for me, but he’s not good at that sort of thing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I have all kinds of problems with authority and being told what to do,” he says. “I was not suited for that kind of work.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think about the application I just filled out for Starbucks. Me neither.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet Carlson insists he, too, was motivated only by the needs of a growing family. He maintains that if someone handed him $5 million he wouldn’t have gotten out of bed. (And he’d be easy to believe, if he wasn’t, in fact, worth over $8 million, and hadn’t himself stood to inherit enough to keep him in a rotating series of beds until retirement.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But it’s the story he’s sticking to. He had to do what he had to do. He didn’t have a choice. He has kids. DC has terrible public schools. His hands were tied. So, in addition to his staff positions, he took freelance jobs. He didn’t want to disappoint his family.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I think this is true of almost everybody unless you happen to inherit a bunch of dough at a young age.” Carlson sounds cavalier as he says this, like the plight of sending kids to a private school in DC is the most relatable thing in history. I wonder about my own career in media. If providing for my kids was my only goal, I’d be back in my marketing job. Which reminds me, I need to check my bank account to make sure I can afford back-to-school shoes and after-school care.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I wonder which one of us is supposed to be the liberal elite media.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Carlson’s story is the story of the working man. He is, in this way, a Trumpish avatar—roguish, rich, independent, and confusing as hell. Despite his pedigree, or more likely because of it, Carlson has managed to become a vox populi of the deplorables. His show attracts an audience of 2.7 million people who see him as a voice of independent Americans. His book Ship of Fools, which rails against the liberal media establishment, is due out in October. The man’s voice and his power are only growing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since Bill O’Reilly was fired from Fox News in October 2017, Carlson has cannibalized O’Reilly’s audience. According to Nielsen Media Research, the top-rated markets for the show are Ft. Myers, Florida; Knoxville, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; West Palm Beach, Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Birmingham, Alabama; Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Greenville, South Carolina; and Buffalo, New York. Only half of these cities went for Trump in the 2016 election, but they are (with the exception of Birmingham and Atlanta) overwhelmingly white and middle class, with an average age of 36. A large part of the jobs held by men in each city are in retail or construction.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite his pedigree, or more likely because of it, Carlson has managed to become a vox populi of the deplorables. His show attracts an audience of 2.7 million people who see him as a voice of independent Americans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These fans consider themselves independent thinkers, like Carlson; they love him for his unanswerable questions. Colleen H., from Utah, told me through Facebook Messenger, “I like the way he has his guests on and they can’t say anything but the truth. He asks them a simple question and they go round and round the truth. He stays right on top of the subject at hand, if his guests don’t…. They only have so long to answer. When they don’t, they’re gone.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A man who goes by the name The Watchman on Twitter, and lives in West Virginia, explained that he likes Carlson because “he seems honest and sincere. I like how he always [asks] what seems to the Democratic Socialist/Liberals as tough questions and they never answer him.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson also has one very big fan in the president of the United States, who watches his show and gleans policy ideas. Only weeks ago, after Carlson spoke on his show about a South African policy of seizing property from white landowners, the president tweeted that he was having his Secretary of State look into the matter. (Both Carlson and Trump misinterpreted the policy. Carlson later clarified his remarks on the issue; Donald Trump has not.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Other vocal fans of Carlson include Richard Spencer, David Duke, and white nationalist website The Daily Stormer. On August 24, 2018, The Daily Stormer published a post that noted gleefully, “Tucker Carlson is basically ‘Daily Stormer: The Show.’ Other than the language used, he is covering all of our talking points.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pointing out the similarities between Nazi supporters and positions advocated by Carlson has become a subgenre of DC media. The most thorough examination was by Carlos Maza, a journalist for Vox, who recently broke down the ways in which Carlson’s talking points resonate with professional racists. His video is worth watching in full, but he points out how Carlson’s show cherrypicks stories of immigrants committing crime and ties illegal immigration to the crime rate. (Studies from the FBI and the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, have proven no link between immigration—illegal or otherwise—and crime.