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MMA MISINFORMER OF THE YEAR 2022 INCLUDES DENIAL  b/c amp echo escalator // musk twit

sorta neglected flood zone w shit?

see see they are coming for you

own the libs wedge culture war

SEE AMPLIFY ECHO ESCALATOR

hype fear

see LIE ANY MEANS

fascism

what kind of xian?

see fauci attacks

SEE DANIEL PERRY

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top of escalator food chain:

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OMG

MMA

Fox News defends Texas man convicted of murdering Black Lives Matter protester and attacks DA who prosecuted the case

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that he would seek a pardon for convicted murderer Daniel Perry after Fox's Tucker Carlson asked him to

Written by Spencer Silva

Research contributions from Torri Lonergan

Published 04/12/23

Fox News personalities are rallying behind Daniel Perry, a Texas man who was convicted of murdering a Black Lives Matter protester, and attacking the district attorney overseeing his case.

On April 7, a Travis County jury convicted Perry of murdering a protester at a Black Lives Matter rally in 2020. Perry, then an active-duty Army sergeant and ride-share driver, shot and killed an armed protester named Garrett Foster. In June 2020, a month before the shooting, Perry texted a friend saying, “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work, they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” Perry’s attorney claimed that he was acting in self-defense, but witnesses indicated that he was driving dangerously close to protesters and that Foster never aimed his weapon at Perry. The jury sided with witnesses who contradicted Perry.

Nonetheless, Tucker Carlson and other Fox News personalities defended Perry and attacked Travis County District Attorney José Garza, whose office prosecuted the case, claiming that Garza unfairly targeted an upstanding conservative and is a shill for philanthropist George Soros.

Carlson campaigns for pardon and rails against “Soros-funded” DA guilty of “legal atrocity”

The same day Perry was convicted, Carlson dedicated a segment of his show to arguing that Perry had acted in self-defense against a “mob of rioters” that included Foster, whom Carlson smeared as “a militant with a history of waving his rifle at people.” Carlson also blamed Austin’s “Soros-funded” district attorney for engineering a politically motivated murder charge, claiming that “means in the state of Texas, if you have the wrong politics, you’re not allowed to defend yourself.”

Carlson ended the segment by criticizing Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott for his apparent unwillingness to discuss the “legal atrocity” on Carlson's show. Abbott’s absence, Carlson argued, amounted to an endorsement of the murder conviction. “So that is Greg Abbott’s position: There is no right of self-defense in Texas.”

The next day, Abbott answered Carlson’s call and tweeted that he was “working as swiftly as Texas law allows regarding the pardon of Sgt. Perry.”

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From the April 7, 2023, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Carlson and Fox News have demonstrated a pattern of blaming “Soros-backed” district attorneys and prosecutors for supposedly allowing crime to go unchecked, but then reflexively defending acts of violence committed against left-wing protestors by perpetrators sympathetic to its right-wing audience. Perhaps the most memorable example is Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois resident who shot several protesters — killing two — during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and subsequently rose to right-wing fame.

In fact, Carlson called upon Rittenhouse to help him plead Perry’s case during his April 10 prime-time show. The two spent an entire segment petitioning Abbott to pardon Perry. Rittenhouse told Carlson that Perry “defended himself” and argued that Perry “knows what he did was right.” For his part, Carlson said, “George Soros can’t pay for people to put his political opponents in jail and then have a Republican governor ignore it.”

After Rittenhouse was acquitted of homicide charges in 2021, Carlson lavished praise on Rittenhouse, calling him a “sweet kid,” while other Fox personalities and guests described Rittenhouse as “a bit of an icon” and a “good kid” who just did “what the government should have done.”

Fox personalities lionize Perry and criticize “activist DA” who “doesn't believe in law and order”

As with Rittenhouse, Fox News is lionizing Perry and framing him as a victim of a “Soros-backed” district attorney with a political agenda:

On Fox & Friends First, guest co-host Ashley Strohmier described racial justice protests as “riots” before noting of the district attorney, “Garza is being criticized for letting numerous criminals off easy,” and interviewing the family of a murder victim in Austin who said Garza “cherry-picks who he would like to prosecute and who he lets go.”

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From the April 11, 2023 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends First

Fox & Friends guest co-host Lisa Boothe asked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — who is under federal investigation for allegedly using his position to solicit bribes — if he agreed that “progressive district attorneys are trying to do across the country is nullify our right to self-defense.” Paxton responded that Soros is “dropping nuclear bombs on our state.”

In other segments, Boothe claimed that, in Perry’s situation, “I would shoot” and argued that the “far-left Austin DA” and other progressives do not want citizens to defend themselves. “What it comes down to is these DAs, these progressive DAs in the country, they don’t want you to engage in self-defense,” she argued. “I guess you're just supposed to allow yourself to die?”

On America Reports, one of Fox News’ so-called “straight news” programs, Fox guest Leo Terrell applauded Abbott for “doing the right thing” and argued that Perry had “acted in self-defense.” Terrell then argued that Garza was a “DA who doesn't believe in law and order; he believes in George Soros.” (Guest co-host Bill Melugin also described Garza as “Soros-backed” during a follow-up question.)

During the same segment, co-host Sandra Smith played a clip featuring Perry’s mother pleading her son’s case. Smith described her sympathetically as “a mother who has gone through quite a lot here, and understandable, her emotion here.”

Video

Citation

From the April 10, 2023, edition of Fox News' America Reports

During the April 11 edition of Outnumbered, Fox panelists agreed that Perry had been the victim of a rogue district attorney. Co-host Kayleigh McEnany argued that Garza had “campaigned on prosecuting cops” and cited a local crime commission’s charges that Garza had withheld critical evidence from investigations. “When you're a rogue DA funded by George Soros, you get results like this,” McEnany said.

Meanwhile, right-wing radio host Ben Ferguson argued that Perry had been the victim of an “activist DA” who targeted him for being in the military. “You go to the police, you tell them where you are, you tell them what happened. They say you're good. It's self-defense. You're OK. And a year later, an activist DA comes in and says no, you're in the military. I'm going to go after you because you're in the military."

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From the April 11, 2023, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered

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Tucker Carlson claims that George Soros is funding the “collapse of civilization”

09/13/22 8:50 PM EDT

Tucker Carlson claims America is under government run anarchy thanks to a “Soros-inspired justice system”

04/03/23 8:32 PM EDT

Fox News has ignored Trump's incitement of violence and racist attack on DA Alvin Bragg

03/24/23

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ref mma

bill Melugin is Fox News’ top anti-migrant reporter}:

Melugin plays the role of a straight journalist, but he uses Border Patrol talking points to push an anti-immigrant agenda

Written by John Knefel

Research contributions from Justin Horowitz

:{Published 05/17/22

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin and his fans in right-wing media want their audiences to think he’s a straight news reporter -- the kind of dispassionate journalist who follows the facts wherever they take him. In reality, Melugin is a far-right propagandist masquerading as a neutral, disinterested voice.

“You know what I love about him, he just calls balls and strikes,” Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz said in December. “Bill, you do excellent work and we’re going to continue to follow your investigative reporting,” former NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch claimed on her podcast in 2020. “God bless Bill Melugin for seeking the facts,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) said on a recent episode of Fox & Friends. “He’s one of the only journalists in this country covering the undeclared invasion of the United States,” Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson gushed on January 26.

This explanation of his job is similar to how Melugin describes himself. “The reason why I was an investigative reporter for six years before I started at Fox News is because I like shining light where others don’t want it,” he told Chafetz in December, adding, “My job is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted.” This framing allows him to launder pro-cop, anti-immigrant propaganda into the news cycle with a veneer of objectivity.

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:{Melugin is ubiquitous on Fox News, having logged 421 segments since he became an official Fox News correspondent in April 2021, according to Media Matters’ internal database. As the network’s lead voice at the southern border, he will likely only appear more in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections as Republicans recycle their predictable anti-migrant fearmongering.

He has appeared on Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show at least 58 times and played a prominent role in the Season Two premiere of Tucker Carlson Originals on Fox Nation. Prior to joining Fox News full time, he was a reporter at Fox Television Station’s KTTV channel in Los Angeles, and he has been making regular appearances on the cable network since at least January 2020. His job at both outlets has been to frame immigration issues and reform of the criminal punishment system in a sensationalistic way, adopting wholesale the opinions and concerns of law enforcement and restrictionist, anti-migrant activists.}:

But unlike the unhinged anti-immigrant monologues of opinion hosts on the network like Laura Ingraham and Carlson, Melugin’s contributions to the Fox News propaganda machine are news packages and live standup shots at the border. He plays the straight man to Carlson's and Ingraham’s howling comedians, and his presence on the border and posture of journalistic impartiality give his words — and therefore Carlson’s and Ingraham’s — more weight than they would otherwise have. As the old vaudeville saying goes, comedians are a dime a dozen, but if you've got a straight man you've got an act.

The terminally online may remember Melugin from his stint as Twitter’s main character in the summer of 2020 after he credulously reported that a Starbucks employee had placed a tampon into a Los Angeles police officer’s coffee cup. The cop’s claim was ludicrous from the outset, as Melugin’s own post made clear. The foreign object looked nothing like a tampon. But for Melugin, all that mattered was that a cop told him it was. A subsequent LA sheriff's department investigation found the offending object was a cleaning cloth, not a tampon.

This episode isn’t just an embarrassing example of a journalist getting a story wrong. Even the most diligent reporters need to issue corrections over the course of their career. Instead, this screw-up is a microcosm of Melugin’s entire approach to reporting. He acts as a mouthpiece for law enforcement, thereby ingratiating himself into its ranks, even at the expense of his own professional reputation. By his own admission, if he wasn’t in journalism, he would go to law school to become a prosecutor. He excels at manufacturing what left-wing activists call copaganda, and he has been handsomely rewarded for it.

The Del Rio bridge story

Melugin’s primary beat is the southern border, a region he consistently portrays as lawless, dangerous, and porous as a result of liberal politicians’ fecklessness. Migrants in his stories appear as threats — either as vectors to spread COVID-19, or as terrorists, criminals, or undesireables who will be a drain on society. In Melugin’s coverage, the U.S.-Mexico border is not simply a demarcation between countries. It is a line that divides the civilized world from the uncivilized, order from chaos, producer from parasite, deserving citizen from undeserving alien. It’s a region where under-resourced Border Patrol agents must heroically stave off invasion from unrelenting hordes of criminals-in-waiting, all while being persecuted by the Woke Industrial Complex back home.

Melugin was the key driver of one of the biggest immigration stories of 2021, the perceived crisis of Haitian migrants who had established a small camp under the International Bridge in Del Rio, Texas. There was a crisis, but it was for the Haitians who were relegated to extreme deprivation, humiliation, and stigma — not for the residents of Del Rio or for the United States more broadly.

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Melugin initially used an airborne drone to cover the story, later appearing on Tucker Carlson Tonight repeatedly to discuss his footage. When the Federal Aviation Administration instituted a two-week flight restriction over Del Rio, the Texas Department of Public Safety allowed him to embed in an agency helicopter to continue his coverage. The FAA later gave Fox clearance to fly the drone again, which Melugin did, keeping the manufactured crisis in the headlines.

The Del Rio bridge story is a point of pride for Melugin, a story that forced national news outlets to cover a topic he believes they regularly ignore. “What we’re doing with the border right now — there’s no other national networks down there,” Melugin told Chafetz during an appearance on his podcast. “The only time they showed up was with the Del Rio bridge situation, with all the Haitians, and the only reason they showed up is because we were down there with the drone.”

As much as Melugin wants to portray himself as a straight reporter, he clearly favors a restrictionist approach to immigration that’s heavily reliant on criminalization of border crossing. “I’ll be frank with you, I feel like I’m banging my head against the wall,” he told conservative radio host and Fox News contributor Guy Benson in January. “I don’t know what else I have to show to wake people up. It almost seems like half the country wants to plug their head in the ground and pretend it’s not happening.”

This bias often shows up in subtle ways, like when Melugin internalizes Border Patrol lingo. He regularly refers to families as “family units,” the official, and dehumanizing, term used by the Department of Homeland Security. His reports often sound like he’s on safari, hunting prey. “Just a short time ago we had a group of runners come zipping right by us,” he said in November. “We found two of those runners hiding in a bush. Very difficult to see them.” Later in the segment, Melugin referenced a “remarkable” video published by far-right website Breitbart that showed a man trying to sink rafts migrants were using to cross the Rio Grande.

He often speaks about “got-aways,” that is, human beings who crossed the border without authorization that Border Patrol failed to apprehend. “A very, very high-level DHS source told me that since October, there have already been more than 220,000 known got-aways,” Melugin said in March. The term increased in popularity with conservatives following a September 2020 Border Patrol propaganda video called “The Gotaway,” reportedly inspired by Trump advisor and white nationalist Stephen Miller, that falsely presented immigrants as dangerous, criminal threats. More responsible reporters will occasionally use “got-away” to reference Border Patrol statements, but with Melugin the sinister connotations are just below the surface. “Just in the last six months alone here at the border there have been more than 300,000 known got-aways,” Melugin said during a segment that framed migrants as potential terrorists. “Former ICE Director Tom Homan says these terrorist numbers, these guys caught at the border last year, are a major concern.”

Melugin’s restrictionist approach frames his entire body of work, which treats increased levels of border crossing as inherently negative, and naturalizes prejudice against people from the global south. “Migrants just walking across the river, illegally entering the state of Texas,” Melugin said in March. “Border agents tell us you can expect this to get a whole lot worse if and when Title 42 drops,” he reported, referring to a racist Trump-era policy that allows officials to immediately expel asylum-seekers. He treats the release of single adult migrant men as inherently scandalous, implying that they are invaders disappearing into the shadows, lying in wait to commit violence. “We’re watching bus after bus after bus dropping off 50, 60 adult men at a time, sometimes with ankle monitors,” Melugin reported in January. “They get on a bus, they call a taxi, they go to the airport, and they’re gone.”

At the height of the interest in the Del Rio bridge story, Melugin used his on-the-ground presence to run interference for Border Patrol and sow confusion about its mistreatment of the migrants there. An iconic photograph taken by Paul Ratje appeared to depict a Border Patrol agent on horseback whipping a Haitian migrant, prompting national outrage, including from President Joe Biden. “I’ve never seen them whip anyone,” Ratje told local Texas TV station KTSM several days after it went viral. “[The agent] was swinging it, but it can be misconstrued when you’re looking at the picture.”

Melugin tweeted out that interview, claiming the photographer said “he and his colleagues never saw agents whipping anyone and the photos are being misconstrued. However, the false narrative is off and running.” Melugin’s tweet, which told a straightforward story of a photographer unequivocally distancing himself from how his work was being interpreted, was later picked up by The Federalist in a piece attacking the Biden administration for criticizing Border Patrol. The narrative that Biden was lying about the mistreatment of Haitian migrants at the border took hold and continues to be a story among anti-immigrant news outlets and organizations.

The reality of the situation, and Ratje’s feelings about his photo, are far more nuanced. Ratje told Time magazine in March that after his initial comment to KTSM saying he never saw the agents use their reins as whips, he was “portrayed” as giving the agents “a pass.” He tracked down the man in the photograph, Mirard Joseph, who attested in court documents that Border Patrol “lashed at” him. But more broadly, Joseph described his contact with Border Patrol as humiliating and dangerous and said the day the photo was taken was one of the worst of his life. Ratje’s determination to present Joseph and his family as fellow human beings, deserving of dignity and respect, stands in stark contrast to Melugin’s own coverage.

Groundwork for Carlson’s and Ingraham’s racism

The way Melugin’s coverage gets operationalized on Fox News is just as important as the coverage itself. The network’s two most open bigots — Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham — are, not coincidentally, two of Melugin’s biggest fans.

Beyond giving Melugin a central role in his paranoid documentary, Carlson regularly has Melugin on his show or otherwise references him and praises his work. Melugin’s coverage in some cases has served as the foundation for Carlson’s most extreme white nationalist programming, specifically his repeated endorsements of the racist “great replacement” theory, which holds that there is an international conspiracy by global elites to bring nonwhite people to the United States and Western Europe to seize political and cultural power through immigration.

Although Melugin had been appearing on Fox News regularly since at least early 2020, it was in September last year, during the Del Rio bridge story, that Melugin and Carlson's symbiotic relationship fully developed. Over the course of three nights, Carlson became progressively more racist, culminating in his embrace of the great replacement theory. Carlson aired a report from Melugin on the first show, and Melugin appeared as a guest on the following two nights. His dispatches over this period laid the foundation for some of Carlson's most xenophobic, openly racist rhetoric to date.

On Monday, September 20, Carlson played some of Melugin’s weekend footage from the bridge. “Bill Melugin has been on this story like nobody else,” Carlson said while introducing the footage. In the prerecorded segment, Melugin described the number of Haitians crossing the river as a “never-ending stream,” saying that the situation “is insane” and that the “federal government has to wake up.” Carlson then conspiratorially asked “how did they afford it,” the implication being that George Soros-aligned organizations were footing the bill for the migrants’ travel. He then claimed the Border Patrol chief had said only the single adult men among the migrants will be deported. “Yeah, right,” he exclaimed. “The rest will be processed and released into what you thought was your country but turns out isn't.”

On Tuesday, Melugin appeared live on Carlson’s show in the lead segment, arguably the most important real estate in all of cable news. “Look, it's hard to believe that this camp over my shoulder is actually in the United States,” Melugin said gravely. “It's more reminiscent of somewhere from the Third World, and law enforcement out here is on record as saying that.” Later in the segment, Carlson said the Haitians are “eager for the free health care, the education, the housing vouchers, food stamps, and much more that Joe Biden has promised them.” He warned his audience that “the people you just saw on your screen could very well be choosing your president at some point” and invoked the great replacement theory in all but name, saying, “This is an attempt to change the demographics of the United States in order to give permanent power to the Democratic Party.”

On Wednesday, Carlson invited Melugin back, again fueling one of his most overtly white-supremacist segments to date, as he fully endorsed the great replacement theory. “What Joe Biden is doing now will change this country forever, so again, why is he doing it? There's only one plausible answer. You're not allowed to say it out loud,” Carlson said. “In political terms, this policy is called the great replacement, the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far away countries.” Around the same time, other Fox News personalities began pushing the racist conspiracy theory as well.

From this period onward, there is no shortage of examples of Carlson using racist, dehumanizing, or otherwise bigoted language when discussing Melugin’s reporting. On December 17, Carlson argued that “demographic change underway right now in the United States” is a “direct assault to democracy,” before tossing to Melugin.

In January, Carlson used the word “invasion” multiple times in conjunction with Melugin’s reporting. The following month, Carlson suggested that the Biden administration is allowing fentanyl smuggling across the border because opioid overdose deaths are harming white people, and “their deaths may have helped the equity agenda by changing the demographics of the country in a way that benefits the Democratic Party.” He then went to a report from Melugin from the border, sourced to law enforcement, to underscore his point.

The dynamic is the same when Melugin appears on The Ingraham Angle, which he’s been on at least 15 times. “Every crime they commit, every tax dollar they consume, every disease that is spread, every cartel member that's enriched, all of it is on Joe Biden,” Ingraham said on September 20, at the height of the Del Rio bridge panic, after she cited Melugin’s reporting. Earlier that month, channeling the great replacement theory, Ingraham said Biden saw migrants as “fodder for cheap labor and easy votes.” She often characterized migrants as a public health risk, as on January 25, when she said in response to a Melugin segment, “Presumably many unvaxxed illegals can just get free rides to wherever they please.”

Fox News' coverage has clearly had an effect. A recent poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that “about 1 in 3 U.S. adults believes an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” The consequences of popularizing that racist conspiracy theory have been disastrous. On May 14, an 18-year-old man shot 13 people, killing 10, in Buffalo, New York, in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Most of his victims were Black, and in his manifesto he espoused racist, antisemitic, xenophobic, and explicitly fascist views.

Although he wrote that he had been radicalized on extremist message boards during the pandemic, the shooter’s alleged manifesto repeatedly cites the great replacement conspiracy theory popularized and embraced by Tucker Carlson, which has in turn been widely embraced by mainstream elected Republicans. In that way, the massacre mirrored racist attacks carried out in El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand. Fox News, and Carlson specifically, have taken this once-fringe idea and normalized it. Melugin's alarmist border dispatches are an indispensable element of the network's formula, and he bears significant responsibility for the mainstreaming of the racist great replacement theory and the consequences it entails.

The terrorist threat that wasn’t

For Melugin, people who cross the border without authorization pose an urgent danger, especially if they can be tied to the underground drug economy, or, even better, associated with the threat of terrorism. Reactionaries have promoted the idea that the southern U.S. border is a ripe avenue for terrorists to enter the country since the 9/11 attacks. That myth has been repeatedly debunked, but Melugin has been happy to resurrect it to further stigmatize migrants.

On April 18, Melugin co-wrote an article for Fox News’ website with an alarmist headline warning that Customs and Border Protection had “stopped 23 people on terrorist database at southern border in 2021.” As Media Matters documented, that story served as the basis for seven segments that day on Fox News and was picked up by far-right network competitors Newsmax and One America News Network as well.

The Terrorist Screening Database, which Melugin’s story referred to, is notoriously unreliable as an indicator of past, present, or future violent acts or tendencies. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, responded to Melugin’s article by laying out how easy it is for people to be added to the database through nothing but a chain of unrelated telephone calls. The government regularly keeps people in the database even after they’ve been cleared of wrongdoing, and experts have called for the judiciary to rule the database unconstitutional based on the fact that it’s arbitrary, shrouded in secrecy, and overly broad in its data collection and retention. In other words, the fact that 23 of the people CBP stopped were associated with that database could be, by itself, almost entirely meaningless.

Still, for Melugin, the arbitrary number 23 could be even further abstracted into fuel for xenophobic paranoia. “Those are only the ones they caught, only the ones they know about,” Melugin told Carlson on the evening his story was published. “That's a major concern, because CBP officials tell us in the last six months alone here at the border, there have been more than 300,000 known got-aways.”

Wow, what a big number. What a big number that means absolutely nothing.

The Los Angeles beat

Melugin’s secondary beat is Los Angeles, specifically crime and disorder. Like the southern border, the Los Angeles of Melugin’s coverage is a violent, dystopian land where a small band of champions — police and prosecutors, in this case — fight against all odds to preserve the thin line between civilization and a total societal collapse.

Melugin is heavily featured in the two-part Season Two premiere of Tucker Carlson Originals — one of Carlson’s Fox Nation imprints — titled “Suicide of Los Angeles.” Carlson’s Originals seem like documentaries but serve as fascist propaganda, and Melugin acted as his well-coiffed Virgil, shepherding the viewer through the hell that is modern Los Angeles. Carlson’s antagonist is LA District Attorney George Gascón, a moderate criminal justice reformer who — according to Melugin — has transformed the county into a living nightmare. “All of my best sources in all of LA are deputy DAs within the DA office, dozens of them,” he intoned dramatically. “I typically know what happens in that office before the ink dries on something, because people are so pissed off about what’s going on.” Gascon, a former police officer himself, now faces a recall election as a result of right-wing pressure.

Obviously, having sources inside the DA’s office or the police department is crucial for a beat reporter. The problem arises when a journalist’s reporting becomes indistinguishable from the press releases of those organizations. Melugin continues to rely on a stenographer model of “reporting,” running with whatever cops feed him, regardless of the truth. In 2020, for example, when Melugin was still with Fox’s local LA outlet, he tweeted out information about Los Angeles City Council member Mike Bonin that aligned with a smear campaign the LA police union had just initiated against Bonin, which Bonin called “demonstrably false.”

For years, Melugin has been happy to pass along the subjective, unfalsifiable claim that, as a result of some relatively modest reform, morale at the various law enforcement agencies he covers has never been lower. At ICE, the “morale is as low as it gets,” Melugin said on January 27. “Everybody is feeling super down and morale is in the toilet,” Melugin said again three days later on a Fox News radio show. “Morale has never been this bad. They see it as absolutely rock bottom,” Melugin said about the Los Angeles Police Department in a June 2020 radio interview. “One prosecutor told me the way it feels working for George Gascón right now, he likens it to what he imagines it felt like at the end of the Vietnam War,” Melugin said in “Suicide of Los Angeles,” which was released in April.

Unsurprisingly, this is the exact same line law enforcement officers and unions take when their power is challenged even moderately. Again, reporting that a union has issued a statement is one thing, but when the reporter privileges anecdotal concerns of cops over every other detail in the story, including the voices of activists, public defenders, immigrants, and prison abolitionists, it is stenography, not reporting. In Melugin’s reporting, public defenders and defense attorneys are dangerous radicals, and left-wing activists are coddled by the criminal punishment system. It’s not clear that Melugin has ever written a story about police or prosecutorial misconduct. (Melugin’s labor sympathies appear to be restricted to law enforcement, as he was willing to cast the LA teacher’s union in an extremely negative light during negotiations to resume in-person classes.)

On the rare occasion that he does present a perspective other than that of the police, he typically undercuts it immediately. In a radio interview on April 2, Melugin said Black Lives Matter activists were pleased that Gascón was planning to disband, or at least downsize, the Hardcore Gang Unit, because they felt the unit engaged in racist policing. “One of the prosecutors I talked to in that unit says that argument is BS,” Melugin immediately clarified.

Melugin has been lavishly rewarded by law enforcement for his copaganda. He is a regular beneficiary of leaks, including for the Tucker Carlson Originals episode. The fact that he’s able to obtain privileged or classified information, and then disseminate it, further perpetuates his reputation as an investigative journalist. It just so happens that virtually every leak he gets paints cops in a positive light and reformers or activists in a negative one.

Melugin’s bad data

No one would confuse Melugin for a rigorous statistician or political scientist, but his misrepresentation of data is egregious even by cable news standards. He’s happy to omit research when it doesn’t fit his predetermined, anti-immigration narrative, as one example from last year illustrates.

On September 22, Melugin reported that a Border Patrol source told him the migrants under the International Bridge at Del Rio were being processed and released with “notices to report,” rather than the stricter “notice to appear.” Melugin then tweeted: “When those migrants never show up to immigration/court dates, there is no more law enforcement interaction, no way to track them. They are gone into the shadows in the U.S.” As Media Matters noted at the time, all the available evidence contradicted Melugin’s innuendo that migrants skip out on their hearings. As the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick noted in response to Melugin’s tweet, from 2008 to 2018, 83% of migrants appeared for their hearings.

Melugin is also happy to present data, or leaked government documents, stripped of context to convey a similar sense of danger and foreboding that migrants present. In February, Melugin claimed there had been a “huge surge” in Border Patrol encounters in Del Rio when compared with January 2021. Reichlin-Melnick responded to that tweet as well, arguing that Melugin’s framing was misleading, that numbers were not in fact surging, and that the year-over-year comparison served only to manufacture a perceived crisis.

“You look like a white supremacist”

In the aftermath of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, protests against rising fascism and racist institutions erupted throughout the country. Melugin, still a reporter at the local KTTV channel, covered an August 2017 march in LA and was accused of looking like a white supremacist by the demonstrators. To be fair, in the video Melugin just appears to be doing his job, and although he wasn’t wearing his own press credentials, his photographer was. Melugin grew understandably upset at the accusation, countering, “You know nothing about me.”

It’s a fair point, and, sartorial missteps notwithstanding, the protesters that day were ungenerous to Melugin. Had they been able to see what his coverage over the next 4 ½ years would look like, they may have been on firmer ground. Either way, if Melguin doesn’t want to be characterized as a white supremacist in the future, he should probably stop working for a company run by them.

*Correction (5/19/22): This piece originally stated that the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally was in Charlottesville, North Carolina, rather than Virginia.

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Right-wing media are pushing the “irresistible,” “electric” Tucker Carlson as Trump’s VP

Charlie Kirk: “Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class”

WRITTEN BY BOBBY LEWIS

PUBLISHED 11/16/23

Last week, former President Donald Trump said that “I guess I would” consider former Fox host Tucker Carlson for a vice presidential nomination, setting off a wave of enthusiasm among Trump’s extremely online right-wing media fan base. Carlson, who privately said that he hates Trump “passionately,” has apparently not commented on the trial balloon.

In addition to vocal support for a Vice President Carlson from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA,) Salem radio host and close Trump ally Charlie Kirk has been a fervent proponent of the idea. Calling Carlson “tough,” “principled,” and “electric,” Kirk fantasized about the X vlogger as an “irresistible” pull for young voters and suburban women. Many voices in right-wing media also love the idea -- though some, notably including Donald Trump Jr., just don’t think Carlson would be interested.

“Who is the second most trusted, the second most popular, the second smartest and principled person in the conservative movement?” Kirk asked last week. “If he was still alive, it would have been Rush Limbaugh. I think we all agree with that. It is without a doubt Tucker Carlson.”

Kirk’s enthusiasm could be described as fanboying, and it continued throughout the show.

“Tucker Carlson might be the smartest person in the movement. He is a loyal family man.” “He’s real. He’s honest. He’s a true American.” “He is irresistible online. He’s smart. He’s tough.” Picking Carlson for vice president “would literally be a hack — it would break the matrix.” Sneering with excitement, Kirk asked, “Could you imagine Tucker Carlson at a press gaggle?”

“You’ve got the alpha beast Trump, and you got a VP that is probably the smartest, smoothest, person in the conservative movement that has our trust.”

:{:{Video}:

CitationFrom the November 10, 2023, edition of Salem Radio Network's The Charlie Kirk Show

Kirk came back to the idea on November 13, celebrating the “hundreds of thousands of tweets in favor of it over the weekend,” as well as Trump’s ringside appearance at a UFC fight, with an entourage including Carlson.

“Who else other than Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson can get this kind of hero's welcome at a UFC fight? … What Tucker and Trump present is cultural power and a cultural phenomenon in a political space,” Kirk beamed. “It’s a completely different dynamic. … Tucker understands the philosophical, intellectual base that motivates the muscular class.”

Kirk is not alone in his enthusiasm, which has begun spreading throughout conservative media:

Despite the excitement from some, other right-wing media voices aren’t so sure Carlson would even join the ticket. On Newsmax’s Chris Plante: The Right Squad*, guest Marc Lotter acknowledged that Carlson is “probably one of the smartest people around” and it would make an “epic” ticket, however fellow panelist and guest Jason Nichols said, “I don’t think that that’s something he wants to do. I think he likes his life.” Co-host Chris Plante agreed that Carlson likely “wouldn’t want any part” of a Trump White House.

Even one of Trump’s own children, Donald Trump Jr., sees a Trump/Carlson ticket as highly unlikely, though he does like the sound of it. Responding to viewer comments on his podcast Triggered, Trump said that “I don’t think he would” accept a vice presidential nomination, because it’s “not his thing.”

However, Trump added, if Carlson would accept, he “would be my first, second, third, fourth, and fifth choice for VP if I could decide right now.”

“He’d be great on a lot of issues,” Trump said, “and it would also drive the other side insane.”

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the Heritage Foundation for more than a year has been drafting a policy playbook in preparation for a Republican administration to take over the federal government in 2025. The hope is that this time around conservatives won’t be caught flat-footed like they were in 2016.

The conservative think tank has produced a transition project ever since Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. But Heritage says this effort stands out in terms of level of involvement and vigor.

“We’re really starting ahead of time,” Paul Dans, director of Project 2025: Presidential Transition Project,said in an interview late last year. “We’re looking to bring new blood to Washington."

the effort has been something of a pet project for Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, who took over in fall 2021 after five years leading the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a nonprofit backed by GOP donors and oil money.

“I would describe it as an obsession,” said a former Heritage employee who was granted anonymity to speak freely about his former workplace. “It is one of the main priorities of senior leadership.”

The revved-up effort from Heritage comes as the venerable think tank, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last week, has struggled in recent years through leadership changes and staff turmoil.

Roberts came on after complaints from conservatives like Fox News’ Tucker Carlson over the leadership of Kay Coles James, who stepped down amid the criticism. And in the post-Trump era, several new organizations are now competing on policy turf once dominated by Heritage.

The transition project also seems to be a way to regain stature for Heritage and distinguish itself from those competitors, some outside observers interviewed for this story said.

The project has three pillars. One involves creating something of a “conservative LinkedIn” to ensure hundreds of political appointees are primed to immediately descend on federal agencies should a Republican prevail in 2024. The second involves training videos for those appointees about how to serve in an administration.

And the third part creates a policy playbook with input from more than 400 outside conservative contributors and nearly 50 member organizations that meet monthly — if not more often in an informal setting. The idea is to hammer out ideological differences, including about whether or not to support Ukraine aid.

Conservatives say they learned a lesson from President Joe Biden, who managed to staff up nearly a thousand political posts within hours of his inauguration. Many of those picks came from the Obama alumni network.

In contrast, in 2017, Republicans had trouble filling positions in the new Trump administration. Trump wound up bringing in few people with real government experience.

Dans, a former top official at Trump’s Office of Personnel Management, likened the early approach to “preseason scrimmaging.”

He said the group plans to release their policy playbook this spring. “This is not the end-all, but we are getting enough people in the room to say this is the majority” opinion on certain policies, Dans said.

Heritage said it is still finalizing policies it would recommend to an incoming GOP president, but a spokesperson pointed to a 2020 white paper from the group that is something of a free-market wish list.

Its recommendations includeending all energy-related tax credits and subsidies, eliminating all loan guarantees, ending the renewable fuel standard, spinning off environmental reviews to the states, expanding leasing on federal lands, repealing new source review, and ending the social cost of carbon.

Competition on the right

Nearly a dozen conservative policy experts and advocates interviewed for this story, who were all granted anonymity to speak candidly, alluded to the growing influence of Heritage Action.

It is the separate lobbying arm of the organization that churns out newsletters describing critical race theory and the investing strategy known as environmental, social and governance as “woke left attacks.”

Heritage has also been highly critical of big technology companies and has called for big cuts to defense spending, echoing calls on the far right.

Last week, Heritage announced that Carlson, who has dabbled in white nationalist theories, will be the keynote speaker for its 50th anniversary gala in April.

Roberts praised him as a “fearless American who is unafraid to challenge the Washington regime.”

Heritage’s lurch toward populism has been raising eyebrows among some.

“Heritage will have to decide whether it wants to stick with its conservative principles or evolve to more nationalist-type of policies,” one conservative policy advocate said.

Divisions at Heritage are illustrative of larger tensions within the Republican Party, observers noted.

One hypothesized that the transition project was in part a way for Heritage to regain some stature. Others noted it is not entirely unusual for think tanks to be at odds with their lobbying arms.

When asked about the influence of Heritage Action, Rob Bluey, vice president of communications, said the partnership between Heritage and its campaign arm is “even stronger today under Jessica Anderson’s leadership.”

“Heritage Action advocates for the American people in Washington, D.C., and state capitals based on the principles espoused by The Heritage Foundation,” he said.

A second conservative policy advocate thought it was unusual how far in advance Heritage launched the 2025 project, which has already been underway for more than a year.

“That’s something you don’t usually see in Washington, D.C.,” the advocate said.

He thought that could sideline the organization’s efforts to conduct rigorous oversight of the Biden administration for the next two years.

“It’s just interesting that Heritage is willing to take on a project that won’t have any impact until 2025,” the person said.

The conservative landscape changed in the Trump era, and in recent years a number of conservative policy shops popped up, like the Center for Renewing America led by Russ Vought, the former White House budget director. The Center for Renewing America sits on the project’s advisory board.

In recent years, several dozen staffers left the 275-person foundation, news which was first reported in September by the conservative-leaning Dispatch.

A Heritage spokesperson did not refute turnover but said the organization also brought on 90 new hires in all of 2022 — the year after Roberts took over.

“His optimistic vision and always-on-offense approach to policymaking are helping us build an exceptional team,” said Bluey. “As a result, Heritage experienced tremendous growth in 2022, proudly welcoming many talented policy experts and outstanding conservative leaders to the organization.”

‘Brainwashing our kids’

One of those new hires is Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a longtime economist who joined last August as the director of the Center for Energy, Climate and Environment. She worked at both the Transportation and Treasury departments under the Trump administration. Before that she spent nine years as a director at the Manhattan Institute, a think tank.

At a January forum held at Heritage, Furchtgott-Roth complained to Rep. Kevin Hern, the chair of the Republican Study Committee from oil-and-gas rich Oklahoma, about how decarbonization efforts from the Biden administration were, as she put it, “completely changing the American way of life.” She wondered how Republicans planned to “fight back an area that they are brainwashing our kids about.”

Replied Hern: “Well, I’m from Oklahoma, next question.” The crowd laughed.

In a recent interview, Furchtgott-Roth espoused familiar GOP energy views promoting all-of-the-above energy sources.

But another observer noticed more “red-meat critiquing” from her shop. A recent article she wrote suggested Biden favored clean energy merely to boost Chinese markets after reports surfaced that the Penn Biden Center received Chinese donations.

Similarly, one of her first events at the organization featured authorsJerome Corsi and Marc Morano— both reject mainstream climate science — to speak on a panel about “The Politics of Climate Change.”

“This is not as much an economics question but a political question, and that’s why we are so glad to have these two authors with us today,” Furchtgott-Roth said in opening remarks.

Corsi suggested climate advocates adopted the term “climate change” “because they know global warming cannot be true.” He rejected the idea carbon dioxide contributes to extreme weather like hurricanes. “It’s completely a lie,” he said.

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Blake Neff, a former writer for Fox’s now-defunct Tucker Carlson Tonight who resigned from the show in 2020 following revelations that he made racist and sexist posts in an online forum, has resurfaced on Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s radio show, apparently as a producer.

In July 2020, CNN’s Oliver Darcy reported that Neff, then the top writer for Tucker Carlson’s show, had been anonymously posting racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and other offensive content on an online forum for five years. Neff used racist and homophobic slurs, referred to women in a derogatory manner, andpushed white supremacist content while writing for Carlson’s show. Neff resigned after CNN contacted him for comment.

On the website for The Charlie Kirk Show, Neff is identified as “producer Blake.” In addition to appearing on that show, Neff has also joined Kirk on a new panel show called THOUGHTCRIME.

Neff appeared with Kirk on the first episode of THOUGHTCRIME, a new weekly panel show streamed live exclusively on Kirk’s Rumble channel that’s apparently co-hosted by Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. Kirk introduced Neff as “very high-IQ Blake,” saying, “And we’re really honored to have Blake on our team —he’s great. And the most, let’s just say, awful people in the world tried to destroy Blake’s life and we’re not going to let that happen.” Later he added, “We love Blake and he does a great job.”

In a prerecorded introduction attached to the audio-only version of the show, Kirk described THOUGHTCRIME as “R-rated,” with “rather graphic elements,” and “not homeschool friendly.”

On June 21, Neff appeared again on Salem Radio Network’s The Charlie Kirk Show to discuss the submersible vessel carrying four tourists and a captain that got lost while diving to the Titanic shipwreck.Kirk described Neff as “our resident submarine expert,” and a chyron identified Neff as “The Charlie Kirk Show Submarine expert.” Neff described the plight of the lost vessel story as “refreshing” as far as news cycles go.

After the break, Kirk referred to Neff as “part of” the new weekly panel show. Neff also said, “I don’t want to say, like, you should not” go on a submersible vessel seemingly operated on a video game controller.[vid]

during THOUGHTCRIME, the panelists repeatedly used an anti-trans slur and discussed the X-rated topic of “glory holes” in response to The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh’s claim on Twitter that “Fox Corp is celebrating Pride by encouraging employees to read about ‘“glory holes.’” 

This type of talk stands out coming from Kirk, not only because of the raunchy topic, but also because of how it contrasts with  the self-righteous Christian nationalist rhetoric he’s embraced over the last year with the launch of Turning Point USA Faith, an initiative to propagandize young people by setting up Turning Point USA chapters in their churches.

“What is a glory hole?” asked Kirk.

“Oh my sweet summer child,” responded Neff.

Kirk then Googled it live on air.

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Tucker Carlson claims 'neocon war agenda' is behind Trump documents prosecution

Alex HendersonJune 14, 2023

When former President Donald Trump was arraigned on 37 federal criminal counts in a Miami courtroom on Tuesday, June 13, a long list of right-wing media outlets reflexively echoed Trump's claim that the prosecution is a baseless "witch hunt."

Not all conservatives have been defending Trump, of course; MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, attorney George Conway, The Lincoln Project's Rick Wilson and The Bulwark's Charlie Sykes are among the many Never Trumpers on the right who have been applauding special counsel Jack Smith and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for pursuing the case and stressing that Trump is not exempt from the rule of law. Conway, in fact, slammed Trump's Republican defenders as

unprincipled and shameless" during a June 14 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

But MAGA pundits have been painting Trump as the victim. One of them is former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

READ MORE: Trump takes aim at Jack Smith with treason accusation in late-night attack

In a 13-minute video posted on Twitter on June 13, Carlson argued, in essence, that: (1) storing classified government documents at Mar-a-Lago is no big deal, and (2) a hawkish combination of Biden Democrats and establishment Republicans are trying to bring Trump down because of his anti-neocon views.

Carlson told viewers, "What matters, then and now, is foreign policy. The invasions and occupations and proxy wars — the decisions that determine which global populations will thrive and which will die…. In Washington, that's what actually matters."

"Permanent Washington," Carlson added, "decided to send Donald Trump to prison" seven years ago because he opposed the "neocon war agenda." Trump, the former Fox News host argued, "sealed his fate" when he condemned the invasion of Iraq during the 2016 GOP presidential primary debates.

"Whatever else you say about him," Carlson told viewers, "Trump is the one guy with an actual shot at becoming president who dissents from Washington's longstanding, pointless war agenda. And for that — that one fact — they are trying to take Trump out before you can vote for him."

READ MORE: Retired conservative judge: Trump 'dared, taunted, provoked, and goaded DOJ' into indicting him

Carlson was highly dismissive of the federal government's system for classifying documents, saying, "Washington is a city where internal memos about Labor Day are classified because everything is classified…. None of this is done in order to make America safer."

Twitter CEO Elon Musk praised Carlson's video as "bold" and posted, "This is why we like Tucker!" And far-right MAGA conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec wrote, "Tucker just spent 13 minutes giving the best explanation for why Trump should be president."

In the Daily Beast, journalist William Vaillancourt alluded to Carlson's legal battle with Fox News, writing, "Despite an escalating dispute with Fox News over the Twitter videos, Carlson returned to the social media platform, expressing support for the former president and criticizing the very concept of classified documents, asserting casually that in Washington, D.C. 'everything is classified.'"

READ MORE: Fani Willis' latest moves strongly indicate a Trump indictment in Georgia is coming this summer

Watch Tucker Carlson's video below or at this link.

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June 7, 2023 

Tags: Jacob Wohl Jenna Ellis Mark Robinson Tom Ascol Tucker Carlson Round-Up

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/anatomy-smear-campaign-how-right-wing-media-neutralized-pentagon-effort-address-white

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Anatomy of a smear campaign: How right-wing media neutralized a Pentagon effort to address white supremacy in the military

Right-wing media smeared the Pentagon official mitigating white supremacy in the military. Now his unit has been abandoned.

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

PUBLISHED 05/25/23

Right-wing media outlets and personalities leveled repeated attacks against a modest Pentagon initiative created in 2021 to address high levels of white supremacy in the military, ultimately neutralizing the effort and leading to the unit’s abandonment. The conservative campaign was directed atmilitary veteran Bishop Garrison, who led the Countering Extremism Working Group, which has now “vanished virtually without a trace,” according to a recent report from CNN.

Garrison was tasked with identifying and addressing the type of extremist views that would be later espoused by Jack Teixeira, who recently stole and leaked a trove of classified information to impress his private online community. Teixeira, currently in custody and potentially facing a 25-year sentence, reportedly believed that the United States was heading toward a “race war” that would pit white people against racial and ethnic minorities and LGBTQ people.

CNN reports:

As the Pentagon grapples with the aftermath of the leak, the working group’s stated objectives look eerily prescient, and, in some cases, tailor-made to zero-in on the sort of anti-government, White supremacist behavior and views espoused by Teixeira.

CNN interviews with multiple sources familiar with the working group reveal that the Pentagon largely abandoned the effort to combat extremism in its ranks, as senior officials folded under political pressure from Republicans who lashed out at the initiative as an example of so-called wokeism in the military.

The U.S. military has a long history of white supremacism in the ranks, including among veterans who have started or joined far-right terrorist groups after their service. More than 80 people charged with participating in the January 6 insurrection had ties to the military, primarily as former service members, according to CBS News.

The apparently successful right-wing effort to sideline Bishop’s group follows the standard conservative playbook of smearing Democratic government officials who are Black, LGBTQ, Muslim, or from other marginalized groups as internal enemies, and it will also likely serve as a template for future, similar campaigns. Right-wing media outlets have spent months convincing their consumers that the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the IRS are persecuting conservatives, with the clear aim of operationalizing these federal agencies against these media figures’ opponents — exactly what they wrongly accuse the Biden administration of doing. This programming dovetails exactly with Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government, which claims to be exposing a governmentwide conspiracy to throttle conservative activists and ideas. The committee has so far failed on its own terms, but Jordan remains undeterred.

Anatomy of a smear campaign

On February 16, 2021, Garrison was appointed to a newly created role to advise Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on how to reduce and mitigate the threat of white supremacy in the U.S. military. The announcement went largely unremarked upon in both mainstream and conservative media for several weeks.

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Then on May 5, conservative website Revolver published a story headlined “Meet Bishop Garrison: The Pentagon’s Hatchet Man in Charge of Purging MAGA Patriots and Installing Race Theory in The Military.” The site's founder, Darren Beattie, tweeted the piece out, highlighting the quote “​​The Biden administration has just put the equivalent of Ibram X. Kendi in charge of vetting the entire U.S. military." (Beattie was fired from the Trump administration in 2018 after CNN discovered that he had attended a white nationalist conference two years prior.)

The following day, Fox News Primetime’s host Pete Hegseth devoted a segment to Garrison’s appointment,describing Garrison’s effort as “a purge, a purge of the Defense Department led by a new, and now powerful, radical leftist, a 1619 Project activist, a hardcore social justice Democrat, a man who believes all Trump supporters are racist and extremists."

Video

CitationFrom the May 6, 2021, edition of Fox News' Fox News Primetime

Hegseth then referred to Garrison as “the Pentagon's newly minted MAGA purge man” and cribbed Revolver’s line nearly verbatim but without attribution.

“How do I put this?” Hegseth asked. “The White House just put the equivalent of Ibram X. Kendi, the author of How to Be an Antiracist, in charge of vetting the entire U.S. military, past, present, and future."

A day later, Beattie appeared on Hegseth’s program to discuss Revolver’s piece, which largely consisted of Garrison’s tweets and other writings and social media posts.

Video

CitationFrom the May 7, 2021, edition of Fox News' Fox News Primetime

Beattie framed the issue by calling Garrison’s working group an example of “the most disturbing trend in American politics,” which is “that increasing swathes of our own national security apparatus have been repurposed and redeployed domestically against American citizens.”

Days later, conservative media websiteJust the News published a story that highlighted Hegseth’s comments from his initial segment.

On May 13, Revolver published another piece on Garrison with the factually incorrect headline “‘Free Speech Is A Digital Black Plague’: Bishop Garrison is Key Mercenary in Biden’s Dark War Against The First Amendment.”

Despite the quotation marks in the headline, the piece doesn’t include any evidence that Garrison wrote or spoke that exact phrase. Instead, the piece links to an op-ed Garrison published about the dangers of ideological polarization in news consumption leading to the spread of bad information, a fitting if ironic topic given Revolver’s mischaracterization of his stance. It’s true he described what he characterized as partisan echo chambers as a “digital black plague” that poses a danger to social cohesion, a relatively pedestrian observation common among mainstream commentators.   

The next day, Beattie appeared on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast to discuss Garrison’s purview more broadly.

Video

CitationFrom the May 14, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Underscoring the siloed, self-perpetuating conservative media echo chamber, Bannon introduced the topic by claiming, “I’m seeing it everywhere — Just the News has got it, the great Pete Hegseth had it, then he had a second night with you on it,” before asking Beattie for an update.

Beattie then recycled his website’s misleading framing with a rhetorical sleight-of-hand, substituting Garrison’s actual point about information silos with the false claim that he opposed free speech protections more broadly.

Beattie described Garrison’s purported role “in the Biden administration’s dark war on the First Amendment. We’ve uncovered a article of his calling, basically, the free speech digital environment that would include War Room, that would include Revolver, but also in his words includes the Sinclair Network and Fox, as a ‘digital black plague’ — those are his words to describe the digital free speech environment that enables the American people to see narratives that oppose the official narratives on COVID, on the election, and now on [the insurrection of] 1/6.”

One day later, Fox News’ Jesse Watters picked up the story, interviewing Hegsethabout Beattie’s reporting, adding another link in the human-centipede-esque food chain of bad information.

Video

CitationFrom the May 15, 2021, edition of Fox News' Watters' World

Watters introduced Garrison as being “in charge of bringing critical race theory into our Armed Forces,” adding, “They’re calling him the Pentagon's hatchet man because his job is to purge patriots from the ranks.”