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But he’s not a racist, Carlson insists. It’s bogus. Just because he believes everyone should be able to say what they want without being punished for it, doesn’t mean he supports them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“If you think my views are bad tell me how. But [my accusers] don’t, because they’re either too dumb or they don’t care. They are trying to silence people they disagree with…And they are leading the effort to silence people they disagree with, without any debate, with out any intellectual due process, not legal, intellectual due process.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s voice is rising. He begins to mimic liberals in a higher pitched voice. “Shut up, Nazi. I get to punch you now.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That, he says, is where the world is going.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So is he a racist? “My god, I’m not a racist. I hate racism. Tell me how.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He kept going, mimicking the debate he believes his accusers/liberals/me are having about him. “It’s like ‘Oh, creepy people like your show. Therefore, you shouldn’t have a show.’ What? How could you go along with that? I don’t understand. Like, that’s the lowest form…that’s so contemptible. And it’s, it’s amazing to me that that kind of goes on uniformly. Shut up. You’re a bad person. Go away. You’re fired now. What? Tell me what he did wrong. Speak slowly so that I can understand. What did he say that’s untrue? What did he say that’s not allowed? What’s the right position? Why don’t you explain it to me? Shut up, Nazi.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">His publicist calls after our interview to make sure I know that Carlson is not a racist.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">LIKE MANY WHITE MALE JOURNALISTS, Carlson used to idolize Hunter S. Thompson. And his own early journalism is indeed gonzo-like: freewheeling, voice-driven, squibbish narratives. It is as if Thompson donned a bow-tie, and thought maybe poor people should work a little harder. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At Policy Review Carlson made a mark for himself with pieces like a cringey look at Dunbar High School in Washington, DC.Carlson depicts the historically black high school as on the decline. Fair enough. The high school is one of DC’s worst-performers. But then he traces the roots of the decline to the desegregation of DC schools. The kicker of the article reads, “By heeding its past, Dunbar could once again inspire greatness.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That past is one of segregation. He advocated this line of thinking again in 1996 in an article about the “Lost Black Aristocracy” of Washington. According to Carlson, desegregation meant the loss of rich black people in the city. These black aristocrats, Carlson notes, “had both light skin and, like their ancestors, profoundly integrationist views—seemed like museum pieces in a city whose local politics were increasingly defined by black nationalism.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">With them gone, Carlson mourns, “no force remained to keep the excesses of the civil rights class in check. Political leaders stopped identifying with bourgeois values and began pandering in earnest to the underclass.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson left Policy Review, to work under Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist Paul Greenberg at the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. In 1995, he left to work for the Weekly Standard, where he profiled James Carville. The 1996 article, “James Carville: Populist Plutocrat” skewers Carville for getting rich off his message of populism. It’s a fun piece. Carlson writes with the hooks and jabs he’s famous for on TV, but they’re rendered more deftly on the page:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A wine aficionado (northern Rhones are his favorite), Carville once consumed no fewer than 11 drinks in the company of a reporter on a flight to Los Angeles. He and his wife (former Bush partisan and talk-show host Mary Matalin) have what he calls a “country house” in rural Virginia. He enjoys quality room service, plush bath towels, and cars that come with drivers. He’s a frequent patron of The Palm, one of Washington’s most expensive restaurants. And, as if to make the caricature complete, he loves to play the stock market.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then, in case you think he’s a conservative in good standing, in 1999, Carlson profiled George W. Bush for Tina Brown’s Talkmagazine. He quoted Bush saying “fuck” a lot and had him mimicking a panicked Karla Faye Tucker, a murderer on death row, pleading for her life. Carlson writes: “‘Please’, Bush whimpers, his lips pursed in mock desperation, ‘don’t kill me.’”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Karen Hughes, Bush’s communications director, denied Carlson’s version of the events. But it was enough to mark Carlson as a journalistic rascal. “He really could’ve been one of the very great journalists,” Brown says. “You know because he had an amazing eye for observation. He’s terribly funny and you know he’s just a great stylist. There was a kind of flair to it that I thought was great.