“This is about, Jesse, as scary as it gets,” Hegseth responded. “I mean, really this is, this truly is a purge of patriots. They're using January 6 as the ultimate justification.”

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Two days later, former Fox News marquee star Tucker Carlsondiscussed Garrison on his prime-time show. 

Video

CitationFrom the May 17, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Carlson referenced Revolver’s posts before characterizing Garrison as “an activist type” and “a lunatic.”

“Now — and this is the point — he is one of the most powerful officials in the U.S. military,” Carlson added. “Democrats in Congress are thrilled as they watch this. Their party now has all the tanks and drones.”

The campaign against Garrison continued at that pace for weeks, misleading framing and bad information congealing into an impenetrable narrative of conservative persecution. Beattie returned to War Room, right-wing Epoch TV covered the story, Carlson aired another segment on it, and Hegseth continued to beat the drum on Fox News.

As late as October 2022, Beattie referenced Garrison on War Room as an antecedent to a supposedly even more “outrageous” Pentagon commission on recommending changes to military bases named after members of the Confederacy. 

Taken as a whole, this process clearly demonstrates how right-wing media will vigorously oppose efforts to mitigate widespread white supremacy and later defend the subsequent, predictable outcomes that ideology and set of power relations produces. As but one example, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson defended Teixeira’s actions by misleadingly casting him as a whistleblower when in fact there is no reporting to suggest he ever meant for the information he stole to be made publicly available. The fact that Teixeira’s bigoted beliefs went unnoticed and undisciplined by the military is a feature, not a bug, of this dynamic.   

There are fair criticisms to be made about the larger White House initiative, such as asking what it would mean to root out white supremacy from an institution that has been at the forefront of U.S. empire expansion, directed primarily at nonwhite populations, since at least the Mexican-American War. Needless to say, conservatives were making the exact opposite critique, arguing that attempts to decrease the spread of white supremacist beliefs among service members are inherently illegitimate.

That the boilerplate backlash was successful despite being led by such mediocrities as Pete Hegseth and Darren Beattie — whom Bannon recently derided as a man-child — does not speak particularly well of the Biden administration. It also suggests that these demonization campaigns can potentially succeed absent any shimmering talent leading the charge, instead relying on mid-level functionaries in the larger conservative ecosystem repeatedly hammering the point home.

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Tucker Carlson tapes:

Tucker Carlson describesFox as under attack from liberals working for the networkin behind-the-scenes video

05/09/23 9:19 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson slammed Fox Nation and promoted Andrew Tate

05/01/23 10:46 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson's creepy behind-the-scenes comments

05/02/23 10:40 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson on getting “triggered” by Dominion’s deposition lawyer: “That slimy little motherfucker”

05/03/23 9:20 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson asks makeup artist if “pillow fights ever break out” in the women’s bathroom

05/04/23 11:24 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson’s departure is great news for America (and terrible news for Fox)

04/24/23 1:01 PM EDT

Bret Baier’s reported texts with Tucker Carlson illustrate that the entire network is toxic for advertisers

05/05/23 1:10 PM EDT

Newly-revealed texts between Tucker Carlson and his rumored replacement Jesse Watters reveal their contempt for the truth

05/09/23

NY Times’ Jeremy Peters: Tucker Carlson “had no shortage of enemies at Fox” and “people were celebrating his firing inside the network”

05/02/23

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https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-preparing-for-war/  atty ~ fox

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https://www.mediamatters.org/matt-walsh/daily-wires-matt-walsh-defends-tucker-carlsons-racist-text-message

https://www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/charlie-kirk-passionately-defends-tucker-carlsons-racist-text-message

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https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/how-tucker-carlson-was-terrible-and-effective-megaphone-climate-misinformation

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Prior to his departure from Fox News on April 24, Tucker Carlson was one of the network’s most prolific purveyors of climate change misinformation. Carlson elevated fringe ideas and conspiracy theories from relative obscurity on the internet to become drum beats for right-wing media. He also dishonestly spun major news events and weaponized his viewers’ most deep-seated prejudices about race and power to push climate denial.

His absence will be a blow to the forces aiming to mock environmental justice, derail climate action, and protect polluting industries and their allies in Washington. But the end of Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show is far from the end of climate change denial on Fox News — his project is sure to be carried on by other Fox personalities who will continue the network’s awful history of climate coverage.

Carlson propelled internet misinformation and obscure conspiracy theories into right-wing media narratives against climate action

One thing that set Carlson apart at Fox was his ability to seemingly jump-start a tidal wave of misinformation. His producers seemingly scoured the internet so he could amplify right-wing grievances, as well as any obscure video or article that could be easily decontextualized to sound absurd or inflammatory. He knew his audience, and he knew exactly how to push their buttons.

Carlson’s response to the deadly Texas winter storm that killed hundreds of people in February 2021 triggered a deluge of misinformation from Fox News. He was the first Fox News host to blame the widespread power outages on wind energy. The reality was that Texas still largely relies on natural gas for power, and this infrastructure wasn’t ready for the extreme cold.

Over the last few years, Carlson helped create a misinformation crisis around climate action and even told his audience that climate activists were going to try to shrink children and force everyone to eat bugs, when there is no evidencethat those things are actually happening.

Fittingly, one of the very last things Carlson did in his final Fox segment was to promote Let Them Eat Bugs.Notably, he said that the chocolate-covered cricket was “delicious.”

Misinformation about frozen windmills was just the tip of the iceberg for Carlson’s attacks on clean energy and climate action

Often portraying climate policies as a means to control the population or create a “permanent caste system,” Carlson regularly injected fearmongering about the clean energy transition into his segments. At the core of his argument was the fossil fuel industry talking point claiming the renewable energy technology was insufficient and that transitioning away from fossil fuels would weaken the U.S. and put Americans “under the complete and total control of people who wish us ill.” In October 2021, Carlson even used his newest venture, Tucker Carlson Originals on Fox Nation, to promote wind energy misinformation in the documentary Blown Away: The People vs. Wind Power. 

Carlson continued to push climate denial even during extreme weather events, when the reality of the climate crisis was most evident

As the science connecting extreme weather to our warming planet has become more conclusive— and with other TV news outlets more frequently reporting on these connections in the aftermath of major disasters — Carlson relentlessly misinformed his audience about these connections and claimed that the media making the link between climate change and extreme weather were captured by the radical left or using the occasion to politicize tragedy.

Even beyond these extreme weather events, Carlson regularly promoted climate denial on his Fox show in order to feed doubt and discredit climate science.

Carlson platformed climate change deniers who influenced his coverage

Carlson used any excuse, such as new climate policies, initiatives, or convenings, to platform some of the most notorious climate deniers and controversial climate contrarians. For example, according to Media Matters’ internal database, from 2019 through the end of Carlson’s show in 2023, he hosted failed politician Michael Shellenberger 21 times, climate change denier Marc Morano 14 times, meteorologist Joe Bastardi 8 times, and fossil fuel shill Bjorn Lomborg 4 times. These guests pushed the “Great Reset” conspiracy theory, cherry-picked statistics to downplay the impacts of extreme weather, or suggested climate activism is a “cult” or a “new religion.”

Michael Shellenberger

Carlson has run with the idea that climate change is like a new religion, which Shellenberger has written about at length.

Marc Morano

Joe Bastardi

Bjorn Lomborg 

In the last several years, Carlson had started to merge his climate denial and defense of fossil fuels with overt racism and white grievance

In response to climate justice and environmental justice becoming more mainstream and being incorporated into policy, Carlson seized on the opportunity to apply his increasingly overt racism to climate and environmental issues. Notably, Carlson has insisted that climate policies, not climate change, hurt marginalized communities. He has often claimed that environmental justice has “nothing to do” with the environment — with the exception of the recent train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, which the former Fox host used to stoke more conservative grievances.

Other Fox figures will carry the climate denial torch in Carlson’s absence

Carlson was far from the only Fox News personality to regularly peddle climate change misinformation, and others will continue to carry the torch:

It’s uncertain who will be placed in Carlson’s 8 p.m. slot. But whatever the outcome, one sure thing is that Fox will continue to supplement its climate coverage with racism, bigotry, misogyny, and brain-frying idiocy.

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oddly quiet on trump arrest?  welll https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-paying-people-not-talk-about-things-hush-money-ordinary-modern-america

how much does tucker and bad trinity drive overall coverage on network?

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https://www.alternet.org/news-politics/:{putin-tucker/}:

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an 4 23

r Carlson became a free agent Monday, and at least one suitor may have already emerged for the controversial right-wing cable host.

Russia Today, the state-run television network that broadcasts in the U.S. and around the world as “RT,” hinted that it could be a landing spot for Carlson after the his surprising dismissal from Fox News.

“Hey @TuckerCarlson, you can always question more with @RT_com,” the network tweeted from its English language account.

Carlson has promoted conspiracy theories about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that have been picked up by the Russian state media channel, The New York Times reports.

TheRighting’s Howard Polskin, who covers right-wing media, told The Times that Carlson’s options include other outlets such as NewsNation or Newsmax, or he could create his own media brand.

“He’s probably the biggest individual personality and brand in conservative media,” Polskin said, noting that his addition to a smaller outlet such as PJ Media or The Daily Caller, “it would be like an injection of superfuel.”

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

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https://www.alternet.org/jd-vance-2659913173/

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FIRED?  rupert is 92, several flexes recently?

WAIT WHAT?!

mma 4 23

[part amic, no goodbye]

...Carlson has been a singular force driving Fox News’ extremism to new lows, single-handedly introducing the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory into mainstream American politics and becoming a kingmaker in the Republican Party as a result. A 2022 New York Times investigation found that Carlson “amplified the idea that Democratic politicians and others want to force demographic change through immigration” in more than 400 episodes.

Since the November 2016 launch of his prime-time show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, he has been a hero to hardcore racists and extremists for repeatedly hosting guests with ties to white supremacy and defending the QAnon conspiracy theory. He has also been the vanguard of January 6 conspiracy theories on the network.

As a result of Carlson’s success, Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch made him the face of Fox's streaming service. Murdoch backed Carlson every step of the way, repeatedly defending his bigotry and conspiracy theories, even as advertisers fled.

Media Matters has extensively documented Carlson’s extremism, including examples of white supremacist commentary going back to 2004, and he was named Misinformer of the Year in 2022, which included a non-comprehensive research file featuring over 350 examples of his misinformation. In 2019, Media Matters unearthed racist and misogynist comments by Carlson on the shock jock radio program Bubba the Love Sponge. Media Matters’ years of coverage drove a massive advertiser exodus from his program.

Below is just a small sampling of the worst of Carlson on Fox News over the years.

Tucker Carlson was the engine that made the modern incarnation of Fox News run. And on Monday, suddenly and without warning, that engine was switched off.

“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the network announced in a press release that stunned media observers. Notably, Carlson will not appear again on Fox to say goodbye to his viewers and go out on his own terms. According to the network, his last show was Friday; it concluded without indication that it was his Fox finale.

Carlson’s departure is great news for America.

He was the country's foremost purveyor of white supremacist talking points, pushing the conspiracy theories that inspired massacres from El Paso, Texas, to Buffalo, New York. He was the nation’s most prominent anti-vaxxer, running a brutally effective campaign against public efforts to vaccinate Americans against COVID-19. And his lies and deceptions following the January 6 insurrection helped foil the potential for a consensus against the violent storming of the U.S. Capitol. He worked to radicalize the Republican Party in the direction of its most dangerous, authoritarian elements.

The country is vastly better off without his demagogic voice reaching through the television screens to millions of Americans every weeknight.

But his unexpected departure leaves his former employer in a difficult position. The move comes just days after Fox received another blow through its massive Dominion settlement, a payout the company hoped to defray by jacking up its cable carrier fees and attracting new advertisers. Now the network goes into those carrier negotiations and advertiser upfronts with a vacancy in what is traditionally its most prominent time slot.

Carlson has been the face of the network since at least the 2020 election, with executives counting on his personal connection to viewers to keep them coming back as former President Donald Trump receded from the national stage. He used that opportunity to focus the network (and through it, the GOP) on his own particular obsessions, like the “great replacement” conspiracy theory, anti-trans invective, and support for authoritarian regimes in Russia and Hungary.

As of this morning, he may have become the most powerful host in Fox’s history: He not only got his own heavily promoted streaming shows and carte blanche to radicalize his viewers, but he also succeeded in driving away network employees who dissented from his dark vision for the network.

Fox has announced that Carlson’s 8 p.m. program will become “an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.” The content maw must be fed, and there is surely no shortage of right-wing bomb-throwers who will leap at the opportunity to occupy the time slot. But at this particular moment, Fox needs to send two opposing signals at the same time. The network needs viewers to think that it remains committed to the same style of irresponsible bigotry and conspiracy theories that had them tuning in for Carlson’s show. But they also must convince cable carriers and advertisers that Fox is a responsible partner.

With the loss of its top star and still reeling from the blow of the largest known media settlement in history, Fox is weakened and in chaos, vulnerable both to threats to its business model from cable news carriers and to competitors seeking to carve off some of its market share. Time to throw them an anvil.

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briganti had oppo res

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https://heated.world/p/tucker-carlsons-toxic-environmental?ref=drilledpodcast.com

no lnx many vids

Tucker Carlson's toxic environmental legacy

Carlson's show helped popularize a greenwashed form of white nationalism that falsely blames environmental problems on immigrants.

EMILY ATKIN

APR 27, 2023

A screenshot of one of many of Tucker Carlson’s “environmental” segments. Source: Fox News

Over the six years he hosted his eponymous prime-time show on Fox News, Tucker Carlson periodically insisted he was an environmentalist.

Before getting unceremoniously canned this week, Carlson regularly told his 3 million nightly viewers about his concern for the “natural environment” and the “natural landscape,” and praised “the good-hearted people who really love the mountains.” “I care about the planet,” he said in 2018, even going so far as to tell viewers that he used to donate to the Sierra Club. “I think John Muir is really cool,” he once said.

And yet, when Carlson talked about the “environment” on his show, the discussion almost never centered on how to actually improve the overall quality of U.S. water or air. It certainly never centered on climate change, which Carlson decried as a liberal distraction from “actual” environmental issues. “Climate is not part of the environment, in my opinion,” he once said.

Instead, Carlson’s segments on the environment usually centered on the same thesis most of his non-environmental segments promoted: That Democrats are trying to control you, and replace you with immigrants. And by “you,” he means his audience—which is 92 percent white.

The biggest difference between Carlson’s non-environmental segments and environmental segments was that, instead of blaming immigrants for crime and taxpayer plundering, he blamed them for littering and dirtying the country.

Watch the segment where Tucker Carlson’s guest blames trash in AOC’s district on immigrants here.

Here are some examples I found of Carlson using his Fox News show to blame environmental problems on immigration:

“How is it good for the environment of this country to import millions of poor people from the Third World?” June 29, 2018

“The truth is unregulated mass immigration has badly hurt this country's natural landscape.” December 17, 2018

“If you are pushing to increase the size of our population—and they are—what's your plan for keeping our natural environment pristine?” April 4, 2019

“Unregulated waves of people coming in destroy the land and contribute to massive amounts of pollution.” April 25, 2021

“I'm not against immigrants or anything, but too many people is bad for the environment.” July 17, 2021

“Environmental organizations [are] promoting crowding and illegal immigration, which hurts the environment.” July 30, 2021

Here are some examples I found of Carlson saying immigrants make the country polluted, dirty, and crowded:

“As I got older, I realized, you don't want to live in crowded places. Everyone's unhappy, it's horrible, and it's dirty.” November 16, 2018

“Spend a week in a crowded, dirty country, and you'll find that you don't want to live in a place like that, I think.” December 6, 2018

“Crowded countries are polluted. Every single one of them. Tell us why we should want that here?” April 4, 2019

“That's the main problem with crowded countries. They're hard to live in. They're loud and dirty and chaotic.” January 4, 2022.

“This is becoming a crowded country and crowded countries are ugly, unhappy countries.” March 17, 2021

“Crowded countries are dirty, all of them. It's obvious if you travel.” July 17, 2021

One problem with this rhetoric is that it’s flat-out wrong. “There is little actual science to bolster immigration control for ecological purposes,” Susie Cagle wrote in a 2019 piece in The Guardian. “While there is evidence that population and economic growth in total increases global emissions, recent studies show no correlation between U.S. immigrant communities and pollution.”

On the contrary, a qualitative study of immigrant populations in the U.S. found that immigrants actually use less energy, drive less, and generate less waste than native-born Americans. “The vast majority of behavioral studies demonstrate that immigrants live more environmentally sustainable lifestyles than native-born Americans, so much so that immigrant density is associated with lower carbon emissions,” reports the liberal Center for American Progress. The libertarian Cato Institute also agrees with this point. (See CAP’s full report on debunking population-based anti-immigrant “environmentalism” here).

But the bigger, far more concerning problem is that these falsehoods frequently promoted by Carlson are key tenets of eco-fascism, the racist environmental ideology that multiple mass shooters have claimed since 2019. We wrote about the rise of eco-fascist rhetoric among U.S. conservatives last week.

In that newsletter, we described two tenets of eco-fascism that are gaining popularity among Republicans: One is that that the ruling class is trying to control and “replace” white people using immigration, which was what motivated the self-proclaimed eco-fascist who killed 10 people in a Buffalo supermarket last year. Another is that immigration is a form of “environmental warfare” that harms the natural landscape, which was what motivated the self-proclaimed eco-fascist who killed 23 people in an El Paso, Texas Walmart in 2019.

Carlson clearly used his Fox News show to promote that second point, as we’ve already demonstrated. But Carlson promoted the first point even more frequently. According to a New York Times analysis of 1,150 Tucker Carlson Tonight episodes, more than 400 segments championed the idea that elites are trying to force demographic replacement through immigration.

Before Carlson’s show, greenwashed white nationalist rhetoric like this was still considered widely taboo—and for good reason. In the past, early American environmentalists used similar rhetoric to justify racist policies and advocate for eugenics.

“[The eugenicist Madison Grant], along with the influential naturalist John Muir and other early Anglo-Saxon conservationists, was critical in preserving the country’s wildlands for white enjoyment,” Cagle wrote. “Muir, who founded the Sierra Club environmental group in 1892, was disturbed by the “uncleanliness” of the Native Americans, whom he wanted removed from Yosemite.” (It’s no wonder, then, why Carlson cited his love for John Muir—and said he hates what the Sierra Club has become.)

Now, racist and xenophobic environmentalism is on the rise in the U.S. again, inspiring Fox News viewers and mass murderers alike. That’s not all thanks to Tucker Carlson, but his role will forever be a part of his legacy—one much more toxic than any piece of litter.

Environmental policy can be very complicated. You know what is not complicated? Littering. Anyone who is for littering is against the environment. Period. No littering. You are not allowed to litter here. That's my view, anyway.

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an 4 23

no lnx

Monday, April 24, the day's biggest media bombshell was, hands down, Tucker Carlson's totally unexpected departure from Fox News. The news that CNN had fired liberal host Don Lemon also broke that same day, but that story was overshadowed by the news that Rupert Murdoch himself had reportedly decided to fire Carlson despite the fact that he was Fox News' biggest star. Fox News has plenty of hosts who are major figures in right-wing media, from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Jeanine Pirro. But no one at Fox News generated higher ratings than the incendiary, highly controversial Carlson.

During the George W. Bush years, Carlson, now 53, sometimes expressed sympathy for libertarian ideas and was an admirer of then-Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). And he was employed by very mainstream outlets, from CNN and MSNBC to PBS.

But along the way, Carlson took a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist turn. Carlson often frustrated liberals and progressives during the 2000s; when he was hosting "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Fox News from 2016-2023, he scared them. And to Never Trump conservatives, Carlson came to symbolize everything they considered dangerous about the MAGA movement.

READ MORE:  'Suddenly silent' Tucker Carlson lawyers up: report

In a listicle published by The New Republic on April 24, journalist Tori Otten lists ten of the "most fascist things" Carlson said during his years at Fox News. At the top of Otten's list is his enthusiastic desire to "promote" the Great Replacement Theory — which has become a prominent part of white supremacist and white nationalist ideology. Carlson, Otten observes, "argued that Democrats want to replace white people so they can control" the U.S.

:{:{}:

}:

Other items on Otten's list range from Carlson saying that Russian President "Vladimir Putin wasn't so bad" to claiming that "the desire to procreate has been 'subverted' by birth control and abortion" to obsessing over "the total collapse of testosterone levels in American men."

Carlson, Otten recalls, "said white supremacy is not a real problem," described former President Donald Trump as "sensible and wise," and "minimized the severity of statutory rape and said women are 'primitive.'"

Otten also lists the disturbing things Carlson had to say about the 2020 presidential election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building. Carlson, Otten remembers, "said the January 6 rioters were 'peaceful protesters'"and "knowingly lied that the 2020 election was stolen." In addition, he "called for an insurrection after Trump was indicted."

READ MORE: New analysis highlights the reckless nature of Fox News' Tucker Carlson

"Text messages and deposition excerpts show that (Fox News) hosts, including Carlson, knew the election conspiracies were false and that former President Donald Trump's lawyers weren't credible, but they spread the conspiracies and invited the lawyers on air anyway," Otten notes. "Carlson, who has repeatedly fawned over Trump on his show, even texted someone that he was looking forward to ignoring Trump. 'I hate him passionately,' Carlson said of the former president."

READ MORE: Russian state outlet RT reaches out to Tucker Carlson

Read The New Republic's full article at this link.

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'We need your voice': Kari Lake begs Tucker Carlson to 'break the terms' of his Fox News contract - Alternet.org ›

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Rupert Murdoch's Net Worth Loses $182 Million After Tucker ... ›

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an 4 23

no lnx

fox News is in possession of potentially damaging information about Tucker Carlson in a dossier its executives compiled in case the conservative cable host ever sought to attack the network, Rolling Stone reports.

That threat is no longer hypothetical after Fox News’ announcement on Monday that it has cut ties with Carlson, and split sources told the outlet that it was “the worst” and on “the messiest possible terms,” descriptions that are at odds with the network’s characterization of a mutual and amicable decision to depart with its highest-rated host.

The existence of an “oppo file” on Carlson was confirmed to the outlet by eight sources. A network spokesperson denied that such a dossier exists.

The file contains allegations Carlson created a toxic work environment and includes claims that he made disparaging comments about management and colleagues, as well as complaints about his workplace conduct.

Carlson has so far remained mum about the circumstances behind his dismissal.

“But if Carlson attempts to torch the network he’s leaving, Fox is prepared, the sources say,” Rolling Stone’s Diana Falzone writes.

The effort to compile a Carlson dossier was led by the “notoriously aggressive” Irena Briganti, who heads the network’s communications department, the report said.

“Irena will never be shy about using these things,” a network source familiar with complaints about Carlson told Rolling Stone.

A former Fox host told the outlet “[Briganti] keeps files on everybody to screw with them.”

“It’s classic Fox.”

Falzone writes: “Over the years, Briganti and Fox PR’s notoriously aggressive tactics have been turned against its own most prominent talent. For instance, The Daily Beast reported in 2018 that 'emails reviewed and verified’ by the outlet show that Fox’s communications brass have planted negative stories about some of their own top stars, including hosts like Bill O’Reilly and Stuart Varney — the latter of whom is still a Fox employee."

“Those methods for keeping personnel in line are an open secret among current and former Fox News staff. Four former Fox News personalities confirmed Briganti likes to keep ‘dirt files’ on Fox News talent, including one on Carlson.”

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How Tucker Carlson could become even more dangerous after Fox News ›

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These are 10 of the 'most fascist things' Tucker Carlson said at Fox News ›

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Tucker Carlson 2024? The GOP is buzzing - POLITICO ›

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an 4 23

failed Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake appeared on Tuesday's edition of The Balance and issued a desperate on-air plea to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was recently fired in the wake of Fox's $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

Lake, who still insists that she won last year's race which she lost to Democrat Katie Hobbs, asked Carlson to join her election-denying crusade.

"I worry. I don't know what Tucker's deal is. But I worry that he might still be under contract and they're literally going to be paying him ten, twenty, thirty million a year to just sit there and be quiet. We can't afford to have Tucker Carlson's voice silenced for a year and a half," Lake said.

READ MORE: Conservatives flip out over Tucker Carlson departure: 'What’s happening to America?'

"I don't know if Tucker's listening to this, but if he happens to hear it, I beg you, Tucker Carlson, to speak out. Break the terms of that contract. We need your voice over the next year and a halfto save our country,"Lake groveled.

"And if you get sued by your former employer, we will help create a defense fund to help you fight that lawsuit," Lake added. "We need your voice. We need every American's voice who cares about this country in the next year and a half to save our Constitution and to save our country."

Watch below or at this link.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-tonight-launchpad-fringe-presidential-campaigns

rfk2?