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Probably the pinnacle of this journalism career was a 2003 articleabout traveling to Liberia with Al Sharpton; Cornel West; and Franzo King, archbishop and lead sax player of the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, in San Francisco. About King he writes, “King tends to speak in riddles and dictums and parables, and at an almost inaudible volume. One day I told him that I considered some person or other a bit of a phony. King looked at me intently for a moment, then put his hand on the back of my head and pulled my ear to his lips. ‘Is a tree phony because it loses its leaves in winter?’ he whispered.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In this article, Carlson all but accuses Sharpton of reverse racism. His argument in the article, 15 years ago, will sound familiar to anyone who watches his show today. “The idea that I’d be responsible for the sins (or, for that matter, share in the glory of the accomplishments) of dead people who happened to share my skin tone has always confused me,” he wrote. “Racial solidarity wasn’t a working concept in my Southern California hometown. Most people barely had last names, much less ethnic identities. I grew up feeling about as much connection to nineteenth-century slave owners as I did to bus drivers in Helsinki or astronomers in Tirana. We’re all capable of getting sunburned. That’s it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For this, he was nominated for a National Magazine Award.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He didn’t win, but who cares? “I can’t imagine a less coveted accolade than an award from sad, alcoholic former newspaper editorialists, you know?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Go on. “I don’t respect my peers at all. I mean, I just can’t imagine a group whose approval I’m less interested in, because I think so many of them are just so unbelievably mediocre. I mean, mediocre.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s like ‘Oh, creepy people like your show. Therefore, you shouldn’t have a show.’ What? How could you go along with that? I don’t understand. Like, that’s the lowest form…that’s so contemptible. And it’s, it’s amazing to me that that kind of goes on uniformly. Shut up. You’re a bad person. Go away. You’re fired now. What? Tell me what he did wrong. Speak slowly so that I can understand.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the loathing of his own profession, Carlson went to Pakistan for The New York Times Magazine right after 9/11 and almost died in a plane crash. He traveled to Iraq and wrote a sympathetic profile of military contractors and interviewed Paul Ryan, both for Esquire. (None of those assignments, it seems obvious to say, would likely go to Carlson today.)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Along the way, Tucker pivoted to video. Which, in some estimations, was (and is always) a big mistake. To hear Carlson tell it, he stumbled into television the same way he wandered into journalism, because it was quick, easy, and they’d take him. In his 2003 book Politics, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News, Carlson recounts that his first television appearance happened because he came home early from lunch.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I was heading back to my desk with a take-out hot dog one afternoon when I ran into the receptionist. She asked me what I knew about the O.J. trial. My instinct was to answer honestly (“just about nothing”), but for some reason I caught myself. I asked her why she wanted to know. Well, she explained, Dan Rather’s booker just called looking for an O.J. expert to go on 48 Hours tonight. Everyone else is still at lunch. Can you do it?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After that, Carlson was on TV regularly as a talking head. Five years later, in 2000, he was asked to go on CNN to give commentary after the Lieberman-Cheney debate. That analysis launched the CNN show The Spin Room, co-hosted by Carlson and Bill Press. It aired at 1 in the morning, then 11 and 11:30 at night, before finally coming to rest at 10:30. The show was short-lived, and little-loved: “Press is a hopeless, dithering wimp who makes Carlson’s bow-tied twit look like The Rock,” wrote a critic in Entertainment Weekly in 2001. “Between them, Carlson and Press would be hard-pressed to win a debate with network weatherman Flip Spiceland over whether or not the sun is out in Atlanta.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But somehow, despite the cancellation of his debut show, Carlson’s career as player in political TV was on. In 2001, Carlson was asked to co-host Crossfire with Paul Begala. He also hosted a weekly public affairs show on PBS, Tucker Carlson: Unfiltered. The most notable moment of Crossfire, the one everyone remembers, aired on October 15, 2004. That was the day Jon Stewart came on Crossfire and called Tucker Carlson a dick.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s an infamous moment in cable news history. Carlson and Begala seem to think Stewart is there to promote his book, but he immediately begins criticizing the show. Any attempt by the co-hosts to retake control comes off as weak and wheedling. They try to bait him, but Stewart won’t budge. He defends himself as saying he’s just entertainment, a defense that in hindsight feels misleading considering the way The Daily Show changed news and comedy. In response, Carlson stutters. He’s defensive. He laughs nervously, an early sign of what would become a trademark tic. </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Stop, stop, stop, stop hurting America,” Stewart begs Begala and Carlson. The conversation escalates from there, with Stewart lecturing the duo on their cable news theater which masquerades as journalism. Begala says little. It’s Carlson who tries to parry Stewart’s blows. But Stewart does what Carlson would later learn to do so well, he comes out of the gate with an impossible line of questioning and a disingenuous defense.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ICYMI: “I had consumed five or six pills of Tylenol, of 800 milligrams each. I tried to lessen my physical pain.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At one point, Carlson notes, “I do think you’re more fun on your show. Just my opinion.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stewart doesn’t miss a beat. “You know what’s interesting, though? You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson clearly still has scars from the exchange. “Jon Stewart was far more popular than I was,” he says, “and so he was recorded as having won the argument. But I never understood what the argument was.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The argument, of course, was that Carlson was hurting America with his rhetoric. And in some ways, that’s still the argument. The power dynamic has changed. And now, Carlson is the one making people stutter defensively.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Though Stewart has long been off the air, the parallels between the two men still resonate. Today on his show, Carlson often comes right out of the gate with impossible and leading questions, like Stewart did. He recently asked Julissa Arce, an immigrant rights activist and author, if she had regrets for committing a felony. And he asked law professor Ekow N. Yankahwhen it became acceptable to generalize about people based on race. In 2004, people saw Stewart as a rogue, a truth teller, someone who skewered both sides equally. Carlson sees himself the same way. “I think you’ll find a lot of people who say I’m repugnant or expired or whatever, but I don’t think I’m fake.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Crossfire was cancelled a few months after the Stewart appearance, and former CNN President Jon Klein tells CJR that yes, he did agree with Stewart. He cancelled the show in order to change the culture at CNN. “The original premise that two intelligent people from opposite sides of the spectrum could shed some fascinating light on the issues of the day had devolved in a predictable Punch and Judy show.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then he goes even further. “Canceling Crossfire was one of the best decisions I made,” says Klein. In response to Klein, Carlson shot back, “I was long gone from CNN and employed at another network by the time Crossfire got canceled. But for the record Jon Klein is a small and dishonest person.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For about a second, the moment marked a watershed for Carlson. He seemed to change. He got an MSNBC show and told people it would be different. He wouldn’t shout. He ditched the bow tie.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a 2005 interview about his now-cancelled MSNBC show, Carlson told Television Week, “This is not ever a show that will ever have guests debating each other. Ever. That is the form in cable news. We’re never doing that. Ever. That’s a worn-out format, and I am not going to do that…‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’ I hate that.” That same article described Carlson as saying “no” to shouting matches.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He then went on Dancing with the Stars and was immediately voted off.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFTER MSNBC CANCELLED CARLSON’S SHOW, in 2008, he and his college roommate, former Dick Cheney aide Neil Patel, launched a media start-up, The Daily Caller. The Caller was supposed to be a new kind of conservative outlet—thoughtful, responsible, researched. They hired Megan Mulligan from TheGuardian to run the day-to-day editorial operations, and for awhile at least, Carlson was hands on. He’d go to editorial meetings with note cards full of ideas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But the site was probably doomed from the beginning. To start with, The Daily Caller was funded by conservative philanthropist Foster Friess, who is famous for telling Andrea Mitchell that in his day, “gals” used to clutch aspirin between their knees as a form of birth control. Editorially, Carlson insisted the site would be independent, and in March 2010, the Caller ran a story about RNC chair Michael Steele using party funds on a private plane and an evening at a bondage-themed nightclub. The story was poorly sourced and drew more skepticism than accolades.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When writer Mickey Kaus published an article criticizing Fox News, Carlson immediately removed it. Carlson had a contract with the network as a commentator and, according to Kaus, he said he couldn’t criticize Carlson’s employer. So much for independence. Kaus insists he respects Carlson’s decision and that it’s all “water under the bridge,” but the dream of a rogue outlet of hard-hitting, conservative journalism was never realized. And the site withered from there. Right now the site highlights sensationalist stories about “illegal aliens,” justifiable homicide, and a hit piece on Beto O’Rourke.