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several really racist things recently?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-democrats-electoral-strategy-demographic-change-everywhere-including burbs

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MMA 4 23

Fox News pundits warned its viewers that expanded funding for the Internal Revenue Service passed by Democrats last year would create a dystopian armed force that would be “at war” with Republicans. In reality, the funding enables the agency to hire workers to man its tax preparation hotline phones, dramatically reducing wait times this tax season – but House Speaker Kevin McCarthy still made pulling the funding a priority in the hostage demands he issued on Wednesday for raising the debt ceiling.

Fox retains its audience by keeping them alternately terrified and enraged about the state of U.S. politics. Its propagandists regularly catastrophize over Democratic politicians and the purported impact of their policies, real or imagined. But even by those standards, Fox’s commentary last year about the roughly $80 billion in funding for the IRS that was included in the Inflation Reduction Act was uniquely deranged and irresponsible.

Fox’s star host Tucker Carlson, for example, posited in August that Democrats were “hiring another 87,000armed IRS agents” with the funds “just to make sure that you obey,” a demagogic mash-up of a pair of right-wing falsehoods. Carlson depicted the move as part of President Joe Biden’s “war on his own population” which targets “Trump voters” with “acts of aggression and hostility.”

Carlson’s conspiracy theories were part of a Fox campaign of toxic rhetoric against the IRS, as I noted at the time:

Fox pundits have described the potential wave of IRS hiring as an “economic, financial militiaagainst regular people” deployed by those who “want to control you”; a“new army” that will “hunt down and kill middle class taxpayers”; a “new Gestapo” Biden will use in an “abusive, corrupt manner”; “a Praetorian Guard that will be unleashed again” to “grab all the cash they can by any means necessary”; and “part of an orchestrated campaign to target Americans and have the federal government be at war with those Americans.”

Overheated commentary from right-wing pundits and politicians triggered concerns of potential violence against IRS employees. But the dire predictions of the Fox crew never materialized.  In reality, the increased funding led to an 85% reduction in the time taxpayers waited to speak to a representative this tax season, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday:

The agency answered 2.4 million more taxpayer phone calls with live assistance this year through April 7, compared with the same period last year. And wait times fell to four minutes, down from a sitcom-length 27 minutes a year ago.

“We made a quantum leap this year,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said Monday, on the eve of tax day, citing the $80 billion funding Congress provided last year. One of the first moves to transform the tax agency was hiring thousands of customer-service representatives to answer the phones.

How much has customer service improved? The IRS says its representatives answered nearly nine out of 10 calls, compared with less than two out of 10 calls last year.

The IRS also revealed earlier this month a 150-page plan for using the rest of the funds, which includes additional improvements in customer service and technology as well as additional enforcement targeted at large corporations and taxpayers who make more than $400,000 annually.

Fox’s paranoid IRS conspiracy theories provide the GOP with cover for its bog-standard policy preferences. Republican politicians want to ensure that rich people are able to get away with cheating on their taxes and that everyone else goes through a filing process that is as excruciating as possible to reduce public support for higher taxes and tax enforcement.

After Republicans won control of the House, the first bill they passed repealed the IRS funding boost.That legislation was dead on arrival in the Senate, which Democrats retain, and would be vetoed by Biden. But the GOP hasn’t given up hope on helping tax cheats and hurting normal taxpayers – when McCarthy put forward his demands for what House Republicans required as their price for raising the debt ceiling and avoiding a global financial catastrophe, a sizable IRS funding cut was included.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/what-tucker-carlson-left-out-his-defense-accused-pentagon-leaker-jack-teixeira

no lnx vid

fox News’ Tucker Carlson defended accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira, a member of the Air National Guard arrested Thursday “in connection with the leak of dozens of highly classified documents containing an array of national security secrets” largely related to the Russian war in Ukraine, by inventing honorable motives for his alleged actions without any supporting evidence.

In a monologue on April 13, Carlson left viewers with the clear impression that Teixeira took a principled stand to inform the public about U.S. involvement in defending Ukraine against Russia’s invasion. Carlson has been a vocal critic of U.S. involvement in the conflict, and a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin more broadly.

Video

From the April 13, 2023, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

In fact, the available evidence suggests that Teixeira was driven by a desire to impress a small group of friends in an online Discord chat group called “Thug Shaker Central.” Teixeira was known in the group as “OG” and presented himself as “the ultimate arbiter of secrecy,” who “allowed his companions to read truths that ‘normal citizens’ could not,” according to The Washington Post.

For all OG’s disdain for the federal government, the member said there was no indication that he was acting in what he thought was the public interest by exposing official secrets. The classified documents were intended only to benefit his online family, the member said.

“I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest,” he said, resisting comparisons to Edward Snowden, who shared classified documents about government surveillance with journalists.

The New York Times further reported that “outrage about wrongdoing or government policies does not appear to have been a factor” in the leaks.

“The secret documents in the news now, Airman Teixeira’s friends said, were never meant to leave their small corner of the internet,” the Times wrote in a separate story. That piece further corroborates that claim with a direct quote from Teixeira, who reportedly said, as the authorities were closing in, “I never wanted it to get like this.”

Carlson didn’t take this context into account in his characterization of Teixeira’s motivations.

Instead, he argued that U.S. involvement in that conflict was “a crime,” and accused Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin of lying in recent congressional testimony. But, Carlson continued, “the only man who has been taken into custody — or likely ever will be — is a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who leaked the slides that showed that Lloyd Austin was lying.”

“He revealed the crimes, therefore he’s the criminal,” he continued. “That’s how Washington works. Telling the truth is the only real sin.”

:{:{}:

}:

After playing a clip of CNN analysts discussing the issue, Carlson added, “So, this 21-year-old Air National Guardsman from Massachusetts is not a whistleblower, CNN explains, with the help of the many intelligence agency figures it has now hired as analysts.”

It’s fine to criticize cable news’ practice of hiring former intelligence officials and former government flacks more broadly, CNN very much included. Carlson’s sleight-of-hand here obscures an inconvenient fact for him: It’s not just CNN hacks who say Teixeira isn’t a whistleblower — his own online “tightknit family” says the exact same thing.

“​​You have no right to know what your government is doing in your name with your tax dollars and with the future of your children and grandchildren,” Carlson said later, further implying that Teixeira’s motives were to inform the public rather than to gain clout with his friends.

The Post also reported that in a video at a shooting range Teixeira “yells a series of racial and antisemitic slurs into the camera, then fires several rounds at a target.” Carlson addressed the video to suggest that Teixeira is being targeted for his personal views, claiming the media is treating “him like Osama bin Laden, maybe even worse actually, because unlike al-Qaeda, apparently this kid is a racist.” 

Over the course of his monologue, Carlson never came right out and said explicitly that Teixeira was definitely driven to expose Pentagon lies or obfuscation, but the argument is undeniable: He’s implicitly claiming the media is working with the government to persecute a whistleblower, which is simply not the case according to all available public information.

Carlson also ignored one of the aspects of the leak that doesn’t fit neatly into his manufactured narrative about an anti-war whistleblower risking their freedom to inform the public. A leaked document from Teixeira’s cache shows that Hungary’s authoritarian prime minister Viktor Orbán listed the United States as one of his government’s top three adversaries. Carlson is a major booster of Orbán, who in turn is seeking closer relations with China. That one of Carlson’s most admired heads of state is allying with a country he frequently demonizes poses a problem for the simplistic storylines he puts forward, and it isn’t surprising that the Orbán revelation didn’t find its way into his show.

The entire segment also followed a familiar Carlson playbook, namely that the federal government is sending militarized police forces to target conservatives, as the Post’s Philip Bump noted. Carlson has repeatedly pushed that line, and made his defense of Teixeira in the same rhetorical register.

Bump also cited his colleague Jim LaPorta, who resurfaced Carlson’s remarks condemning whistleblower Reality Winner in 2017. Winner’s disclosures to media outlet The Intercept cut against Carlson’s attempts to diminish Russian attempted interference in the 2016 election.

It’s worth underscoring a few last points. There may very well be information in these leaks that truly is in the public interest. The national security state is a sprawling, unaccountable behemoth that enriches contractors and uses classification to control information, including information that implicates the U.S. government in fraud, waste, and abuse. It’s also true that leakers and whistleblowers go to the media with all sorts of complicated, divergent, contradictory motives, none of which necessarily undermine the value of the information they provide.

The issue here is that, from all available evidence, Teixeira did not want this information to be widely accessible to the public. Carlson is simply backfilling motivations that are not there to fit his own narrative bashing the media and the Biden administration, which he argues are acting in lockstep to keep the public in the dark.

THE LATEST

Steven Crowder is knowingly violating YouTube’s terms of service by promoting Alex Jones’ ban-evasion links

04/17/23 1:30 PM EDT

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04/17/23 12:09 PM EDT

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Tucker Carlson

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/tucker-carlson

gubmint anti-dep

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an 4 23

no lnx

His 'most racist rant yet': Fox News’ Tucker Carlson torched for latest on-air meltdown

Meaghan EllisApril 13, 2023

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is under fire after delivering what has been described as his "most racist rant yet."

The conservative television host's remarks were made on Wednesday, April 12, during the broadcast of his show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight." Carlson took aim at Rep. Justin Pearson (D-Tenn.) in wake of the civil unrest that has taken place in Memphis, Tenn.

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According to Carlson, Pearson speaks as if he were a “sharecropper.” The Fox News host also suggested that Pearson only got accepted into college because he's Black.

READ MORE: Watch: Tucker Carlson spins new conspiracy theory saying US gov will lace country’s water supply with antidepressants

Pearson is one of several lawmakers expelled from Congress due to his decision to join protesters advocating for stricter gun control in the wake of the latest mass school shooting in Nashville, Tenn.

Firearm restrictions are an initiative Republican lawmakers have adamantly pushed back against. Although Pearson and Rep. Justin Jones (D-Tenn.) have been reinstated, Carlson is still expressing outrage.

Per HuffPost: "In a Fox News segment attacking Pearson and other Democrats for what he called 'mimicking civil rights leaders,' Carlson said Pearson had changed his demeanor over the years from that of a 'crypto white kid' into 'the 'modern incarnation of Martin Luther King Jr. himself.'”

“Pearson has been in the news recently for helping to facilitate an insurrection at the Tennessee State House,” Carlson said.

READ MORE: Watch: Gaslighting Tucker Carlson says 'witch doctors' are 'lying' about NFL player Damar Hamlin's injuries

Carlson went on to roll back a clip of Pearson from 2016.

“Justin Pearson wasn’t white. That’s probably how we got into Bowdoin in the first place,” he said in reference to the Maine-based liberal arts college. “But he did a fantastic impression of it... That was the old Justin Pearson, before his ‘transition.’”

“You got to ask yourself, as long as we’re mimicking civil rights leaders who died almost 60 years ago, why not some variety?” Carlson added.

“You never see politicians transitioning to say, Malcolm X. Why is that?" he asked. "Maybe because Malcolm X didn’t talk like a sharecropper. He spoke dignified standard English.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones exchanged coronavirus conspiracy theories through text messages: report

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mma 4 23

Tucker Carlson and Kyle Rittenhouse campaign for pardon of Texas man convicted of murdering Black Lives Matter protester

Carlson: “George Soros can’t pay for people to put his political opponents in jail and then have a Republican governor ignore it”

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 04/10/23

CARLSON (HOST): Perry is behind bars tonight, but the governor has instructed the pardons board to work on an expedited review. That's required by law in Texas in order for a pardon to occur. But he is pardoning this man. That is obviously the right thing to do. George Soros can't pay for people to put his political opponents in jail and then have a Republican governor ignore it.

...

CARLSON: How do you think Daniel Perry feels tonight sitting in jail?

KYLE RITTENHOUSE (GUEST):  I can only imagine. He's probably sitting there wondering what happened. He defended himself. He knows what he did was right.

...

CARLSON: As he was driving for Uber. I mean, the least powerful person in our society attacked by one of the worst people in our society, who's out there rioting. As in your case, you were trying to defend a used car lot and a child -- convicted child molester tried to kill you. And they took the convicted child molester's side. Do you see parallels here?

RITTENHOUSE: Absolutely, and you see the double standard in this case. People aren't talking about the fact of the person -- the second person who attacked Daniel Perry by -- after -- after Sgt. Daniel Perry defended himself against Garrett Foster, he was then shot at three times by a person who was never charged by the Travis County D.A. -- somebody who recklessly fired a slew of shots -- who -- at Daniel Perry's car. And they don't want to talk about that. They don't want to talk about the recklessness of that and they don't want to charge him. It's a double standard. And it's not okay.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-guest-says-secession-necessary-because-democrats-are-so-unclean-and-are

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indict no time to give up AR15s

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"A Nazi move': Tucker Carlson likens addressing racism to eugenics

https://www.alternet.org/a-nazi-move-tucker-carlson/

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satan ideology?

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/**tucker-carlson**-covenant-school-shooting

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https://www.mediamatters.org/4chan/4chan-anti-trans-hoax-about-trans-day-vengeance-spread-twitter-various-right-wing-figures

tucker boebert?

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson**/qanon**-show-hosts-say-tucker-carlson-brought-lot-great-great-attention-our-movement

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an 3 23

no lnx

:{:{fox News anchor Tucker Carlson poured his heart out over his leaked text messages trashing former President Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election during a call-in to Tuesday's edition of Bo Snerdly's Rush Hour.}:

"Tucker, listen, I've had a number of people saying they read all these things in the paper -- 'you hate Trump blah, blah, blah.' But this it – does Tucker like Trump's policies, any policies of his? What's the deal with you and Donald Trump?" host Bo Snerdly queried.

"Bahahahahahahah!" Carlson cackled. "Oh, let's see. I spent four years defending his policies and I – I'm going to defend them again tonight. And actually, and I'm pretty straightforward, I'm – I love Trump. Like, as a person, I think Trump is funny and insightful, and, and I said this to Trump when he called me, you know, all wounded about those texts. That was a moment in time where I was absolutely infuriated. And I think this is in the text – and those were all grabbed completely illegitimately, in my opinion, in this court case, which I guess I'm not allowed to talk about, but I'm enraged that my private texts were pulled. But those – those particular texts were pulled at exactly – at the moment where I was texting with one of my producers because some idiot on the Trump campaign had sent us the name of these dead voters who had voted. And we went and I repeated them on air, and it turns out some of them were alive."}:

READ MORE: 'More suffering is likely to come' as Fox reels from Dominion lawsuit

Seemingly surprised, Snerdly sighed, "Oh."

Carlson, however, was nowhere near finished sharing his feelings, which included repeating Trump's debunked conspiracy theories regarding the outcome of the 2020 presidential election:

So. I was just – I felt humiliated. Yeah. Like what? And I thought then and I think now that that election was not on the level, it was not a free and fair election. I thought that then. I think it now. And so, I was trying to – I wanted, you know, evidence. I mean, there's no way the guy got 81 – he got more votes than Barack Obama. Really? You know, who – whatever you think of Obama –I never liked Obama – but he's a really talented, very talented politician. And Joe Biden is senile and hid in his basement. Tell me how he got 81 million votes.So, I've always thought that was not on the level. And so I said to the Trump people, you know, 'you're saying the election was rigged. Send me some examples of it and I'll put it on the air.' And one of them was these dead voters. Well, it turned out some of them were still alive. And I was so mad by the incompetence of that campaign, which was completely incompetent. I mean, completely you know, I'm like the one guy who's open-minded about the election being unfair. And – and that's what they send me? Anyway. Whatever. I was mad. That was a moment in time. And I will say this. My comments on TV – I think my texts reflect who I am. And I'm vulgar in public, in private, rather, and I use, like bad language and stuff. I worked in a newsroom my whole life and my wife's always trying to improve me, which is fair, but my views are pretty transparent. I always say what I think. I can't keep track of too many lies, you know what I mean? So anyway.

Snerdly offered a defense.

"I know exactly what you mean. And people forget this, that we say things. We're human beings and we can say things in a peak of anger," he said.

READ MORE: Tucker Carlson claims he showed Capitol Police Jan. 6 footage before airing but officials saw 'only one' clip

"Exactly," Carlson agreed.

"And at that very moment we're saying things in a peak of anger, but it does not represent the whole body of our thoughts," Snerdly added.

"Well, that's exactly right," Carlson concurred. "And I was – I was actually even thinking about it. Makes me mad now. I reached out to this one Trump aide who's – I'm not going to name, he's a nice guy, but he's totally incompetent – and I said, 'I agree with you. There was something really wrong with this election. Send me evidence.' And then to have the voters call in and be like, 'no, I'm still alive?' Buhuhuhuhuhuhuh, I mean it was like, I'm so embarrassed and mad."

Snerdly then sympathetically reinforced Carlson's admittedly false statements:

Right, and people forget that you are on a stage. On a huge stage. And you have people whose sole purpose in life, it is, is to try to tear you down, because they oppose what you are bringing to the American people and they think that what you are bringing to the American people will hurt their chances of achieving and wielding power.

Somberly, Carlson responded, "Exactly. That's exactly right."

Snerdly continued:

And you can't afford to be wrong. You can't afford to have something so obviously – and anybody that has – there are so few people that are in that position where they are really that effective. It has – people have no idea of the pressure that people like you are under, Tucker. They also have no idea how many hours you spend researching and how many hours you spend making sure that you get it right.

Carlson responded as if Snerdly struck a nerve:

:{:{}:

Well, that right there, right there – I hate being factually wrong. I mean, I've got a lot of opinions that you may think are stupid and maybe they are stupid and maybe I changed them at some point and I'm always transparent about that. If, you know, the facts change, my opinion changes. I think that's the way you're supposed to live. But I can't stand getting the facts wrong. That's just – there's no excuse for that. And we got it wrong. And by the way, yes we should have, I should have, I should have checked to see if those voters were actually dead. And I didn't. And I took this staffer's word for it and now that I'm saying it out loud, I mean, that's my fault. At the time, I was blaming the Trump campaign. And I was, I was livid. Buhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhhuh. I don't miss it.}:

Listen below via Media Matters for America or at this link.

READ MORE: 'It is so insane but our viewers believe it': Tucker Carlson's producers quietly trashed Fox News' audience

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-claims-national-hockey-league-promoting-child-sacrifice

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http://redgreenandblue.org/2023/03/15/climate-disinformation-daily-caller/

Climate disinformation is what the Daily Caller DOES | Red, Green, and Blue

Red, Green, and Blue

Related · Daily Caller has a fact checker! (But is now run by Koch-trained career disinformer Michael Bastasch) · No, Marc Morano, nobody wants a ' ...

as internal text messages prove what most have long known about Fox News (that it’s a conservative propaganda machine posing as a news outlet), it’s important to remember that these days, Fox is hardly alone. While Murdoch’s Fox and Wall Street Journal are the unquestioned Big Leagues of right-wing disinformation, there’s a whole set of bush league outlets serving as training grounds.

By Climate Denier Roundup

The Tucker Carlson-founded Daily Caller is one of the primary examples of how Fox and the Koch-funded climate change counter-movement are intertwined.

Back when they were mostly Koch-funded, Koch-trained Michael Bastasch was regularly running climate disinformation featuring Koch-funded climate deniers. These days, their funding has diversified a bit thanks to Carlson’s feud with Kochs, though giving the Daily Caller money still appears to increase the odds of the outlet writing favorable content about you.

But Bastasch** returned last year as Managing Editor of the Daily Caller’s non-profit tax dodge foundation, after a stint at Fox News writing for election-lie-spreader Laura Ingraham.

Since his return, we’ve been watching closely to note any changes, and at this point can say it definitely appears that Bastasch is using his position to spread climate disinformation through multiple channels at the Caller, not just the “Big Tent” opinion vertical we noted last week.

In the past, most of the Caller’s climate disinfo would come from just one or two employees who appeared to be tasked with turning press releases from Koch cronies into “news” as their job on the “energy” beat (like Thomas Catenacci, who now works for, you guessed it, Fox News).

But these days, attacks on climate change science, policy, and experts have become a feature of coverage across the website and its various staffers.

It really stood out between 5 and 7 p.m. last Wednesday, when the Daily Caller published a triple-play of climate disinfo: defending a fossil-fuel loving white supremacist, cherry-picking climate change from a US National security assessment, and attacked environmentalists organizing on TikTok to #StopWillow.

The first was from “news and commentary writer” Brianna Lyman, who provided a short write-up framed as criticism of Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who “accused one of the witnesses of being racist.” Who, you might ask? Well, despite the fact that ‘who/what/where/why/when’ is a basic tenet of journalism, Lyman didn’t identify the person at the center of the House committee meeting, and in fact, described Bush as “criticizing the oil industry before turning her attention toward an unidentified witness.”

Which is an absolutely astonishing thing for a supposed journalist to write, because Congressional hearings are very easy to look up. Alex Epstein, one of the “so-called ‘energy experts’” called by Republicans, is who Rep. Bush called “a philosopher who has previously espoused white supremacist views,” before Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) interjected to try and censor her by calling for the comment to be removed from the Congressional record.

But naming Epstein would require doing actual reporting, and apparently all Lyman did was watch a video clip of the hearing (that she embedded in the story). If you’d like to see what real reporting of the hearing looks like, as opposed to someone running cover for a fellow traveler, Timothy Cama covered it for PoliticoPRO and named Alex Epstein right up front.

Roughly thirty-six minutes after Lyman’s article defending a racist was posted, the Daily ‘whoopsie we keep hiring racists‘ Caller published a piece on the US intelligence community’s Annual Threat Assessment. The headline of “reporter” Micaela Burrow’s coverage? “Intel Community Warns Fight Over Green Energy Tech Will Worsen Global Tensions.”

The 10-paragraph write-up quotes the assessment just twice to justify the story’s thrust that fighting climate change will somehow make the world more dangerous. That’s probably because the 40-page assessment only devotes 2 pages to climate, and then otherwise focuses on a bunch of things that the Daily Caller doesn’t spread disinfo about.

Finally, rounding out a very busy day for the Caller, “Associate Editor” Ailan Evans’ hit piece ran at 6:49, attacking the #StopWillow campaign on TikTok because one of the participating groups is funded by “a Swiss billionaire with a documented history of philanthropy and political donations, primarily to left-wing causes and candidates.” Though it’s dressed up as some sort of scandalous revelation, at no point does Evans attempt to explain how or why this is somehow bad.

But that’s the kind of training you get from the Daily Caller. Both Evans and current Fox Production Assistant Kendall Tietz were 2021 fellows of the Daily Caller’s American Journalism Institute, where they train the next generation of political hacks to pretend to be journalists.

So next time you hear about some bizarre disinformation, rank political propaganda, or shameless defense of racism on Fox News, remember that it’s not an accident, they’retrainedto be that awful. There’s a whole farm league of conservative propaganda shops like the Daily Caller — the frack-backed Daily Wire and Heritage‘s Daily Signal come to mind — and while they’d all oppose a Universal Basic Income as socialism, they’re proof that as long as would-be-journalists are willing to play ball for the highest bidder, they’ll never want for work.

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ref jun 2019

just the other day we talked about how Tucker Carlson questioned who the climate culprits are on his Koch-funded Daily Caller website. So we’re reluctant to go back to that well quite so soon, but a new post on the Caller’s website cannot go without comment.

The story is a clip and rehash of one of Carlson’s recent segments on his Fox News show, in which he attacks Koch Brothers and questions their undue influence over the Republican party. In the clip, Carlson hones in on criticisms that the Koch brothers are libertarian and that their philanthropic aims don’t reflect the wants and needs of everyday Republicans.

yes, you read that correctly. Tucker Carlson, whose Daily Callerwebsite received 84%of its funding from the Kochs in 2016 and close to a million dollars in 2017, railed against the Kochs’ influence. Keep in mind the website with over a thousand Koch stories, few if any of which are anything but bootlicking.

That said, in 2017 Koch money only made up 38% of the Caller’s funding. Its trajectory does seem to be moving away from Koch money as its primary means of support. Perhaps the website really is trying to break free from the Koch’s funding, or at least dilute its funder pool so it’s not quite so obvious that they exist as a propaganda tool for the Kochs’ interests. It launched a subscription program back in April, inviting readers to become a “Daily Caller Patriot” offering access to special content and removing ads. The invitation includes a clip of Carlson talking about his crusade against “big tech” for “censoring” “conservatives” over the little tinsy matter of propagating hate speech that is radicalizing white terrorists.

And that’s a big part of Carlson’s new rant against the Kochs: targeting their upcoming work with the Anti-Defamation League to combat online hate speech. Since we know full well that the Daily Caller has quite a history of “accidentally” propagating white nationalism, perhaps that’s why Carlson is stoking division between himself and his followers and his Koch funders. If they’re anti-hate speech, odds are they’ll follow the lead of all the advertisers who have pulled their support for Carlson’s Fox program.

So maybe this new change in heart in response to the Kochs pulling away from supporting the website, and Carlson is pulling the old “you can’t fire me because I quit.” Back in November of 2018, Washington Post columnist Radley Balko wrote that Koch officials told him that “the Kochs and their foundations more generally find the Daily Caller abhorrent, and feel the same way about Tucker Carlson. One added that he was particularly troubled by the way the site objectives women as clickbait.”

And while the Koch donors Balko spoke to made it clear they saw their investment in the Caller to be aimed at training new journalists with free-market ideology, the lead investigative journalist at the Caller, per Balko, “doesn't inspire confidence.” Balko, who had previously worked with the reporter, Richard Pollack, wrote that Pollack is “a Trump toady” who “doesn't understand libertarianism” and is “a crappy journalist” who “isn't particularly smart.” But Balko conceded that Pollack’s “most marketable skill seems to be the ability to fool people into believing he has marketable skills.”

The same could be said for Tucker Carlson, and maybe the Kochs have finally realized it. Because as a millionaire funded by billionaires, it’s hard to comprehend why else Carlson would turn on his former patrons.

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mma 3 23

CARLSON (HOST): Of course, climate does change, it has always changed. In fact, the landscape we live in now is formed by climate change. The glaciers are a product of climate change. The climate is changing now, it never stops changing. That is a process that we didn't cause and that we can't control to any great degree. We will never be able to control.

And there are upsides to it and downsides to it.By the way, if the Earth is indeed getting warmer and it seems to be, well, then that will make more arable land in places like Canada and northern Europe.

So, like everything in this life and the temporal world, it's a mixed blessing. But you only hear the downsides, which tells you a lot. It tells you this is not science, it's manipulation. These aren't reports from the experts, these are threats.

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mma 3 23

in the March 9 edition of the Los Angeles Times weekly newsletter Boiling Point, reporter Sammy Roth wrote about a recent peer-reviewed study which found that minority communities in Los Angeles face higher levels of vehicular pollution than their white counterparts. The study’s abstract sums up the findings as follows:

Commuters from majority-White tracts disproportionately drive through non-White tracts, compared to the inverse. Decades of racially-motivated freeway infrastructure planning and residential segregation shape today’s disparities in who produces vehicular air pollution and who is exposed to it.

These findings are entirely uncontroversial. For example, studies looking at vehicular pollution in other cities have found similar results. There is a vast body of research showing that lower-income and minority communities in the U.S. face disproportionately higher levels of pollution than whiter and more affluent communities. There is also a well-documented history of racism in urban planning, with highways purposefully built through minority communities.

The study received little fanfare when it was published in February. A March 7 LA Times write-up of the study also received “normal levels of engagement,” per the author of the study. It wasn’t until March 9, when Roth offered some of his personal feelings about the topics of the study — noting that he “benefited from the region’s sordid history” and that he contributed “to the inequitable air pollution that Boeing’s study describes” — that Fox launched its attack on both Roth and the paper.

The following day, Fox News devoted at least 5 segments to attacking Roth and the LA Times 

In the early morning hours of March 10, Foxnews.com published an article titled “​​LA Times writer says ‘White’ drivers are ‘polluting the air’ breathed by LA’s ‘people of color.’” The article listed some of Roth’s claims, gave a brief overview of the study, and then linked to some tweets by right-wing media personalities lambasting the article (none of which actually addressed any data or evidence presented in the study).

The Fox News TV segments on March 10 followed similar framing — making Roth or the LA Times the main targets of their vitriol and acting outraged over the mere notion of environmental racism.

On Outnumbered, co-host Emily Compagno began the segment by claiming that “if you are white and a driver in Los Angeles, then the liberal media thinks that you are racist.” A chyron mentioned the L.A. Times and an image included Roth’s name. Fox News’ ​​liberal political commentator Marie Harf mentioned the study and broadly defended some of the points it made, including the fact that city highways are often built in lower-income areas and that many members of these communities don’t have cars and rely on public transport, though she said she “wouldn’t use the r-word; I wouldn’t use the ‘racist’ word about white people driving on highways.” Harf’s points about the study were generally dismissed by other guests, who instead focused on attacking the idea of environmental racism. ​​For example, Jason Chaffetz scoffed at the idea that “driving on a freeway is somehow a racist act.”

Later that evening on The Five, co-host Brian Kilmeade called the L.A. Times piece “ridiculous,” mocking the idea that “driving can be racist.” A chyron and image again mentioned the L.A. Times and Roth by name, and the study was mentioned only in passing. Co-host Dana Perino tried to reframe the issue, stating that if she was ”in a minority community,” she “would say why are you giving subsidies to rich white people for electric vehicles.” Co-host Jesse Watters then dismissed the idea of racism in this story after saying that “the Chinese are the ones polluting everybody. They are the most racist, statistically.”

On Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson went into a tirade over the L.A. Times piece and mocked Roth’s own background. Carlson did not mention that Roth was reporting on a study. Carlson took an absurd position on the piece, insinuating that Roth wrote “that just by breathing, white people are hurting others.” Carlson also claimed that white people are victims of “Rwanda-style race hatred” pushed by the media.

on The Ingraham Angle, Laura Ingraham did mention the study, but her opening monologue centered on attacking both Roth and the L.A. Times. She downplayed the very idea of environmental racism in general, saying, “Making people live near landfills? We're making people live next to polluting facilities? Well, that's obviously ridiculous.” She also dismissed the well-established fact that highways were purposefully built through low-income and minority communities, stating that “what this is really all about is control.” A chyron read “This is all about eliminating your freedoms.”

In the very next segment, guest Chris Bedford stated that the money going toward environmental justice initiatives is useless and that it’s a “completely insane thing” to call carbon a pollutant anyway. Meanwhile, guest Vincent Edward Ellison called Democrats “the evilest people that have ever walked the face of this earth,” adding that “they don't care that these people are suffering.”

On *Fox News at Nigh*t (airing during the midnight hour of March 11), Trace Gallagher began a segment by stating, “Driving is racist. Says so right in the LA Times, which ran a headline reading, quoting, ‘How white and affluent drivers are polluting the air breathed by L.A.’s people of color.’” He also dismissed the idea of the disproportionate impacts of minority pollution, claiming, “The study says air quality is worse a few blocks from a freeway and common sense says, it's L.A. Almost everyone lives a few blocks from the freeway.”

For his part in writing about a study and simply expressing his own feelings on racist highway practices, Roth was barraged with right-wing and antisemitic hate mail.

Fox News has a history of attacking environmental justice issues

In the aftermath of 2022’s Hurricane Ian, Vice President Kamala Harris correctly pointed out that it’s typically lower-income communities and communities of color that suffer the most from extreme weather events. Fox News personalities lambasted her over this claim, acting outraged that race was brought up at all. Some also falsely accused the administration of planning to deny hurricane aid to white communities. More recently, Fox attacked environmental justice initiatives and pushed racial grievance narratives in the wake of the Ohio train derailment.

In addition to mocking environmental justice initiatives, right-wing media will also downright ignore them, as they did when covering the Jackson, Mississippi, water crisis in 2022.

In addition to these examples, Fox also worked up a storm over environmental justice initiatives in the 2021 version of Biden’s Build Back Better bill, crying foul over modest attempts to rectify decades of racist building practices. At the time, Media Matters wrote that “Fox’s coverage of these programs has not attempted to describe what they entail or what they would accomplish for hundreds of communities. Rather, they have been used as punchlines or set up for cheap shots that reflect Fox’s racist ethos and climate denial.”

This exactly sums up Fox’s coverage of the vehicular pollution study and the resulting L.A. Times report on it. The network downplayed the facts and data surrounding disproportionate minority pollution, and instead loudly complained that it’s all a hoax or that it's actually white people who are being unfairly treated. Boeing, the author of the study, made the same point: Responding on Twitter to the right-wing anger toward his work, he stated that there wasn’t much for him to comment on because “there was no critical engagement with our data or statistical analysis whatsoever, all of which was peer reviewed.”

Promoting climate denial, protecting the wealthy fossil fuel industry, and downplaying the U.S.’ long and sordid history of racism are key themes of Fox News’ right-wing programming. Inconvenient facts like those pointed out in the study — that decades of racist urban planning have contributed to minority populations breathing in more polluted and dangerous air coming from vehicles driven by more affluent people living in other communities — would run up against Fox’s pro-fossil fuel and racial grievance agenda. It thus works for the network to aggressively deny environmental justice issues and reframe the discussion by attacking and manufacturing a backlash in an attempt to intimidate those who even dare to report on them. In this case, the intimidation did not succeed: Roth’s story ended up appearing in theMarch 13 print edition of the L.A. Times.

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sucks up to tucker? never let lack of fact limit her before?

~ tucker

https://www.mediamatters.org/eric-bolling/newsmax-host-attacks-tucker-carlson-following-dominion-revelation-carlson-wrote-he

BOLLING (HOST): You know, this whole revelations of the emails that Tucker Carlson at Fox was texting or emailing to, or texting to some of his producers and whatnot. And one of them is really disturbing to me. It's "I hate him passionately" – that Tucker said about President Trump. I mean, how how do you – like, I think people are giving Tucker a pass on this, but I just can't. I just can't get past this, Kari. I can't understand how a guy who can portray himself as a huge Trump fan on television, saying he hates him passionately is very, very much looking forward to the day he didn't have to cover Trump being in the White House every day.

KARI LAKE (GUEST):Well, from the way you describe it it sounds awful. I have not read the emails, so I'm reluctant to comment and say anything that would disparage Tucker because I haven't read all of the emails to even know what context that was in. But it sure on the surface sounds awful. And hopefully, he's had a change of heart and realizes that President Trump is the greatest president we've ever known and he is the man to turn this around.

And I'm assuming with the footage he put out on January 6th and the work he's doing to get the word out that there were so many lies told by our men and women in Congress – our elected officials told so many lies about January 6th, and we have a lot of people who are political prisoners sitting in jail, in prison right now who need to be let out. And I'm happy that he's doing that kind of work. But I just don't know enough about the context of those emails. I haven't read them myself. So I'm reluctant to comment on that.

---

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/dominion-filings-expose-carlsons-qanon-deceit

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cpac hungary his doing?

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jim banks --. sen hired his son

---

https://www.mediamatters.org/infowars/alex-jones-claims-deep-state-put-incredible-pressure-tucker-carlson-over-his-january-6

//

https://www.mediamatters.org/murdoch-family/steve-bannon-claims-tucker-carlson-had-one-night-push-january-6-revisionism-murdochs

https://www.mediamatters.org/ben-shapiro/ben-shapiro-criticizes-tucker-carlsons-rewriting-january-6-it-wasnt-peaceful-event

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/amidst-bipartisan-backlash-tucker-carlson-attacks-republicans-you-have-way-replace

---

an 3 23

Carlson's producers reportedly are urging Fox Corporation staffers to promote Tuesday night's show that is expected to push more January 6 insurrection disinformation to viewers after massive pushback from both the left and the right.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is mentioned in the Fox producers' memo, came out strongly against Carlson's false framing, disinformation and apparent lies about what happened when the Capitol was attacked on January 6, calling it "shameful."

Senate Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also denounced Tucker Carlson's Monday show, and far-right Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina called it "bullshit."

"To say the January 6th attack was not violent is a lie," Majority Leader Schumer tweeted. "The lives of my staff, my colleagues, the police, maintenance staff, reporters, and more were put in danger. Fox News must order Tucker Carlson to stop promoting the Big Lie and stop defending the insurrectionists."

Schumer also denounced it on the floor of the Senate. [twt/vid?]

daily Beast senior media reporter Justin Baragona posted a copy of theproducers' leaked memo.

"Hello all," it reads. "Tonight will be night two of our two night investigation into the truth behind January 6th and what really happened that day. This show is already facing backlash from Senator Chuck Schumer and the usual people in the media. We look forward to providing even more footage tonight. Any promotion before the additional footage airs tonight is greatly appreciated."

---

rant j6 treason

https://www.alternet.org/trump-truth-social-2659516582/

no lnx

Trump demands J6 committee be prosecuted for 'treason' in off-the-rails posting spree

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement March 07, 2023

Republican 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump has spent the past 12 hours wildly posting falsehoods to his Truth Social account, insisting the cherry-picked video clips aired by propagandist Tucker Carlson on Rupert Murdoch’s far-right wing cable channel Monday night are proof he is “totally innocent,” calling for the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack to be prosecuted for “treason,” praising Speaker Kevin McCarthy for handing over the 41,000 or more hours of January 6 video to Carlson, and reposting video that appears to be of a naked Hunter Biden with a naked woman with their private parts blurred.

From just after 9 PM Monday to just after 9 AM Tuesday the twice-impeached ex-president who is under multiple criminal investigations posted 15 times to Truth Social.

Many if not most of his claims are falsehoods or lies, baseless allegations, or pro-Trump propaganda.

“Tucker Carlson a must watch tonight, Trump anxiously writes in one post. “Releasing more video which was ‘Hidden By The Crooked J 6 Unselect Committee.’ They should be prosecuted for their lies and, quite frankly, treason!” (Several words in that quote were all-caps.)

READ MORE: Trump Faces Being ‘Found Liable of Rape’ While ‘In the Midst’ of Multiple Investigations: Reporter

There is no evidence the January 6 Committee committed treason or anything close to any crimes.

In another angry post from Tuesday morning, Trump writes: “Everything is exposed on Hunter Biden’s Laptop from Hell, including massive crime by Joe and Hunter — But nothing happens, they just keep coming after me. The good news is that America won’t take it any longer!” (Several words in that quote were also all-caps.)

That post includes a repost of what appears to be the naked Hunter Biden video.

Other Trump reposts include multiple videos falsely claiming election fraud, an all-caps attack on “Ron DeSanctus,” and this (also all-caps) demand to release the hundreds of people arrested for crimes surrounding the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol or the insurrection:

“Let the January 6 prisoners go. They were convicted, or are awaiting trial, based on a giant lie, a radical left con job. Thank you to Tucker Carlson and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy for what you both have done. New video footage is irrefutable!!!”

READ MORE: Pence Formally Tries to Wiggle Out of Special Counsel’s Subpoena as He Pushes Off Presidential Run Decision to ‘Spring’

(DOJ recently announced at least 1000 people have now been charged with crimes surrounding the January 6 attack on the Capitol. More than half have pled guilty.)

Also among Trump’s posts: two new videos of Fox Corporation’s propagandist Sean Hannity praising Trump, airing his recent interview with the ex-president, and attacking President Joe Biden. In one of those videos Hannity says “President Trump also unveiled some important policy ideas, from building new ‘freedom cities’ to new protections for parents, school choice, and much more.”

Trump also declares himself and “most others” are innocent, and calls for them to be released.

And in yet another post praising McCarthy, Trump, declaring his innocence, writes (again, in all-caps) “free at last!!!”

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'Scammed' users rage at Trump over 'misleading gimmicks' on Truth Social ›

Donald Trump shares Truth Social conspiracy theory that January 6th was a 'false flag' ›

'I have info on everyone': Donald Trump teases blackmail of Mar-a-Lago visitors in Truth Social post ›

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no lnx twt vid

https://www.alternet.org/gop-to-tucker-carlson/

Brett Wilkins and Common Dreams March 08, 2023

After Fox News' Tucker Carlson falsely dismissed the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump as mostly nonviolent, numerous Republican senators including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday blasted the right-wing opinion host's "whitewashing" of the deadly insurrection.

Carlson—who publicly promoted former President Donald Trump's 2020 election lies while privately calling the GOP loser's claims "absurd"—said Monday on his program that "very little about January 6 was organized or violent" and that "surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos."

Recently deposed as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Carlson echoed colleagues who said under oath that they didn't actually believe Trump's "Big Lie" that the 2020 presidential contest was stolen by Democrats.

While some of the eight Republican senators (and 135 House members) who voted against certifying President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory have stuck by the Big Lie, numerous others pushed back hard against Carlson's reimagination of the worst attack on the Capitol since Puerto Rican nationalists launched an armed assault on the building in 1954.

"I think it's bullshit," Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters Tuesday when asked what he thought of Carlson's narrative. "When you see police officers assaulted, all of that... if you were just a tourist, you should've probably lined up at the visitors' center and came in on an orderly basis."

Also speaking Tuesday, McConnell (R-Ky.) said that Fox News "made a mistake" by airing Carlson's spurious revision of the deadly insurrection.

"With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6," McConnell declared.

As he spoke, McConnell held up a printout of remarks from U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger, who called Carlson's account "filled with offensive and misleading conclusions" and "conveniently cherry-picked from the calmer moments of our 41,000 hours of video."

\u201cSenate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says Tucker Carlson's whitewashing of the Capitol insurrection was a \u201cmistake.\u201d\n\n"My concern is how it was a depicted ... Clearly, the chief of the Capitol Police ... correctly describes what most of us witnessed firsthand on January 6th."\u201d

— The Recount (@The Recount) 1678218192]

Asked whether he thought U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) erred in giving Carlson exclusive access to the footage—a move that prompted watchdogs on Tuesday to call for an Office of Congressional Ethics probe—McConnell said that "my concern is how it was depicted."

:{:{}:

}:

"Clearly," he added, "the chief of the Capitol Police correctly described what most of us witnessed on January 6."

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined in the criticism of Carlson, saying, "We don't want to whitewash January the 6th."

:{:{}:

}:

"I think the January 6 committee had a partisan view of things, and I'd like to know more about what happened that day and the day before," Graham added. "But I'm not interested in whitewashing the Covid lab theory, and I'm not interested in whitewashing January 6."

:{:{}:

}:

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) accused Carlson of "feeding falsehoods" to his viewers.

"It's really sad to see Tucker Carlson go off the rails like that," the 2012 Republican presidential nominee told reporters. "The American people saw what happened on January 6. They've seen the people that got injured, they saw the damage to the building."

"You can't hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on," he added. "It's so absurd. It's nonsense. And people saw that it was violent and destructive and should never happen again. But trying to normalize that behavior is dangerous and disgusting."

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) condemned Carlson's framing of the attack as "some rowdy peaceful protest of Boy Scouts."

"I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol... is a crime," Cramer argued. "I think... when you start opening the members' desks, when you stand up in their balcony—to somehow put that in the same category as, you know, permitted peaceful protest is just a lie."

Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) got straight to his point: "I thought it was an insurrection at that time. I still think it was an insurrection today."

:{:{}:

}:

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, called on Fox to keep Carlson off the air this evening.

"To say January 6 was not violent is a lie. A lie, pure and simple," Schumer said on the Senate floor.

:{:{}:

}:

"I don't think I have ever seen a prime-time cable news anchor manipulate his viewers the way Mr. Carlson did last night," he added. "I don't think I've ever seen an anchor treat the American people and American democracy with such disdain. And he is going to come back tonight with another segment. Fox News should tell him not to."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

'They certainly deserve it': GOP strategist hopes Fox News defamation suit ends in favor of Dominion ›

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The GOP backlash on Tucker Carlson's depiction of Jan. 6 - The ... ›

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House GOP faces a new Jan. 6 headache, courtesy of Tucker Carlson ›

---

3 23

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-it-clear-2020-election-was-grave-betrayal-american-democracy

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https://www.alternet.org/brian-sicknick-j6/

// jun 2021

capitol Officer Michael Fanone slammed Fox News' prime-time personalities, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham, for their coverage on Tuesday of day one of the House Select Committee's hearing on the Capitol riot.

On his Fox News program, Carlson smirked and laughed at a clip of Fanone explaining the post-traumatic stress disorder he experienced after the riot. Carlson later went on to say that the violence was just a "political protest that got out of hand."....

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no insurrection

https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-2659514987/

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mma 3 23

TINA GLANDIAN (GUEST): Right now, unfortunately, because there is an ongoing criminal investigation, we aren't allowed to actually discuss all of the evidence that is very favorable that shows that they didn't commit any crimes in this case.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Pretty obviously a set-up, Tina. I mean, let's stop lying. These guys were super unpopular with the people in charge and now they're in a "Romanian jail" under "Romanian law." Like, obviously no?

GLANDIAN: I think you said it yourself, Tucker.

CARLSON: Yeah, I did. Because let's stop pretending. Let's stop playing. That's exactly what this is. But I appreciate the update.

GLANDIAN: Sure. I was going to say it's frustrating to be on the defense right now, unable to respond to all of the one-sided leaks that have come out when we have exculpatory evidence but we're not able at this point to discuss it yet and to put it out for the world to see and for the brothers to start to get the truth out and to clear their names.

CARLSON: Yeah, because we know for a fact they tried to set him up for sexual assault before. The woman who was supposedly assaulted by him said, "No, that's my boyfriend." Right. So there's a lot of lying going on here, a lot. And everyone in our country seems to be believing it but we don't.

---

fox back desantis bigly

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-says-murdoch-family-trying-destroy-united-states-america

mark levin?

https://www.alternet.org/fox-host-slams-bannon-criticism/

https://www.alternet.org/bannon-cpac-fox-news-murdoch/

---

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an 2 23

Fox News will air a selectively edited "documentary" about the Jan. 6 attacks based on the 44,000 hours of footage delivered to the network's prime-time personality, Tucker Carlson. Carlson will not post all 44,000 hours for the public to view. Instead, he will make his own edits.

The move comes after Carlson spent months arguing that there was no insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Of all the things Jan. 6 was, it was not a violent terrorist attack," Carlson said on his show on Sept. 22, 2021. "It wasn't an insurrection."

"What are they gonna admit there was no insurrection?" Carlson asked two days later on Sept. 24. He chuckled: "never."

"So, FBI operatives were organizing the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to government documents," Carlson falsely claimed during a June 16, 2021, show.

Speaking about the show, MSNBC's Katy Tur aired the teaser aired on Fox to promote the episode that showed footage of the attack and former President Donald Trump's speech.

The voiceover says: "False flags have happened in this country. One of which may have been Jan. 6."

On the screen appears insurrectionists, footage from the Capitol, and Trump, but then it shows footage of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.It isn't clear why Carlson would choose bin Laden's image, while the voiceover claims there have been false flags in the U.S. in the past.

Carlson isn't the only conservative to claim conspiracies around Sept. 11, 2001. Donald Trump falsely said that he witnessed Muslims cheering on a rooftop in New Jersey. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) falsely claimed that a plane never hit the Pentagon.

See the clip of the promo in the video below or at the link here.

---

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many msg show bad trinity knew lying

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/they-knew-it-was-lie-behind-scenes-happenings-fox-while-network-pushed-false-claims-about

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/msnbc-angelo-carusone-says-dominion-filings-show-keyhole-view-what-fox-inside

https://www.mediamatters.org/2020-election-lawsuits/two-days-after-2020-election-fox-news-chief-political-anchor-bret-baier

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/abc-susan-glasser-details-how-fox-executives-lied-about-their-panic-over-ratings-amidst

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/cnn-contributor-breaks-down-how-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-shows-fox-promoted-lies-led

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/angelo-carusone-there-will-be-serious-business-consequences-fox-news-because

https://www.mediamatters.org/2020-election-lawsuits/fox-news-lied-about-dominion-and-2020-election-compete-far-right-newsmax

https://www.mediamatters.org/rupert-murdoch/rupert-murdoch-told-fox-ceo-suzanne-scott-fox-news-would-concentrate-helping-any-way

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/new-filing-shows**-tucker-carlson-tried-get-fox-reporter-fired-correctly-fact-checking

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/msnbc-angelo-carusone-explains-how-dominions-new-filing-shows-fox-news

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/angelo-carusone-explosive-new-court-filings-prove-crystal-clarity-fox-knew-it-was-pushing

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an 2 23

fox News lawsuits will expose the 'dishonest' network and threaten 'alt-reality media': conservative

Sarah K. Burris Raw Story

February 15, 2023

---

recall cruz vs gigi on fox propaganda

2 23 badash an

As the nation last week was focused on bombshell revelations allegedly exposing Fox News as "a propaganda network" that is "void of the most basic journalistic ethics," Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was handing over to that network's top propagandist, Tucker Carlson, 41,000 hours of footage from the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

"Now his shows — 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' on Fox News, and 'Tucker Carlson Today' and 'Tucker Carlson Originals' on the streaming service Fox Nation — have a massive trove of raw material," Axios' Mike Allen notes in an exclusive report.

"Carlson TV producers were on Capitol Hill last week to begin digging through the trove, which includes multiple camera angles from all over Capitol grounds. Excerpts will begin airing in the coming weeks," Axios adds, noting that "Carlson has repeatedly questioned official accounts of 1/6, downplaying the insurrection as 'vandalism.'"