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What The Daily Caller became, a former employee told me, was far different than what it was intended to be. “They used all the technology that told them who was reading the site and what they wanted. So, they gave the people what they wanted.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Which brings us to where we find Carlson today and what the hell happened to him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Every segment and every outburst that “media elites” criticize just make his fans love him more. The more outrage he inspires, the braver, the bolder, the more courageous he seems to his audience.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, the question What happened to Tucker Carlson? is, in the words of Carlson, Are you dumb? If you are asking it, he isn’t for you, and perhaps he was never for you.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The two ways of seeing Tucker Carlson are best explained through the titles of YouTube videos: “‘The Day CNN Will Never Forget’ Jon Stewart Wrecks CNN to Pieces” one Tucker Carlson clip is titled. “FLASHBACK: Tucker Brutally Exposes Hypocritical Stewart on Crossfire” another claims. They both link to essentially the same video footage, the day Carlson was lectured by Stewart. Similarly, “Tucker Carlson Meets His Maker Lauren Duca” and “Tucker Slays Crazy Lauren Duca” show the same clip. These clips are a lesson in the disconnect between the Americas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For his fans, the criticisms of him and the controversy drummed up by the show create the perception of Carlson (a rich white man who owns multiple homes and could inherit even more money) as an underdog. A charming rogue. Someone who succeeds no matter what the liberal media tries to smear on him. “My role is really simple,” he tells me, “I want to tell the truth as I see it. I want to be as honest as I can. I don’t think of myself as representing any group of people anywhere.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Every segment and every outburst that “media elites” criticize just make his fans love him more. The more outrage he inspires, the braver, the bolder, the more courageous he seems to his audience.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And who doesn’t love a rogue? Since the day Hermes stole Apollo’s cattle, people have always loved a renegade. Hell, America voted for a rogue as president. In that way, Carlson is perfect for this moment in history. A man without loyalties, except to the truth. And for what it’s worth, Carlson has always characterized himself this way. He belongs to no clubs except a fly fishing one. He belongs to no party. He even says he has a spotty history of voting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A former co-worker likens Carlson’s appeal to that of a rowdy prep school frat boy. “What’s the reputation of frat boys? They go get drunk, chase after women, okay?… What’s not to like? What’s not to identify with? It’s basically what a lot of American culture is about.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And Carlson has a rowdy frat-boy reputation. He is rumored to have dumped a drink on the head of Grover Norquist, after Norquist insulted his father. (Carlson clarified to me through his PR person that it was not water.) Carlson also once gave a party for Jack Abramoff, as a way to spit in the eye of the DC elite. Additionally, according to an account he wrote about in Politics, Partisans, and Parasites, he was almost brought down by scandal when was accused of raping a woman in Indiana. The woman, whom he names in the book, Kimberly Carter, accused Carlson of drugging and raping her at Harper’s Restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky. CJR tried to speak to Carter about the incident, but was unable to reach her and her lawyer did not return calls and emails requesting comment. But according to the book, the incident was groundless. Carter and Carlson were never in the same room together, the charges were dropped and Carter recanted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The book itself is a frustrating compilation of anecdotes that includes a vigorous defense of Gary Condit and the line, “I couldn’t imagine [Monica Lewinsky] wearing a thong. I couldn’t imagine wanting to see it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’m sorry, are you offended? That’s the whole point of the book—his irascible and contrarian humor. And if you don’t find it funny, well, he writes, “Liberals used to be funny. They edited magazines like National Lampoon. They had a claim on cool. Then something happened. They became sour and earnest and neurotic about secondhand smoke. The Democratic party became the party of the uptight establishment, the that’s-not-funny-young-man party, the party of no fun.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Immediately after his musings on the dour moralizing of liberals, Carlson describes a drunk Jim Traficant’s attempting to assault a cable news employee. It’s a funny anecdote for him. “It was always acceptable to be amused by Jim Traficant, and I usually was,” he writes. It’s the equivalent of a man telling you to go make him a goddamn sandwich, then calling you uptight when you cross your arms and frown. I can imagine Carlson telling me I was humorless for writing this. He’d be bored by my moralizing, and as a former employee of his told me, “Tucker hates to be bored.