READ MORE: 'Treasonous': Marjorie Taylor Greene Slammed for Celebrating President's Day by Calling for a 'National Divorce'

Indeed, on the same night last year in June as the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack was presenting its evidence on national TV, Tucker Carlson declared, "it tells you a lot about the priorities of aruling class that the rest of us are gettingyet another lecture about January 6th tonight from our moral inferiors, no less. An outbreak of mob violence, a forgettably minor outbreak by recent standards, that took place more than a year and a half ago, but they've never stopped talking about it."

Carlson on his Fox News primetime show that night called the Committee’s hearing "deranged," and bragged, "we're not playing along. This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live. They are lying, and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is to try to tell you the truth. We've attempted to do that since the day this happened."

He did not stop there.

Carlson called it "vandalism" and flat-out denied it was an insurrection.

READ MORE: ‘Propaganda Network’: Media Reporter Says Dominion Filing Exposes Fox News as ‘Void of the Most Basic Journalistic Ethics’

"We hated seeing vandalism at the U.S. Capitol a year and a half ago, and we said so at the time, but we did not think it was an insurrection because it was not an insurrection. It was not even close to an insurrection. Not a single person in the crowd that day was found to be carrying a firearm – some insurrection."

Last week a legal court filing from Dominion Voting Systems alleged that Fox News' top brass, from Rupert Murdoch on down – including Carlson – knew Donald Trump was lying about the election being stolen.

In an opinion piece at MSNBC, senior fellow for Media Matters for America Matt Gertz writes: "Out of fear that Fox News's audience was leaving for its competitors, the brief alleges, the network chose to buttress President Donald Trump's lie that the election had been stolen from him, helping to set the stage for the Jan. 6 insurrection."

---

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Carlson takes aim at Kamala Harris blaming her for Russia's invasion of Ukraine

https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-2659437361/

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They play-act': Jon Stewart torches JD Vance and Tucker Carlson over Ohio train derailment

Meaghan Ellis

February 15, 2023

Jon Stewart did not mince words when he slammed both Fox News' Tucker Carlson and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) for their reaction to the Ohio train derailment.

According to Stewart, although both expressed outrage...

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https://www.alternet.org/michael-steele-carlson/

fact check

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aha [amanda] earth2 =  --> fascism

an 2 23

The political media fascination with Rep. George Santos, the New York Republican who appears to have faked approximately 95% of his life, is such that it was inevitable that it would draw a "savvy" backlash piece scolding the press about their priorities. The wannabe party pooper finally emerged last week at the Washington Post in an opinion column headlined, "Real people don't care about George Santos." In it, self-assigned buzzkill David Byler argued "America doesn't seem to care" about Santos, which he can tell based on Google search traffic.

Our nation was founded by puritans, so as soon as people had a laugh over Santos, inevitably someone would shake their finger disapprovingly. But there were some flaws in Byler's argument, starting with his assumption that Santos' own embarrassed constituents are not "real" people. There's also the fact that Google Trends isn't a very exacting measure of interest in a subject, as it only measures if people are searching out information. It doesn't capture people who read articles they saw on social media or directly on a news website. Traffic to stories about Santos is plenty healthy on that front.

But perhaps most importantly, this narrow-minded focus on search traffic ignores what a lot of the sneered-at political observers saw coming a mile away: The imminent George Santos makeover into MAGA's Next Top Superstar.

Santos may not matter to "average" Americans, but his story is being leveraged directly into the right-wing propaganda machine that currently controls the Republican Party. On Thursday night, for instance, Santos was sanctified into the echelon of MAGA saints by the Pope of neo-fascism himself, Tucker Carlson. In a typically dishonest segment on his wildly popular Fox News show, Carlson painted Santos as a hapless victim of the bigoted news media by pretending that the only thing Santos lied about was his volleyball career. (Which is one of the more minor fake careers and hobbies Santos has claimed on his resume.) Media Matters has a sample of the extremely silly diatribe:

It was a tissue of lies constructed to deceive the American people. There was no volleyball scholarship. There was not a single dollar of volleyball scholarship. George Santos made it all up out of whole cloth, out of thin air. George Santos is an ersatz volleyball player. A fraud, a ghoul. People voted for this man believing he had played collegiate volleyball on a scholarship and he hadn't.

And yet tonight ladies and gentlemen, this thief of volleyball glory strides the halls of the United States Congress unimpeded by law enforcement. It's like another insurrection.

Carlson doesn't really have arguments or evidence, but he does do a bang-up impression of someone sarcastically brushing aside nonsense. Except what he's brushing away is usually pretty serious stuff, such as fascist attacks on democracy, attempts to save lives during a pandemic, or, in this case, unbelievable amounts of fraud that look potentially criminal in many cases. With Santos, the number of lies Carlson is ignoring is truly staggering. Santos lied about his resume, his religion, his marriage, his family history, and claimed connections he doesn't have to the Holocaust, 9/11, the Pulse nightclub shooting, and an assassination attempt that appears fictional. It is really no exaggeration to say it's easier to list the things he hasn't lied about (his age and his birthplace in Queens).

But just as Catholic saints get their status through martyrdom, the saints of MAGAdom must get theirs through falsified tales of victimhood at the hands of "woke mobs" or the "fake news media."

People right-wingers hate are alarmed at Santos and his staggering trail of fraud. So if the "libs" have a negative reaction to Santos, in the troll-based logic that drives the modern GOP, that must mean he's their newest champion. And let's just state for the record that, while Byler may not see left-leaning news consumers as "real people," he probably wouldn't say the same about the millions of Trump voters whose entire worldview is shaped by the crap that Fox News pours into their heads every day.

Carlson didn't reach the conclusion that Santos is the latest MAGA idol all on his own. Practically from the moment that Santos's deceit was exposed by the New York Times, Steve Bannon, the Joseph Goebbels-wannabe who frequently sets the GOP agenda with his popular "War Room" podcast, was championing the pathological liar. Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have also rallied to Santos' side, claiming he's only a target because he's a "fighter." It's unclear who he has ever "fought" for besides himself, but then again, the same could be said of most MAGA figures, from Donald Trump on down.

It's not a mystery why these leaders think the right-wing audience is ready to accept Santos as the next MAGA savior. All that matters to the modern right is "owning the liberals," and who better to do that than someone who lies constantly for no apparent reason other than the sheer thrill of it?

Certainly, Santos seems to grasp that the move that will take him from a low-level con man to the ranks of the richest MAGA grifters is to lean into trolling. So he's been rolling out the standard issue liberal-owning stunts for weeks now: Flashing the white supremacist-aligned "OK" hand signal during a House vote. (He even knew how to do it so it was clear enough to photograph but so quick he could pretend later it wasn't intentional.) Wearing an assault rifle pin while playing dumb about why it offends people to celebrate the preferred weapons of mass shooters. Feeding the press donuts and actinglike they had somehow become complicit in the evil by eating them. Getting into Twitter fights with drag queens, who are the favorite punching bag of the authoritarian right. (Santos seems to have a past as a drag queen, as well, but this is just part of a favorite right-wing trolling tactic, to recruit members of a hated minority to speak out against their own.) Dunking on former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., for criticizing him by tweeting "cry about it."

Reports suggest Santos is delighted by all the negative attention he's getting in the press. An exceptionally short-lived aide recorded a conversation in which Santos was dressing him down, and right in the middle of it, Santos suddenly exclaims, "Don Lemon just texted me — I'm sorry, I'm listening to you — Don Lemon just texted me!" Getting his name on CNN, even during a story on how he is the worst, was just that thrilling to Santos.

Santos even hired former Steve Bannon employee and professional troll, Vish Burra, as a top aide. Burra's defense of Santos is cynical and self-congratulatory: The lying is a form of "shitposting," which is internet speak for saying outlandish things to draw outrage and attention. For the Trumpist right, aggressive trolling is what politics is all about.

Imagining that they're outraging the left is what the GOP audience gets out of this. (No one tell them that the left's reaction to Santos is more amusement than genuine fury.) But there's an even darker reason that Carlson, Bannon, Taylor Greene, etc. have decided to rally round Santos: He's very useful as a weapon in their larger war on truth.

As with Trump, it's overly simplistic to look at these people, with their non-stop disinformation, as mere liars. Liars are people who are sincerely trying to deceive people. In many cases, it's not at all evident that right-wing audiences actually believe the asinine B.S. that is rolled out by the likes of Carlson and Bannon. For instance, the "outrage" over M&M spokescandy shoe choices is less sincere anger than it is a collective bit of performance art. Both Carlson and his audience merely pretend to be mad as a way to keep ironic distance from their own weird sexual hang-ups. Similarly, conspiracy theories like Trump's Big Lie are often less about true belief and more about displaying fealty to their tribe.

There's a point to right-wingers constantly saying and "believing" things they know not to be true. It's about devaluing empirical reality. Fascists want "truth" to flow from what the right-wing authority figures say is "true," not from lived experience or verifiable facts.They are trying to construct a world where facts don't matter, and only power does. The first step is getting their tribal community to agree collectively to stop distinguishing between true and false and to only claim to believe what is convenient for their leaders or their cause.

For that goal, Santos is useful. He is living the fascist dream of a man whose entire existence seems unmoored from the power of facts. If the MAGA leaders can turn him into a hero, he'd be a living exemplar of their post-truth yearnings: "Truth" can be whatever you want it to be. After all, right-wingers already hate the way facts — Trump lost the election, COVID-19 is real, LGBTQ people exist — get in the way of their desires. They just need permission to let go of that last tendril of reality and start living purely in their authoritarian fantasy world. Santos shows the way. It's unlikely he will be going away any time soon.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlsons-fox-news-show-undermined-vaccines-99-days-it-covered-them-biden

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-gives-passionate-defense-george-santos

https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/matthew-dowd-tucker-carlsons-position-seems-be-its-very-clear-spread-autocracy-around-world

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austin Fitts on Wednesday to share her theory that the financial system is creating “digital concentration camps.” Fitts is a prominent 9/11 truther and anti-vax activist who has written that “Ziocons” control top U.S. officials as “puppets.”

Carlson began the segment by alleging the shuttering of some bank branches and ATMs indicates that a shadowy global cabal is planning to eliminate cash in order to control the world population and leave people with “no power whatsoever.”

He then brought on Fitts, whom he identified as the founder of The Solari Report and a former assistant secretary of Housing and Urban Development, saying that she had been “monitoring this.” Fitts explained to Carlson’s primetime audience that thanks to this purported plot by “the central banks” and other unidentified entities, “we're going into a system where literally our homes, our cars, our communities become digital concentration camps." [vid]

fitts became a prominent figure in the 9/11 Truth movement following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. She was “a board member of 911Truth.org -- a Web site organized by citizens who believe the government is covering up the true cause of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks,” according to a 2004 report from the South Bend Tribune that was republished on that website. That group’s mission statement alleges that “elements within the US government and covert policy apparatus must have orchestrated or participated in the execution of the attacks for these to have happened in the way that they did.” Fitts is also identified as a prominent 9/11 truther in a 2006 Washington Post report, which states that she believes “that the ‘most unbelievable conspiracy’ theory is the one retailed by the government.”

FItts signed a 2004 petition “facilitated by” 911Truth.org “which calls for immediate public attention to unanswered questions that suggest that people within the current administration may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.” That document earned notoriety in 2009 after Fox reported that then-Obama White House adviser Van Jones’ name appeared as a signatory (Jones stated that he was misled about the petition, which was “something that I never saw and never signed onto,” but resigned amid the firestorm). Fitts told Salon.com following that controversy, “I signed the 9/11 truth statement and stand by my signature.”

More recently, Fitts has made a name for herself by promoting COVID-19 vaccine conspiracy theories.(She also alleges more broadly that childhood vaccination has caused “disabilities and death inflicted on our children by what I now call ‘the great poisoning.’”)

Fitts gained viral fame for her appearance in the 2020 documentary Planet Lockdown, which was eventually banned by Facebook and YouTube. Media Matters previously reported of her role in the film:

The video, which came out in late December, features Fitts making a variety of false claims that amount to an elaborate conspiracy theory in which a “committee that runs the world” is using the pandemic to enhance its power. She claims that a coronavirus vaccine will “modify your DNA and for all we know make you infertile” (it does not and will not); explicitly endorses the false conspiracy theory that the vaccine will include microchips; and falsely claims that we have a “have a fake virus and a magic virus and a fake president” and that there was “massive voter fraud.” (She also says people don’t have to pay their taxes “because the government is breaking all the laws related to financial management.”)

At the end of her interview, Fitts refers to the government operation to create a coronavirus vaccine and explicitly urges people to reject it, saying, “Don’t help the military build Operation Warp Speed, OK? Don’t help the tech guys figure out how to inject nanoparticles into your body and hook them up to the cloud. Don't help big pharma, you know, make injections which are poisoning American children to death.”

The Post further reported that Fitts “has worked with anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.to promote unfounded claims about the pandemic and to oppose lockdown measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus.”

The Solari Report, the Fitts-founded website Carlson plugged in his introduction, largely features financial commentary – but it also regularly publishes anti-vax commentary. Fitts, for example, authored for the site a glowing review of a recent book by Kennedy’s anti-vax group Children’s Health Defense, which she describes as providing “a critically important and sobering contribution to our understanding of the dangers resulting from injecting or ingesting poison masquerading as medicine and doing so without full and fair disclosure of the potential consequences.”

In 2022, Fitts posted to her website what appears to be a threatening letter addressed to numerous top U.S. health officials, including then-acting FDA commissioner Janet Woodcock, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. In the document, titled “Notice of Liability,” Fitts warned the recipients that if they approved the COVID-19 for children, the government could not “protect you and your families from the laws of God or from the social and economic ramifications of your family and neighbors understanding what you have done and the resulting death, disease and bankruptcies they have experienced at an intimate level.”

She added, “Please act in the highest and best interests for all concerned and, if you are not free to do so, resign before more genocide is approved and the personal consequences to you and those you love are irreversible.”

Fitts’ appearance on Carlson’s show drew attention that night when CNN reporter Oliver Darcy noted that the chyron during the interview read, “It’s looking more likely that we will see the day when our lizard overlords ban cash.”Responding to the chyron, conspiracy theory expert Mike Rothschild commented, “‘Lizard Overlords’ just means Jews. Tucker is saying Jewish bankers will use their incalculable power and influence to ban paper money to help usher in the New World Order and global government.”

Fitts has similarly warned in her own writing of the pernicious influence of “Ziocons,” as The Bulwark writer Christian Vanderbrouk noted. In 2017, she wrote, “Chuck Schumer, John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Nancy Pelosi – these people stopped caring long ago about the conditions that create civilization. They are puppets on Ziocon strings.”

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aha hmn earth2 bizarro rubber reverse:  it's wind green that actually harms eagles and whales [polar bears not declining?]; you libs tired to make us real murkins feel bad for selfishly trashing the planet for profit, but it's really YOU b/c dumb/ greedy hypocrites

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Over the past several days Fox networks have aired numerous segments insinuating that the recent deaths of whales across New York and New Jersey beaches are due to the development of offshore wind turbines.

There is no evidence to back up these claims.

NOAA Fisheries, the office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration responsible for the management of marine life, specifically addressed the question on January 24. NOAA stated that the recent whale deaths are “not related to offshore wind development.” The agency further wrote, “Of the whales examined, about 40 percent had evidence of human interaction, either ship strike or entanglement. Vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are the greatest human threats to large whales.” Indeed, nearly 3,000 ships passed through the Port of New York and New Jersey, near where whale deaths are occurring, in the last year — “a figure that vastly undercounts all the ocean traffic in the region and dwarfs the number of vessels that have anything to do with offshore wind.”

Importantly, NOAA Fisheries noted climate change as a contributing factor in the whale deaths. The world’s oceans are rapidly warming, with temperatures reaching a record high in 2022. This is forcing a change in the migration patterns of marine life, including whales, and “can lead to increased interactions with humans as some whales move closer to near shore habitats,” the agency writes.

Additionally, there aren’t even any wind turbines off of the coast of New Jersey. The whale deaths have also been happening at an increased rate since at least 2016, the NOAA reports, which long predates any offshore wind development in the region.

This is not stopping Fox from promulgating claims that offshore wind is killing these whales

On the January 30 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Tucker Carlson sarcastically mocked a Politico article which stated that “there is no evidence the wind work and whale deaths are linked.”

“We have no idea why a dozen whales just turned up dead on the beaches of New Jersey,” Carlson said. “Does it have anything to do with the construction of wind turbines off the coast? ‘That's speculation,’ Politico reported. ‘Probably climate change.’ So the story was ridiculous, but what we didn’t get at first was that Politico was paid to run it.”

Carlson took issue with the fact that the article was featured in a newsletter sponsored by the Natural Resources Defense Council, later calling Politico “prostitutes” for publishing another article sponsored by offshore wind turbine manufacturers. In reality, Politico’s energy newsletters are typically sponsored by energy companies, not environmental groups — with the vast majority of these sponsorships coming from fossil fuel companies.

The next night, Carlson stated that “so-called green NGOs, supported of course by the people they give money to in the Biden administration, are backing the construction of massive offshore wind turbines that appear to bekilling large numbers of whales.” Carlson then hosted a local Republican politician from Nassau County, New York, who called “going all-electric” a “danger to our America,” and stated that “there will always be fossil fuels, at least in my lifetime.”

Carlson’s two recent segments follow a January 13 segment detailing “The Biden whale extinction.” (Another chyron during that episode read “Green New Deal wind farms are killing whales.”)

Questions about offshore wind development were also raised on Fox during the January 31 editions of both America’s Newsroom, with reporter Alexis McAdams stating, “As the whale deaths continue, some lawmakers and activists are calling for a hold on the preparations for offshore wind projects,” and The Story, with guest anchor Trace Gallagher stating, “It's the eighth whale to die along the shore of New Jersey and New York in the last two months, fueling the debate about whether the deaths are natural or maybe related to nearby offshore wind projects and the push to go green.”

Several more such segments covering the whale deaths ran on February 1. On Fox Business’ Varney & Co., correspondent Madison Alworth discussed the costs of offshore wind development without noting the massive economic benefits to local and state communities before stating, “All of this is the cost of this clean energy, but as you heard these conservationists saying it's costing our environment even more, and we're already seeing that expense.”

“Not in my backyard,” concluded host Stuart Varney.

Another segment on The Story began with Gallagher stating that, “The mayors of a dozen New Jersey towns [are] now calling for an immediate halt on plans to build thousands of offshore wind turbines as coastal communities raise concerns about the number of whales washing up dead on nearby beaches and soaring financial costs threaten the push to go green.”

Later, Alworth began a segment on Special Report with Bret Baier by claiming “conservationists say that offshore wind turbines are far from clean and may be doing more harm than good for the environment.” She ended the report by again mentioning the economic costs associated with wind turbines and none of the financial benefits.

Finally, Jesse Watters Primetime ran two segments linking offshore wind development to the whale deaths. In one, Alworth cited “conservationists” concerned with whale deaths saying “this clean energy might not be clean at all,” and she again brought up the economic costs of wind turbines without mentioning their benefits. In the second, host Jesse Watters interviewed ex-Greenpeace Canada member Patrick Moore to rail against renewable energy and complain that Greenpeace has been compromised by wind companies. Watters ended the segment by stating that wind turbines are “not good for the Jersey shore, for the Atlantic Ocean, and, as you said, it's not great for consumers either.”

Fox’s guests are not scientists — they have fossil fuel connections and an interest in blocking renewable energy development

Moore is a climate science denier who has consulted for polluting companies. He also (falsely) claims that he is a founder of Greenpeace, which allows Fox to paint him as a credible guest on climate, energy, and environmental issues.

Watters also tried this trick — obfuscating the credibility of an environmental advocate — in an earlier segment on offshore wind and whale deaths. On January 11, Mike Dean of Protect Our Coast NJ was labeled as an “ocean advocate,” and Dean went on to baselessly blame wind development for whale deaths, declaring, “The harms with these projects and the costs are limitless, and it’s really hard to find any benefits at all.” Fox did not note that Dean’s group appears to be backed by the Caesar Rodney Institute, a libertarian think tank with a history of hostility toward climate and environmental policies. The institute has also received funding from the fossil fuel industry, which has a long history of blocking renewable energy projects.

On the January 13 edition of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson hostedMeghan Lapp, a fisheries liaison for the fishing company Seafreeze. Lapp claimed, without evidence, thatoffshore wind development means “essentially carpet bombing the ocean floor with intense sound.” In fact, Lapp has been appearing on Fox News since at least 2019 insinuating that offshore wind development is killing whales. She even appeared in Carlson’s 2021 anti-wind documentary which was chock full of misinformation and debunked talking points.

What has not been mentioned on Fox, and what has been excellently reported on by climate writer Michael Thomas, is that Lapp is a fossil fuel industry ally. Her campaign to stop offshore wind development has beenbankrolled by T:(style="background-color:#ff9900ff"):}::{exas Public Policy Foundatio**n, a fossil fuel-funded think tank that has fought climate policies tooth and nail. TPPF, of course, has spent decades advocating for offshore oil drilling — choosing to downplay the horrific environmental impacts of that practice while embellishing the impacts of offshore wind development.

Finally, Bonnie Brady of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association appeared on the aforementioned Varney & Co., The Story, and Special Report segments on February 1. Brady, like Lapp, is being backed by TPPFin her campaign to stop offshore wind development. Last year, both Lapp and Brady appeared in a TPPF film entitled “A Heavy Wind: The Threat to an American Heritage,” which detailed commercial fishermen fighting offshore wind projects.

One recent Fox segment interspersed with their offshore wind coverage illustrates the complete hypocrisy of Fox’s climate-related programming

During Fox’s fearmongering about offshore wind development on February 1, America Reports ran a segment with Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) that sang the praises of the Willow Project, a major oil and gas drilling project in Alaska’s national petroleum reserve. Sullivan called the project “actually really good for our environment,” while Fox anchor John Roberts noted some benefits of the project, including billions in revenue and hundreds of jobs created.

While Roberts did ask a question about climate advocates not wanting to lock the U.S. into more fossil fuel extraction, this segment did not mention the massive environmental costs associated with the project. Environmental advocate and journalist Bill McKibben noted in a recent article on the project that Alaska is “already warming faster than almost any place on the planet.Warming so fast that taxpayers are already having to pony up huge sums of money to relocate coastal villages inland. Emissions from the Willow project’s oil would cause $19.8 billion in climate damages; it would generate $3.4 billion in federal tax revenue, which is…a lot less.”

McKibben also cited a Center for American Progress analysis of the project which found that “allowing the Willow project to proceed would result in double the carbon pollution that all renewable progress on public lands and waters would save by 2030.”

Contrast Fox’s fawning coverage of an oil drilling project with its dismissive, conspiracy theory-laden, and climate denial-infused coverage of offshore wind, and you get a perfect sense of why Fox cannot be trusted on climate and environmental issues. While it’s true that there are valid concerns with offshore wind’s impacts on the environment and local marine life — something that has been taken into consideration by government authorities in reviewing previous offshore wind projects —the reality is that fossil fuel projects are significantly more detrimental to the environment and climate than renewable projects.

You will rarely if ever hear these facts reported on Fox, as the network has time and again proved to be nothing more than a mouthpiece for the fossil fuel industry, and its offshore wind coverage cannot be taken seriously.

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an 2 23 badash

After years of being the right wing’s punching bag, Hunter Biden is fighting back.

The 52-year-old attorney, investor, lobbyist, father of five, and Navy veteran who just happens to be the son of the President of the United States, is calling for state and federal investigations into how his personal, private information from his now-infamous laptop was disseminated, according to CBS News.

Biden is also threatening a defamation lawsuit against Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.

READ MORE: Watch: Angry, Santos Reacts to News DOJ is Investigating His Alleged ‘Ghosting’ With $3000 Raised for Veteran’s Dying Dog

The “flurry of letters to the Delaware attorney general, the Department of Justice, the I.R.S. and attorneys for Fox News and Carlson,” CBS reports, “represent an aggressive new strategy for the president’s son, who isfacing long-running federal criminal investigations, as well as new probes promised by congressional Republicans, according to a source familiar with Biden’s approach.”

“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team,” the source told CBS News. “He is not going to sit quietly by as questionable characters continue to violate his rights and media organizations peddling in lies try to defame him.”

Biden lost his mother and sister in a car crash injuring him and his brother when he was just two years old, and later, that same brother, Beau Biden, the longtime Delaware Attorney General, died from an aggressive cancer of the brain.

CBS reports Biden’s “computer data that was turned over to the FBI showed no evidence of tampering or fabrication, according to an independent review commissioned by CBS News.”

READ MORE: ‘His Big Plan Is to Ask the President a Question?’: McCarthy Mocked for His Handling of Debt Ceiling Negotiations

But The Washington Post last year hired two forensic investigators, and they reached different conclusions.

“From a forensics standpoint, it’s a disaster,” said Jake Williams, who the Post describes as “a forensics expert and former National Security Agency operative who once hacked the computers of foreign adversaries.” The other investigator, Matt Green, the Post says is “a Johns Hopkins University security researcher who specializes in cryptography.”

“The drive is a mess,” Green told The Post.

The Post found that “the lack of what experts call a ‘clean chain of custody’ undermined Green’s and Williams’s ability to determine the authenticity of most of the drive’s contents.” The “clean chain of custody” refers to the fact that countless individuals have had access to the hard drive.

“The vast majority of the data — and most of the nearly 129,000 emails it contained — could not be verified by either of the two security experts who reviewed the data for The Post,” the newspaper reported. “Neither found clear evidence of tampering in their examinations, but some of the records that might have helped verify contents were not available for analysis, they said. The Post was able in some instances to find documents from other sources that matched content on the laptop that the experts were not able to assess.”

Meanwhile, CBS News also reports that in a ” letter sent Wednesday, Biden attorney Bryan Sullivan demanded that Fox News and Tucker Carlson devote airtime to retracting statements made about Biden paying ‘rent’ to his father, ‘in what Mr. Carlson implied was essentially a money laundering scheme to finance President Biden’s lifestyle prior to his election … and alluding to Mr. Biden having unauthorized access to classified documents because of his presence at President Biden’s house.’ Sullivan writes that the claims were false, and even after others acknowledged as much, Carlson continued to make them.”

“The letter, which cites California’s defamation statute, notes that the Daily Caller website retracted an article that made similar claims.

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i do not understand the joke

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson managed to incorporate a racist “joke”into a recent segment of his show covering the murder of Tyre Nichols, Huffpost reports.

The host began his rant by targeting President Joe Biden’s recent decision to end the COVID-19 emergency, and claimed the White House’s decision means he’s forced to turn his attention to 29-year-old Nichols' murder last month.

Carlson then proceeded to take aim at Democrats, complaining that the party “needed an emergency, so they found one,” and that’s “white racism.”

WATCH:Tucker Carlson urges Republicans to embrace racist conspiracy theory as central campaign theme

"White racism is getting harder to find," Carlson lamented. "Very few unarmed Black men are killed by white cops these days. Where’s George Floyd when you need him?”

Contrary to Carlson's statement, Rolling Stonefound that in 2023, police have already killed at least seven unarmed black people.

Watch the segment below or at this link.

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aha? antifa blm merge

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-news-and-right-wing-media-circulate-seemingly-inauthentic-antifa-poster

pix of poster bring rocks ...

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protests emerged around the country following the release of police body camera footage of officers fatally beating Tyre Nichols, Fox News and other right-wing media sources promoted an “antifa poster” whose authenticity has not been proved. The poster supposedly called for protesters to “burn it all down” and bring rocks and heavy objects to riots in New York City. 

The image was initially shared in a Daily Mail article, which called it “a shocking poster,” and on Twitter by user Rob O’Donnell, per disinformation researcher Caroline Orr.

On January 27, Fox News’ Jesse Watters hosted O’Donnell, who said he knows the poster was “put out by antifa” and it’s “calling for protests and riots at all police precincts across the city, to bring rocks, to bring pipes, to bring box cutters,” saying it’s “circulating in the underground of New York City.”

Video

In the next hour, Fox host Tucker Carlson showed the poster, using it to suggest there is “an organized militia encouraging organized violence across the United States of America.” 

Carlson’s guest during the segment, former Detroit Police Chief James Craig, told Carlson the police should have “zero tolerance” for antifa protesters and chastised “Biden’s DOJ” for doing “absolutely nothing” about antifa, who he said are “threatening cities across this country.” 

Carlson also suggested the poster was evidence of a “criminal conspiracy” by antifa. 

Carlson’s commentary was circulated by right-wing blogs The Daily Caller and The Gateway Pundit, and FoxNews.com promoted his segment with Craig.

Video  1 27

With the poster on screen, Fox correspondent Christina Coleman saidon The Ingraham Anglethat “antifa put out this bulletin, calling for violence, even though Tyre's own family has called for peace.” 

The poster was also picked up by other right-wing outlets.

On Newsmax, host Lidia Curanaj said “a police source” sent her “a flyer that showed that antifa was organizing throughout the country” but did not show it on screen. She speculated that “a lot of times these horrible incidents, like what happened to Tyre Nichols, are amplified and used by other organizations in order to achieve their political agenda.” Later on the network, Curanaj repeated that the protests must have been planned ahead of time,  accused the protests of having “professional agitators,” and called on the media to “do their due diligence and actually investigate” the situation. 

The poster also appeared on far-right website The Post Millennial, in an article titled “Antifa vows to 'burn it all down' in NYC following death of Tyre Nichols,” which cites the Daily Mail as having obtained the poster. Neo-Nazi collaborator and Twitter personality Jack Posobiec shared the article on Twitter.

Right-wing commentary siteTownhallshared O’Donnell’s tweet, including the image in a Friday night piece warning about “potential riots” in Memphis. 

Newsmax’s Justine Brooke Murray shared the poster on Twitter, writing, “ANTIFA terrorists plan to burn down New York tonight. They’re blasting THIS out.” 

Right-wing radio host David Webb on Twitter claimed the image showed that “violence is not a solution but it is a possibility.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-embraces-fringe-convention-states-movement

Carlson embraces fringe Convention of States movement

01/19/23

no lnx vid

ox News’ Tucker Carlson embraced a fringe idea for amending the Constitution known as the Convention of States, joining a growing list of right-wing media personalities who have been supportive of the movement.

Carlson’s comments came during an hour-long interview with former Tea Party activist and Convention of States Action president Mark Meckler, on Fox Nation’s streaming subscriber-only show Tucker Carlson Today. Meckler and his organization are the driving force behind the movement, which seeks to advance a far-right agenda by bypassing the traditional processes for amending the Constitution.

The Constitution has been amended 27 times, always by securing two-thirds support in both chambers of Congress as a first step. Article V of the Constitution provides for another option, though, in which two-thirds of state legislatures call for a convention to consider and put forward amendments. In both cases, any proposed amendment would then need to be ratified by three-fourths of the states. Meckler and his organization want to use the second, never-before-used method as a way of fundamentally transforming the federal government.

In theory, any kind of amendment could come out of a convention like the one envisioned by Meckler. In practice, virtually everybody pushing for this unlikely process are right-wing activists with a conservative agenda aimed at limiting progressive elements of the federal government. In that way, the push for a convention of states resembles rhetoric around states’ rights – nominally colorblind rhetoric that is in fact deeply hostile to civil rights and other progressive issues. The Convention of States Project’s parent organization, Citizens for Self-Governance, for example, donated $10,000 to America First Legal, an anti-civil rights legal group headed by former Trump adviser and white nationalist Stephen Miller.

What Meckler was proposing would elevate “the voice of ordinary people,” Carlson said. “It's a much more small d-democratic way of governance.” Over the course of the interview, he treated opposition to the idea – whether from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) or the Sierra Club – as absurd on its face, and an example of bad faith or faulty reasoning.

“I think anybody who's watched the last hour is certainly impressed by the way you've thought about this,” Carlson said near the end of the interview. “I personally am for it, thanks to you.”

Video

Citation From the January 17, 2023, edition of Fox Nation's Tucker Carlson Today

Most of Meckler’s policy proposals are boilerplate conservatism collected under the umbrella of so-called smaller government. But in the conversation with Carlson, he also espoused the much stranger view that direct election of U.S. senators – the law of the land thanks to the 17th amendment – was a mistake.

:{:{Meckler explained that “the 17th Amendment whereby we decided to directly elect senators instead of having them appointed by the states” was partly responsible for breaking the “structure” that the Constitution’s framers had envisioned.}:

“When we started electing senators, senators get their power from D.C.,” Meckler said later in the interview. “Prior to the 17th Amendment, senators are appointed by state legislatures, and that means the power of the Senate is in the states. And once they're elected, now their power base is in D.C., they serve their D.C. masters.”}:

Meckler isn’t the only conservative attempting to radically shift power towards state legislatures. A group of MAGA and Trump-aligned lawyers, including top coup architect John Eastman, have advanced an intellectually dubious doctrine called the independent state legislature theory,which would “give state legislatures wide authority to gerrymander electoral maps and pass voter suppression laws” according to the Brennan Center, a think tank that advocates for expanding voting rights.

Carlson joins right-wing media figures like former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and Fox News’ Mark Levin, who have also promoted Meckler’s movement. After speaking with Meckler in September, Bannon closed the interview by saying, “Taking down the administrative state; got to hit it from every angle.” Bannon has been pushing that line since at least 2017, when he told the audience at CPAC that his goal was the “deconstruction of the administrative state.”

Levin has been a supporter of the idea since at least 2013, when he published a book called The Liberty Amendments, which proposed a lot of the same ideas Meckler has put forward and coincided with the launch of his group. Several conservative pundits and politicians subsequently signed on to the idea as well, including Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Hugh Hewitt, as well as Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).

Meckler is deeply embedded in the conservative movement. He spoke at a transphobic rally last October that was attended by white supremacists and Proud Boys, as reported by LGBTQ Nation. Just months earlier, he was at CPAC – of which Convention of States Actions was a sponsor – fantasizing about which federal agencies to abolish. “How about we get rid of the Department of Education?” Meckler asked the audience, as reported in The New Republic. “How about we get rid of the EPA?”

Balanced budget, term limits, and the return of states' rights

Meckler’s goals extend beyond destroying federal agencies, though that is a central tenet of his philosophy. In his conversation with Carlson, Meckler expounded what he believed the top priorities of a convention of states should be.

Video

Citation From the January 17, 2023, edition of Fox Nation's Tucker Carlson Today

“The first subject is anything that would impose fiscal restraints on the federal government,” Meckler said. “So I mentioned a balanced budget amendment, things like tax caps, spending caps maybe tied to population plus inflation.”

Conservatives frequently talk about the need for a balanced budget amendment, usually based on the faulty analogy that the federal government operates like a family budget. Indeed, research from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive think tank, shows that a balanced budget amendment could be disastrous for the country, threatening Social Security and other welfare programs. But for conservative activists like Meckler, weakening the social safety net through austerity politics is likely a feature, not a bug, of the proposal.

:{:{}:

“Second is anything that would impose term limits,”Meckler continued. Crucially, he doesn’t only want to impose term limits on elected officials and Supreme Court justices, but also on career civil servants. “How about on the bureaucracy, on the deep state, on staffers?” he asked. “These are the people really running Washington, D.C., and they shouldn't be there for 30 years. It was never intended to be a permanent career for people.”

“And that would prevent a Fauci from happening?” Carlson asked later, referencing Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“Absolutely,” Meckler responded.}:

Term limits for Congress is an increasingly popular idea on the right that some liberals, like Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), have also embraced. The case for term-limiting Supreme Court justices is far stronger than for imposing them on Congress, which risks further empowering lobbyists and accelerating the revolving door between public and private sector influence. There is considerable political science research that shows terms limits for Congress would likely exacerbate many of the problems the policy seeks to solve.

Meckler’s suggestion that career staffers should be barred from public service after a set amount of years is far more radical, but fits entirely inside the broader conservative goal of weakening progressive elements of the federal government. What Meckler is pushing here is just an updated version of Grover Norquists’s goal of making government small enough to “drown it in a bathtub,” or Bannon’s obsession with destroying the administrative state.

The effect of forcing out long-serving public employees would almost certainly shift even more power to the private sector, as elected officials and their staffs would be forced to outsource institutional knowledge to outside lobbying firms and think tanks. Like many conservative activists, Meckler offers lip service to decry the influence of lobbyists, but has deep ties to the Koch brothers, the Mercer family, and other major financiers on the right.

Carlson and Meckler’s singling out of Fauci, who right-wing media have chosen as the avatar of pandemic policies they oppose, echoes a recent moment from an episode of Bannon’s War Room podcast, guest hosted by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Gaetz and 19 other hardliners blocked Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) bid for Speaker of the House until he offered concessions to the far-right faction, including reinstating something called theHolman Rule. That provision would allow any member to target the funding of any individual civil servant.

“If we'd have had this tool, we would have obviously directed it at Anthony Fauci,” Gaetz told Russ Vought,of the Center for Renewing America, a conservative think tank closely aligned with former President Donald Trump.

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Meckler’s third and final stated goal for a potential convention is to pass “anything that would impose scope and jurisdiction restraints on the federal government,” he said. “And what that means fundamentally is going back to something like the enumerated powers.” He added later that thefederal government  was “never supposed to be involved in education or energy or health care or food production, agriculture, all of this stuff.”}:

There are two complementary ways to understand this proposal. At its most basic level, Meckler is channeling some sort of libertarian instinct here, with all of the obvious flaws that come with that political philosophy. Underneath that surface-level rhetoric is a more pernicious return to the rhetoric of states rights, a racist dog whistlethat for decades allowed conservatives to mask their opposition to civil rights and progressive government policies as a principled small government philosophy.

There are very real criticisms to be made of the U.S. Constitution, which has many counter-majoritarian aspects built into it. There’s a strong case to be made that the Constitution is actually an impediment to building a more progressive, just, and small-d democratic society. That’s not what Meckler and his movement are about. The vision of the country they’re putting forward is a regressive one, oriented around states’ rights and all the racist implications that come with it

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Carlson declares Joe Biden “the most destructive president in American history”

01/19/23

 Hannity: “Philadelphia is Hell on Earth” and “a living nightmare”

01/19/23

Tucker Carlson claims Richard Nixon “was removed for questioning the deep state”

01/19/23

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5 blk cops elite all fired 150 lb superhuman energy

brutal video near house called mom

Newsmax guest reacts to Tyre Nichols videos: “It's Black on Black crime”

01/28/23 10:31 AM EST

Fox News guest blames Black single mothers for the killing of Tyre Nichols

01/27/23 9:11 PM EST

Tucker Carlson says white people are victims of “racial hatred” amid coverage of Tyre Nichols killing

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): So, whatever you think of them, white people did not play any role in this particular tragedy.Whatever this story may be about, it's not about racial bias. Any honest person could see that immediately. But you would never know it from watching the so-called news coverage of this tape today. The only person whose race most media outlets identified was the victim. "Another unarmed black man murdered by the police," they said.

Moments ago on MSNBC, they just described what you just saw as white supremacy. Really? How? CNN's Van Jones did acknowledge that the police who hit Tyre Nichols were black, but, "they might still have been driven by racism." Van Jones didn't take the time to explain how. It was a lie, of course.

They're all lying, and Joe Biden himself, the president of the United States, swiftly reinforced that lie.Referring to an event in which every single participant -- and their supervisors -- was the same color, Biden lectured the United States that "fatal encounters with law enforcement have disparately impacted black and brown people."

So the one thing we know, no matter how you feel about the video, most people don't think that's right. But the one thing we know for sure is that there is a highly aggressive propaganda campaign underway tonight, designed to manipulate you, and using the sad death of a young man in Memphis to do it. That propaganda campaign, like all propaganda campaigns, is, by definition, dishonest.

But it's more than that. It's worse than that. This is yet another attempt by our leaders of our country to inflame racial hatred in the United States.

01/27/23 8:53 PM EST

Fox News host Jesse Watters says Tyre Nichols was killed because “police tactics have been hamstrung”

01/27/23 8:00 PM EST

Fox News host demands representation of “the cops’ perspective” on the killing of Tyre Nichols

01/27/23 5:53 PM EST

Facebook caved to right-wing media demands to reinstate Trump. They keep attacking the platform anyway

01/27/23 5:29 PM EST

Fox host justified conspiracies about attack on Paul Pelosi because “Democrats have a tendency to ... not be transparent”

01/27/23 2:13 PM EST

Fox News guest suggests societal “treatment of police” contributed to Tyre Nichols' killing

01/27/23

mma

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an ah 1 23

In Washington, D.C. smoking is banned from office buildings. But that rule doesn’t apply to the U.S. Capitol Building, where House Republicans have lifted a ban on smoking in that branch of Congress.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and other far-right pundits have been quick to applaud the move. Sounding a lot like the late radio host Rush Limbaugh, Carlson told viewers, “Nicotine frees your mind, and THC makes you compliant and passive.”

In a scathing article published by The Nationon January 23, journalist Joan Walsh slams House Republicans and their supporters for promoting something as unhealthy as smoking and argues that they are “killing” their “own voters.”

READ MORE: 'The smell of freedom':Tucker Carlson and House Republican defend tobacco smoking inside the Capitol

“I honestly thought it was fake news,” Walsh writes. “Just after Kevin McCarthy became House speaker, giving away his power to right-wing antagonists the first week in January, I read about Congress members smoking on the GOP side of the aisle. Just a projection from my liberal allies of Republicans’ intent to erode public health, I assumed. Funny GIF to come. But it was true. Rep. Tom Cole was smoking cigars in his office. Others were reportedly smoking cigarettes in other places.”

Walsh notes that “House lawmakers’ private offices aren’t governed by” either the District of Columbia’s anti-smoking ordinance” or “a Bill Clinton executive order” that “prohibits smoking in federal buildings that are under the authority of the executive branch.”

“Under McCarthy, smoking is allowed not just in members’ offices, but in public areas too,” Walsh explains. “Now comes more carcinogenic propaganda from right-wing losers. Last week, Fox’s Tucker Carlson began preaching a return to smoking as a return to American values. Tobacco is so much more American than increasingly legal and available weed, he told his stoned-on-lies audience.”

On Fox News, Carlson made cigarette smoking a culture war issue, telling viewers that liberals “hate nicotine” but “love THC.”

READ MORE:‘You gaslighting cartoon’: Kellyanne Conway brutally mocked for conflating opioid deaths with marijuana

Walsh comments, “I shouldn’t be surprised at Carlson’s tribute to tobacco…. Republicans have long opposed anti-smoking measures, at least partly out of fealty to Big Tobacco. Former GOP Speaker John Boehner became infamous for handing out checks from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor in 1995. As Indiana governor, Mike Pence railed against tobacco restrictions and insisted ‘smoking doesn’t kill.’ But the recent pro-smoking crusade seems to be inspired more by culture war imperatives than by defending the tobacco industry.”

The journalist points out that Limbaugh spent decades vigorously defending cigarette smoking on his radio show — before dying of lung cancer in 2021.

“Killing your own voters seems like a bad electoral strategy,” Walsh writes. “Salon’s Amanda Marcotte calls it ‘getting lung cancer to own the libs.’ Sadly, Republicans are mostly giving their base voters what they think they want.”

READ MORE:Tobacco giant exploiting murders of George Floyd and Eric Garner for profit: report

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11 yo dtr alone subway 11 million ppl]

...EAD MORE:'Something’s going on there': Tucker Carlson spins conspiracy about Lindsey Graham to explain his support for Ukraine

He went on to offer a deeply critical opinion of The New York Times and Haye although he did not specifically name her.

“That is un-American,” he said. “That person is sick, and if you don’t recognize how sick that person is, if you long for a fascist government to call you’re little girls fat, you’re a sick person, ok? The fact that the New York Times would run that and expect all of its readers to applaud – “Oh if only the government would tell my kids they’re fat, this would be a better country.”

Following his rant, Carlson attempted to cool down admitting that he'd "lost control."

“I lost control and I want to apologize for that, but it’s true,” Carlson told him. “For the New York Times to run a piece from some totally–I don’t want to keep attacking her, some mom who wants the Communist Party to tell children they’re too fat, fat-shame her little girls and she gets off on it, and the New York Times readers applaud this like that’s normal. That is not normal. That’s not American. That’s demented.”

READ MORE: Watch: Tucker Carlson lashes out at 'aging' Republicans 'in their orthopedic shoes' for opposing Vladimir Putin

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in an article published by the Daily Beast on August 8, 2022, journalist Lachlan Cartwright reported that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was “s******g himself” because he feared “the possibility that texts between him and far-right conspiracy loon Alex Jones” would “leak.” And five months later, on January 12, 2023, those text messages between Carlson and Jones did leak thanks to an exclusive report by HuffPost’s Sebastian Murdoch.

Washington Post media critic Erik Wemple analyzes those messages in his January 19 column, offering three takeaways. HuffPost, Wemple notes, “secured the messages from Mark Bankston, a Texas lawyer who last year was involved in litigation from families of Sandy Hook victims in a defamation action against Jones.”

“If Carlson was ever quivering about the material being released,” Wemple argues, “he needn’t have bothered. The texts are pretty tame, at least by the warped standard that Carlson and Jones have established for themselves.”

READ MORE:Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones exchanged coronavirus conspiracy theories through text messages: report

Wemple’s takeaways are: (1) “Carlson is a national scourge, but not necessarily dumb,” (2) “Carlson just might believe the garbage he spews on air,” and (3) “Jones is part of Carlson’s bubble.”

Wemple cites some examples of the Carlson/Jones text exchanges that HuffPost reported, observing, “When Jones complains that the Daily Caller, which Carlson co-founded, wouldn’t allow Jones’ Infowars website to feature Daily Caller stuff, Carlson responded, ‘F*****g crazy. I’m really sorry.’ When Jones highlights a story about a company that was suspended by Twitter for a video about ultraviolet light being used to kill the coronavirus, Carlson responds, ‘I saw this. They’re clamping down. We’ll be China soon.’”

Wemple adds, “*When Jones asks to speak with Carlson about “the Democrats working to get me arrested,” Carlson responds “Arrested? My gosh. That’s out of control. Are you free this afternoon?”

In an April 2020 text, Carlson told Jones, “If Democrats win in November, they’re going to crush Fox News just as they’ve crushed the NRA. And we’re going to deeply regret letting it happen.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-calls-new-zealand-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-appalling-abuser

of hu rights

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-accuses-rep-sheila-jackson-lee-blood-libel-towards-white-people

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-assault-weapons-are-not-threat-anybody

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/harmeet-dhillon-we-are-rooting-you-tucker-carlson-tries-get-his-own-rnc-chair

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knee jerk?

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-gives-indoor-smoking-his-heartfelt-endorsement

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-suggests-scheme-underway-sabotage-joe-biden-2024-make-way-michelle-obama

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2x? gubmint anti-depress in water

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/tucker-carlson

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https://www.mediamatters.org/brazil/new-right-pretends-be-isolationist-their-rhetoric-brazil-shows-couldnt-be-further-truth

no lnx vid

The new right pretends to be isolationist. Their rhetoric on Brazil shows that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Right-wing pundits are increasingly embracing the Monroe Doctrine, one of the oldest expressions of US imperialism, and looking to manufacture a new cold war against China in the process

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

PUBLISHED 01/13/23

Right-wing media personalities are increasingly embracing a two-century-old expression of U.S. imperialism called the “Monroe Doctrine,” and exposing their own militaristic impulses in the process.

Fox News’ top star Tucker Carlson and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon have both recently endorsed the Monroe Doctrine as a guiding principle, undercutting their supposedly isolationist views on U.S. military policy. In both cases, the conservative pundits invoked the doctrine as a means ofopposing what they see as China’s increasing political and economic importance in South America, specifically in Brazil.

Bannon and Carlson both position themselves as antagonists towards the neocons, a faction of the conservative movement that ascended during the presidency of George W. Bush and was a driving factor in the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The so-called America First ideology that Bannon, Carlson, and others in the Trump-aligned wing of the conservative movement identify with is sometimes described, incorrectly, as isolationist. Their recent invocations of the Monroe Doctrine suggest that, far from being isolationists, these conservatives are increasingly interested in dominating China militarily, especially in the Western Hemisphere.

Carlson, Bannon, and their allies have adopted a new Cold Warrior posture, with China replacing the great boogeyman of the USSR, and Brazil — for now — taking the place of Vietnam, Afghanistan, El Salvador, and other countries where the U.S. waged proxy wars against the perceived communist threat. But whatever investments China has made in South America don’t, or shouldn’t, justify the recent insurrection in Brazil, which right-wing media in the United States celebrated.

A much better approach would be to support interstate partnerships following the “pink tide” that has surfaced across Latin America since 2018. Leftist leaders have been elected across the region in recent years, most recently in Colombia and Brazil. The ability of these left-of-center governments to fulfill their promises toward greater social equality remains in question, as their countries are still shackled with the conditions created and defined in many ways by the Monroe Doctrine.

“The United States deployed this doctrine [the Monroe Doctrine] to keep Latin America subordinate to U.S. interests, whether through direct interventions like coups, invasions, and assassinations or institutional arrangements like free-trade agreements and painful structural adjustment programs,” write David Adler and Guillaume Long in The American Prospect. “As a result, Latin American countries remain highly dependent on exporting raw materials to large powers like the U.S., and importing high-value products and sophisticated technology.”