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s like Carlson wrote about Bill O’Reilly: “[He is a] guy who tells the truth and demands that others do the same. A man who won’t be pushed around or take maybe for an answer … And like everyone in media he has a schtick … It works. But there’s a price. O’Reilly’s success is built on the perception that he really is who he claims to be. If he ever gets caught out of character, it’s over.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He then concludes that O’Reilly won’t get caught out of character, because his real life persona and TV character have merged. It’s an insight that feels jarring in light of O’Reilly’s sexual misconduct allegations. And it’s something I heard people say over and over about Carlson—that on TV he was a persona. But by the time I spoke to him, I couldn’t see the difference. It’s a Shakespearean conundrum, one Hamlet grappled with as he pretended to be mad. Insisting, until the end, that he knew a “hawk from a handsaw.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spoiler alert: The stories of O’Reilly and Hamlet don’t end well for anyone.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet whatever grand unified theory of Carlson you believe impacts how you see his career. How you see America.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And we could go round and round. All theories seem to be truth and untrue. But this wily incongruity of Carlson—his refusal to be pinned down, his legendary contrarianism—is why his audience loves him. He’s an independent thinker, just like them. He’s not loyal to a party, just like them. He tells them to think for themselves. To trust no one. The mainstream media is lying to you, he says. Everyone, except him of course. It’s like the scene in the movie, The Life of Brian where Brian, tells a crowd of people, “You are all individuals.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We are all individuals!” they yell in unison.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Well not me,” one man pipes up from the back.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s “independence,” says Richard West, professor of communications at Emerson College and author of five books on interpersonal communications, is “change-the-subject conservatism.” Meaning that Carlson’s deftness in defying any one party or ideology and is more about a winning rhetorical strategy than a noble enterprise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“It’s quite a remarkable tactic,” West explains, “because you don’t give people an opportunity to digest … I do believe he’s a conversational narcissist. He hijacks the conversation and contorts it to his own value structure.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson, through his PR person, stated, “I have no idea what that means and West is welcome to come on the show anytime. But I bet you dinner, he is too afraid.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Carlson’s fans hear, in response to that kind of intellectual moralizing from West, is just another boring lib who doesn’t get it. In a Kindle single titled Bill O’Reilly and Tucker Carlson: The Transition of Very Different Conservative Hosts at Fox News the author, Richard West (but not the communications professor from Emerson), revels in Carlson’s tricksterism. This West notes that in August of 2017, Carlson stated that Donald Trump staring at the eclipse without protective eyewear was the “the most impressive thing a president has ever done.“</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This comment catalyzed a lot of people to mock Carlson. But for Carlson and his supporters, it was an inside joke. Carlson later told Business Insider, “It was a test to see if liberals are really as slow and humorless as people claim,” Carlson said. “Turns out they are.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s a neat trick. Say something and when challenged, insist it was a joke. As if jokes themselves rise above criticism. Or by not laughing you are a humorless bore—a liberal. It’s just a play on another Carlson rhetorical move: Say something and then, when criticized, insist that criticism is an attempt to infringe on free speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This was the circle of hell I found myself stuck in during my interview with Carlson. I had expected a genial conversation. Every profile of Carlson depicts him as a lovely, rational man—fly fishing, making pancakes, leaning back in a chair and chewing Nicorette. Sources have told me he’s charming. He’s engaging. He’s fun and interesting. And all of that was from people who think his politics are abhorrent. My editor offered to send me out to meet him, but Carlson declined. I got a phone call instead. Which, okay, maybe he was busy and besides, I’m not famous. But after our initial conversation about how much we both love Cheetos and both wish we had more kids, the conversation devolved into a lecture on free speech. It was a kind of boring lecture, the kind Carlson abhors. It seemed like a moot point. He has a large platform and all the money and privilege. Who is censoring him? And by that token, conservatives have won. They have the White House and congress. So much winning, right?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After our initial conversation about how much we both love Cheetos and both wish we had more kids, the conversation devolved into a lecture on free speech.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But according to Carlson, censorship is everywhere. Liberals are suppressing free speech in America by saying they are offended by everything, he tells me. The tech guy at Google, he says, who was fired for exercising his free speech. Carlson is referring to the ex-Google employee James Damore who wrote posts on an internal company message board attributing psychological differences between men and women as the reason there was a gender gap at Google. Damore, Carlson argues, was fired for exercising his free speech. He was the epitome of diversity. And he got fired in the name of diversity. America, what a country. It’s totally Orwellian.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And did I know that biologists have proven there are only two genders? Just two. And no high school teacher in the world would tell me otherwise. But it makes liberals mad when you say the truth. Get a biologist to say he’s wrong and he’ll listen but until then. No.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I point out that sexuality and gender are inherently different and maybe he’s conflating the two. “Look biological reality is… super deep and exists apart from whatever social construct you’re buying into…and that comes with all kinds of physical consequences,” he explains, explaining nothing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After the interview, I sent his PR person a link to an article that explains how science has indeed concluded that gender is not binary. His PR person told me “he has no comment on that.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson sees himself as brave for pointing out these truths in the minefield of liberal feelings. He likens it to Galileo, put to death for saying the earth is round. “You should be allowed to say what is provably true and I guess if you don’t agree with that…. that’s by definition irrational and it freaks me out when a large organization punishes people on the basis of irrational belief, because once that starts happening, like, why not kill the people that disagree with you?”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Is this censorship,” I manage to ask, “or just consequences? Doesn’t speech have consequences?” But Carlson dodges.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You agreed there are some things we are not allowed to say because of diversity,” he says.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“No, I don’t agree with that.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You did.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“No. No. No. No.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Because consequences. Yeah you did.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So apparently, by asking, I’m censoring.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I think about the power imbalance. This man. Who has money. Status. 2.7 million viewers. He holds the attention of the president. And me? I might be “the liberal elite,” but I buy groceries at Wal-Mart, live in Iowa, and after 12 years of working as a writer, I still can’t get many outlets to even respond to my pitches.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Carlson’s PR person was concerned about silencing, too. She demanded that Carlson be able to respond to every criticism in this piece. And then, if the people who made those criticisms had a response, that Carlson be able to respond to that.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You want him to have the last word?” I asked.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Yes!” she shouted. She was shouting at me, too.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I told her he has a show. He has a large audience. He has a website. He has a Twitter following. I was sure he’d be able to find a way to respond without an endless feedback loop. She insisted. She didn’t want him to be silenced.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Carlson isn’t being silenced. He’s plenty loud enough. And anyway I don’t want to silence him. I don’t want to end free speech, I just want to tell him speech has consequences. I tell him that a year after Trump was elected I ended my 12-year marriage to a Republican.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’ve seen speech have real disastrous consequences. I am going through a divorce right now because of the way speech and politics and religion have worked out in my own marriage. So yes, I see intellectually, free speech. But personally, I see the deep pain. Like everyone, I see a problem in America and I don’t know a way around it.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“You don’t know,” says Carlson, “Well, I do know… You oughta let people say what they think and you shouldn’t punish them for that, period. That’s how I feel.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I am trying to listen. I am trying to understand. I want to understand. If I can figure out what happened to Tucker Carlson, how he went from successful magazine writer to contrarian journalist to raving Fox News host, I believe I will understand what happened to my country, my life even. What happened to make a rich white man the vox populi? How did I, a mom in the Midwest who can’t afford health care, become the humorless, censoring, liberal elite? How are the winners still insisting they are losers? What happened to this whole mess of a world? So I listen and listen. But I get no answers. Most of the quotes I get don’t make any sense. And I’m no closer to an answer now than when I started.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All I know is, he was definitely shouting.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ICYMI: The FBI’s secret investigation of a journalist</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>