The two argue that “Latin America must be free to build the independent institutions that it deems necessary to guarantee health, security, and a strong economy in an increasingly turbulent world.” The Biden administration could — but hasn’t — adopted this approach, which would likely have the added benefit of building regional resiliency against a potentially unwanted Chinese incursion. But because the Latin American leaders who could implement this policy are various stripes of socialists, they face strong headwinds from U.S liberals and overt hostility from conservatives.

Carlson, the Monroe Doctrine, and “our hemisphere”

Last year, Carlson’s team made a documentary-style film about Brazil that conspicuously avoided discussing whether then-President Jair Bolsonaro would respect the results of the upcoming election, or if he’d attempt to stay in power using extrajudicial means.

Carlson began the film by offering his definition of the Monroe Doctrine, and explicitly claiming U.S. imperial domain over the rest of the Western Hemisphere.

Video

CitationFrom the September 22, 2022, Tucker Carlson Original The China Takeover: Brazil

“In 1823, President James Monroe announced a policy that has been the center of American foreign policy for the last 200 years, called the Monroe Doctrine,” Carlson began.

“Great powers would not be allowed to control nations in the Western Hemisphere,” he continued. “That would be a direct threat to the interests of the United States. And for 200 years, we haven't allowed it.”

Carlson then accused President Joe Biden of changing that policy, saying the doctrine was “no longer enforced,” in part because the administration was overly focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The Biden administration has abdicated its responsibility and into the void left by the United States moves a new superpower,” he concluded. “We've come to Brazil to see for ourselves the rise of China and how the government of China is replacing the United States as the dominant power in our hemisphere.”

Carlson’s use of the first-person plural, possessive phrases here — “our hemisphere” — is key. The “our” clearly refers to the United States, not a broader collective of self-governed countries in the hemisphere. In Carlson’s rendering, the fight is between the United States and China for dominance over Brazil – not for Brazilian sovereignty in itself.

The rest of the movie is a series of fearmongering accusations leveled against China, all in support of Carlson’s primary thesis: that the Chinese Communist Party is attempting to turn Brazil into a de facto colony. Carlson appears more upset that China is supposedly taking on this role (instead of the United States) than that any country is engaged in this kind of imperial project in the first place. “There is one government left in South America that is sympathetic to the United States, and it's this one here in Brazil,” Carlson said to conclude his film. “But it's being ignored by the Biden administration for ideological reasons. When the smoke clears, China may control Brazil too.”

Carlson has casually asserted the United States’ rightful domain over Latin and South America before. In February, he reported that China had “announced a partnership with Argentina, in part on currency.”

“Argentina's president also said his nation would join China's Belt and Road Project,” he continued. “Again, it's in our hemisphere. Monroe Doctrine, anyone? But it's happening, and nobody is even mentioning it.”

Bannon’s New Cold War

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Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is almost monomaniacally obsessed with China’s rise and the threat he believes it poses to U.S. hegemony, both globally and specifically in the Western Hemisphere. As one small but telling example, his show’s bumper music is a rap song by Chinese dissident — and Bannon-backer — Miles Guo whose hook is: “Let’s take down the CCP.”

Shortly after pro-Bolsonaro forces staged an insurrection by storming multiple Brazilian governmental buildings, Bannon invoked the Monroe Doctrine to justify the rioters’ actions. Bannon falsely characterized President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, as nothing but a puppet of the Chinese government, and argued that China is attempting to seize power across the region.

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The CCP aims to create “Latin America as a communist superstate backed by the Chinese Communist Party directly aimed at the United States,” Bannon said. “This is what the Monroe Doctrine is about.”

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“Our founders, our framers warned us, ‘Don’t go searching for monsters to slay in Ukraine — watch what they do here in the Western Hemisphere,’” he continued.

“We’re not in a great position, and now we have it in our hemisphere,” his guest,Matthew Tyrmand,responded. “China, under Lula, will have control of the entire wealth, and power, and geopolitical strategic positioning of South America.”

South America “will be a Marxist superstate should the Brazilians accept Lula as their leader,” Tyrmand added.

Video

CitationFrom the January 9, 2023, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Bannon and Tyrmand had previously had almost the exact same discussion, including the invocation of the Monroe Doctrine, on the night of Bolsonaro’s loss in late October.

“The communists, the CCP foothold in this hemisphere has been growing already, and this would be very deleterious,” Tyrmand said. “And of course we’ve got corrupt, senile, comatose vegetable in the White House fiddling as our Rome-hemisphere burns.”

“And so, all of MAGA should understand, these are our allies in Brazil,” Bannon responded, referring to Bolsonaro and his supporters.

“Remember, this hemisphere was kept orderly because of the Monroe Doctrine,” Bannon continued. “We absolutely had a line in the sand from the beginning of this republic that there would be no foreign interference in this, in this — and by the way, for 200 years we've been adamant about that.”

He added that now “the CCP” is “deeply involved in a takeover” of “the most significant country in Latin America, South America.”

Video

CitationFrom Steve Bannon's Gettr account, streamed October 30, 2022

In the summer of 2021, Bannon spoke with conspiracy theorist and neo-Nazi collaborator Jack Posobiec at least twice about China’s role in the Western Hemisphere. As protesters took to the streets in Cuba, cheered on by right-wing U.S. media, Posobiec expressed his outrage that foreign countries would warn the United States not to meddle in the demonstrations. Like Carlson, he referred to “our hemisphere” in describing U.S. dominion over sovereign countries.

“Yesterday you had China, Iran and Russia — came out and they put out a statement jointly saying the United States needs to not interfere in Cuba,” Posobiec said. “I'm sorry. No, you don't get to tell us in our homes what happens in our hemisphere. This is the Monroe Doctrine."

“That was U.S. policy, bipartisan for generations in this country,” he continued. “Who are you to say that you were going to tell us what's going on in our backyard? No, I don't think so. Are we a great power or not?”

As in the more recent case with Brazil, Posobiec invoked the Monroe Doctrine explicitly as a justification to counter hypothetical Chinese expansionism. “What's Joe Biden going to do? What's [Secretary of State Tony] Blinken going to do when you've got Chinese subs off the coast of Havana?” Posobiec asked. “Because you know that's coming next. You know, what are you going to do? Are you going to stand up and defend our hemisphere, to defend our national interest or not?"

When they returned to the topic that October, the two were even more explicit in their comparisons to the Cold War. During the segment, Bannon’s producers showed a graphic that was reminiscent of anti-communist propaganda from the 1950s, lest the point get lost on any War Room viewers.

Video

CitationFrom the October 20, 2021, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room: Pandemic

Bannon asked Posobiec to “talk about the Chinese Communist Party, what they are doing in South America and the Caribbean, and the direct impact on the United States of America.”

“The United States has largely, you know, in the past been sort of seen as sort of the hegemon when it comes to the Western Hemisphere,” Posobiec replied. “This goes back to Monroe Doctrine.”

“This is classic U.S. policy,” he continued. “It's the idea of when the Soviet Union wanted to get a foothold in Cuba and plant their missiles.”

Posobiec then argued that “now you're seeing China come in to play that role,” before claiming that “of course they're going to Cuba; of course they're going to Venezuela, but they're doing everything they can to get into these countries like Colombia, like Brazil, like Bolivia, Argentina.”

He added that then-President Bolsonaro is “the guy that's fighting back against what China is doing” and that if China “can take over Brazil, they are going to be able to use that to control the entire South American continent.”

America First means MAGA empire

Carlson and Bannon both exert considerable influence over the shape of the Republican Party. They are not simply talk show hosts, but political operators whom Republican politicians often seek to curry favor with. Both played significant roles in the GOP’s approach to the midterms, for example. Carlson provided Republicans with messaging support, endorsed candidates in primaries, and then attempted to help those candidates win. The same is true for Bannon, who dedicated his show to pushing an unrelenting stream of election denialism prior to last November’s contests.

Both Carlson and Bannon — as well as the rest of the Republican Party — fared poorly in the midterms, but that doesn’t retroactively negate their influence. Indeed, the early days of the new House GOP majority suggest that hardliners in the Carlson and Bannon mold are as empowered within the caucus as they’ve ever been. When the two of them show their true colors as imperialist neo-Cold Warriors, they can be seen as a stand-in for a much larger element within the broader conservative movement.

For Carlson, Bannon, and their fellow travelers, America First isn’t a call for directing public policy to benefit people living in the United States, no matter their protestations. It is instead a rearticulation of a standard ideology based on U.S. dominance, both in the Western Hemisphere and in what they see as the larger geopolitical battle with China. In this way, their philosophy is not nearly as different from the neocons as they claim it is. 

Where the neocon project was largely justified under a flimsy pretext of spreading democracy, America Firsters are reimagining and recreating Cold War-style global power struggles. This context is key to understanding and deciphering conservative foreign policy goals and rhetoric in the coming election cycle. The Trump wing of the movement may pay lip service to opposing U.S. foreign wars, but their chauvinistic invocation of the Monroe Doctrine shows they believe in maintaining U.S. military and political hegemony, just like their factional rivals.

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A new report is shedding light on text message conversations between Fox News' Tucker Carlson and InfoWars influencer Alex Jones.

According to an exclusive report by HuffPost, the timeline of the conversations began at the onset of the pandemic.

HuffPost reporter Sebastian Murdock —who received copies of the conversations from Houston, Texas-based attorney Mark Bankston after he retained them in connection with the Sandy Hook case— offered context into the messages and how Carlson and Jones devolved into the world of conspiracy theories.

READ MORE: Adam Kinzinger blasts Tucker Carlson & Kevin McCarthy following Malcolm Nance's decision to fight in Ukraine

Although the two eventually developed a reputation for diminishing the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic by way of conspiracy theories and misinformation, their early conversations appear to contradict their later reporting on the virus.

Initially, there was a report about Carlson warning former President Donald Trump about the severity of the virus; something he actually discussed with Jones. However, their tune quickly changed.

"Yet by the following month, as Trump continued to minimize the seriousness of the virus, the two right-wing media personalities appeared to follow the president’s lead, texting conspiracy theories with each other that downplayed the threat even as thousands of Americans were dying daily," Murdoch wrote.

He also highlighted details from a particular conversation between the two that took place on April 27, 2020.

READ MORE: 'Cowardly' Alex Jones blasted by Sandy Hook families’ attorney after filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying damages

"Early on the morning of April 27, Jones texted Carlson a link to an Infowars article that complained about a pharmaceutical company that was briefly suspended from Twitter after it posted a video that depicted an experimental ultraviolet technology designed to kill the coronavirus," he wrote. "YouTube also removed the video from its website for promoting unsubstantiated claims, but not before the video racked up more than 17 million views."

In a statement to HuffPost, Bankston weighed in on the text messages saying, "We have always favored public transparency in this litigation, and we think it’s clear that these conversations between Mr. Jones and one of the nation’s most widely watched political pundits are newsworthy and a matter of genuine public interest."

READ MORE: 'I don't tell lies': Alex Jones blabbers of 'self-fulfilling prophecy' after bankruptcy bid blows up in court

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mma 1 23 not twt

Right-wing media just can’t seem to quit old-school climate change denial.

Even as fossil fuel companies moved away from directly questioning established science in their marketing in favor of more subtle forms of climate delay and greenwashing, media influencers on the right repeatedly suggested that climate change is a fake crisis manufactured by global elites, using the energy crisis, extreme weather events, and a general mistrust of our institutions to make the case for climate change denial.

The war in Ukraine was convenient for climate change deniers

As gas prices skyrocketed, in part due to the global energy disruption resulting from the war in Ukraine, and American families started to become frustrated, right-wing media took the opportunity to blame climate policies. They insisted that high prices were being caused by a fake crisis manufactured by the government, arguing that climate change was a hoax from the beginning.

AnOctober 6 Wall Street Journal editorial claimed that “the White House blames the industry for high gas prices while it does everything it can to make drilling more difficult and financially risky.”

Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Donald Trump went on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria on March 2 and called climate change a hoax while discussing the Biden administration's energy policy, saying that “this climate situation is killing our country.”

He did the same thing in a March 21 segment of Fox Business’s Varney & Co, saying what the left does “is a climate hoax.” When asked by host Stuart Varney whether climate change is caused by human activity, Trump responded: “In my opinion, you have a thing called weather, and you go up and you go down. If you look into the 1920s, they were talking about global freezing. … The climate’s always been changing,” he continued.

Media Matters documented ample disinformation about gas prices and theKeystone XL pipeline extension during that period. Some right-wing media influencers claimed the Biden administration was adding insult to injury by allegedly driving high gas prices and lying to Americans about what could be done to fix the situation in order to carry out its agenda.

Fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner of Power the Future wrote on April 18, “There is no climate crisis and oil is back to $110 because everything@JoeBiden says is a lie.”

Kurt Schlichter, a Townhall columnist and podcast host, alleged that Biden was more committed to “the idiotic members of the climate change hoax cult” than he was to lowering gas prices for families.

Schlichter has been a loud and consistent voice for climate change denial. But for someone who believes it doesn’t exist, he certainly spent a lot of time obsessing over it in 2022. He tweeted “climate change is a hoax” or similar statements at least 145 times in 2022, or an average of nearly three times per week, and penned op-eds like “Don’t Let Them Reset Society To Make You Into a Bug-Eating Serf” and “Climate Hoax Hacks Love Putin” in which he claimed that “you cannot claim to both oppose Putin and fight global warming.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton was also an influential Twitter climate misinformer in 2022, voicing opposition to climate policy such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and posting climate skeptic and denialist content. “Taxes on energy, subsidies for favored corporations, dangerous drug price controls will increase inflation. And -- Fact check: There is no ‘climate crisis,’” he tweeted onJuly 28.

Judicial Watch is a member of the State Policy Network, which has deep ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch-funded lobbying group that has most recently been working to punish fossil fuel divestment. When Biden was considering declaring a climate emergency in July, Fitton wrote, “There obviously is no ‘climate emergency’-- for Biden to dictate otherwise is a desperate abuse of power.”

The right turned reporting on natural disasters into “climate alarmism”

Last year, we clearly saw the impacts of major climate-fueled extreme weather events at home and around the world: Hurricanes Ian and Fiona, a heat wave and drought in Europe, China, and the American West, and massive flooding in Pakistan. As of October, according to insurance broker Aon, there had been 29 billion-dollar disasters in 2022. Additionally, according to the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat, the EU experienced 53,000 more deaths in July compared with that month’s averages for 2016-2019. 

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ian, which pummeled Florida and South Carolina in late September, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson implied that humans cannot influence weather events because “they’re called natural disasters. … They’re products of nature. God’s in charge.” His guest Candace Owens, who has a history of climate change denial, reiterated that climate change does not exist because “if there was no human beings that walked the face of the planet, there would continue to be hurricanes, like there would continue to be blizzards, and like there would continue to be tornadoes.” 

Carlson responded to natural disasters with climate change denial on more than one occasion. On July 20, he devoted a monologue to undermining the existence of climate change, reducing climate predictions to: “It’s gonna be hot and then it’s gonna rain hard.”

“No one really believes in global warming,” he continued, “and that’s why all of the liberals in the United States live on the coasts – because they don’t believe it. That’s why many of them fly private, because the entire theory is absurd and they know it. … The whole thing is a joke.”

The day before, onJuly 19, Fox News host Dan Bongino questioned whether the planet is getting warmer and whether humanity played a role in it, asking: “What kind of a dunce believes that? Come on. Is it [the planet] getting warmer? The answer is maybe. … The question isn’t is it getting warmer; the question is what’s human beings' role in it.”

Even in the absence of an extreme weather event, right-wing media regularly dismissed and challenged the scientific consensus that warming is making these types of events more severe.

On an October 11 segment of The Ingraham Angle, host Laura Ingraham brought on climate change denier Tom Harris to falsely claim that the science isn’t settled: “The real underlying thing is that there is no climate crisis. … It's all based on models that don't work. … In fact, we don't even know whether it's going to be warm or cool in the future. … The only sensible approach is to get ready for it, to make our infrastructure hardened, to use solid, dependable sources of energy like coal.”

The “Great Reset” was a magnet for climate skepticism

Also in 2022, some right-wing media framed climate change as a hoax orchestrated by elites to implement the “Great Reset,” using climate policies and other measures to assert dominance and control over the general population.

These ideas got attention in July, when right-wing media attempted to blame a series of complex global conflicts and unrest on climate policy, and in November as the global community gathered in Egypt to negotiate climate action.

Former Australian journalist and key Twitter climate denial amplifier Peter Clackattacked plans made during the conference to provide financial climate support for developing nations, tweeting, “This is the reality of the Great Reset. … COP27 has approved - without dissent - reparations starting at $2 trillion because of climate-caused damage. There is none.”

On a December 12 segment of Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson and meteorologist Joe Bastardihad a nearly unintelligible conversation packed with climate change denial, where Bastardi offered that climate advocates might not want to ban private air travel because “they’ve all got climate vaccines. We don't know about them, but unlike the covid vaccine, they actually work.”

Another cockamamie theory, according to Bastardi, is that climate advocates are trying to pollute the air as much as possible so that they can have an excuse to prevent others from using transportation. Bastardi claimed that another option is that “it's a phony climate war, it's fraudulent,” and it “has nothing to do with CO2.”

Though not explicitly mentioned, these accusations are consistent with the Great Reset narrative of elites controlling the masses through climate and public health policy. Carlson posited earlier in the segment, “Could it be that the climate movement is really about creating a permanent caste system where the people at the top of society, the Brahmins, can do literally whatever they want?”

Right-wing journalist Jordan Schachtel mentioned the Great Reset while celebrating Twitter’s change in ownership, tweeting, “Twitter will now become the network through which we utterly destroy the forces of The Great Reset. … This is why the power-drunk covid addicts, climate hoaxers, commies, etc are furious today.”

On the September 12 edition of Eric Bolling The Balance, host Eric Bolling encapsulated the right’s fearmongering about the Great Reset, claiming that climate change is a hoax being used “in order to make people fear the end of the world, convince us to change everything. They want to control us forever and ever.”

Climate contrarians lashed out against so-called censorship

Sometimes, climate change denial was just a drumbeat regardless of current events. Prominent right-wing culture warrior influencers used climate change denial without any context as part of their rotating script attacking different “liberal” beliefs or simply as a protest against what they view as censorship.

For example, after Twitter initially accepted  Elon Musk’s acquisition offer onApril 25, right-wing contrarians and other influencers were seemingly emboldened to “test” the new environment by making statements that might reasonably be labeled as misinformation or hate speech under previous management. This occured in the days following Musk’s takeover of the platform on October 27 as well, with some tweets garnering tens of thousands of engagements.

[twt]

former Daily Wirecontributor Greg Price and right-wing Twitter troll and self-described political commentator Gunther Eagleman repeatedly pushed climate change misinformation on Twitter in 2022, along with a plethora of other uncouth and conspiratorial statements. Eagleman tweeted about climate change being a hoax, scam, or similar statements 48 times this year.

[twt]

despite right-wing media’s repeated claims that climate change is a hoax, it was among the top voter concerns during the recent 2022 midterm elections, suggesting climate change denial is a losing argument.However, as the phenomenon ramps up on Twitter and “free speech” continues to be a major point of contention in the culture wars, right-wing media may be empowered to continue pushing these types of disinformation in 2023.

Methodology ...

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After a historic week of messy party infighting, the Republican-led House of Representatives has finally selected a speaker, passed a rules package, and gotten to work on its agenda of making the country safer for wealthy tax cheats. There are important lessons to learn from the chaos given the likelihood of future interparty rifts over the next two years — and the centrality of the right-wing media to the GOP. 

Here are some key takeaways:

The GOP’s leaders are fueled by right-wing media.Gaining prominence in the modern Republican Party virtually requires a willingness to rub elbows with the right-wing press. New House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)spent the last several years cozying up to Fox hosts, and two of his “key” supporters “helped corral surrogates – especially in the conservative media space – to act as validators” for his bid. He also benefited from the backing of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), the congresswoman from QAnon and an ally of Steve Bannon, and Jim Jordan (R-OH), whose regular Fox appearances helped him ascend from back-bencher to incoming House Judiciary chair. Meanwhile, McCarthy’s most prominent opponents included Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), who has gained prominence entirely on the basis of his courting of the right-wing media and reportedly sought jobs at Fox and its competitors, and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), another favorite of the fringe-right press. The right-wing media will be the key battleground for future fights between those sides.

Fox is now the GOP establishment. While Fox once aligned with the insurgent wing of the Republican Party, Donald Trump’s presidency had the effect of merging the network with the GOP’s establishment wing, and almost all of its prominent personalities lined up behind McCarthy’s bid and sought to stifle the revolt against him. Several of the pro-McCarthy network hosts have since sought to minimize the extent of the divide within the party by praising the concessions the rebels extracted during the fight. But the fracas sets a precedent for which side the party’s powerful propaganda arm will back the next time its insiders and outsiders face off.

The narratives of the right-wing press will form the core of the GOP agenda. With Democrats in control of the Senate and the White House, House Republicans are unlikely to see many of their priorities become law — but they plan to make noise, and to do so in step with their propagandists’ priorities. The initial bills proposed in the House Republican rules package were “centered on issues and themes important largely in the conservative media world,” as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump pointed out. The rules package also included not just the Tucker Carlson-sought “weaponization” panel but also a coronavirus committee which promises to put investigative muscle behind various right-wing pandemic narratives. And the first bill the House passed rolled back last year’s increased funding for the Internal Revenue Service, which became a target of right-wing conspiracy theories. 

Fox’s competitors will use party fights to gun for the network’s market share.As Fox rallied behind McCarthy, its rivals in TV and digital media saw an opening. They became the propaganda support for the anti-McCarthy campaign, savaging the would-be speaker and championing his critics. They also went after Fox, denouncing the network and its top hosts for purportedly selling out in an offensive more extensive than any from the right since late 2020, when Fox declared Joe Biden the president-elect and Trump urged his supporters to switch to its competitors. Expect more of this in the future as right-wing outlets try to use internal GOP fights to build their audiences at Fox’s expense.

Tucker Carlson is the most influential right-wing media figure.Carlson’s show is a festival of white nationalism, far-right conspiracy theories, and violent rhetoric that seeks to work his viewers into a frenzy. It is also a guiding force in the modern GOP. While his colleagues were foursquare behind McCarthy, Carlson was playing all sides of the debate, criticizing the would-be speaker one moment, praising him the next, and, above all else, seeking specific concessions. It worked — Carlson got the House inquiry into the purported “weaponization” of federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that he’s been building up to for years. Now he’ll be able to spend the next two years cheering on the Republican efforts to spread his conspiracy theories about the January 6 insurrection and whatever else the panel tries to push.

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https://www.alternet.org/tucker-carlson-gaslighting-witch-doctors/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-my-tolerance-atheism-has-really-dwindled-nothing-point

CARLSON (GUEST): I must say, my tolerance for atheism has really dwindled to nothing at this point. My – my tolerance for people who are agnostic or aren't really sure or seeking –

CHARLIE KIRK (HOST): I totally agree with this, yes.

CARLSON: But the idea that there are people who are completely certain as a matter of religious faith that there's no God, I just find it hilarious and, like, so childish. I just can't take it seriously.

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https://www.foxnews.com › opinion › tucker-carlson-christians-support-trump

Tucker Carlson: The real reason so many Christians are willing to ...

Dec 24, 2019Just 10 years later, only 65 percent of the country identifies as Christian. The non-religious percentage, meanwhile, has grown from 17 percent to 26 percent over the same period. Now, these...

https://covenant.livingchurch.org › 2017 › 06 › 26 › tucker-carlson-episcopalian

Tucker Carlson, Episcopalian - Covenant

Despite his claim, Carlson is no shallow guy. His roots in Anglicanism run very deep. He is a cradle Episcopalian from California who went to St. George's School in Rhode Island. There he met his future wife, who is the daughter of Fr. George Andrews, the former headmaster.

https://www.theatlantic.com › politics › archive › 2019 › 12 › tucker-carlson-fox-news › 603595

What Does Tucker Carlson Believe? - The Atlantic

Carlson, during our post-show interview that Friday, said he's learned to drown out any accusations of white supremacy, because "it's so far from the truth that it has no effect at all other than...

Recent News

Tucker Carlson: "My tolerance for atheism has really dwindled to nothing at this point"

CARLSON: But the idea that there are people who are completely certain as a matter of religious faith that there's no God, I just find it hilarious and, like, so childish. I just can't take it seriou…

Media Matters for...

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https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Tucker_Carlson

Tucker Carlson - Wikipedia

Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson [5] (born May 16, 1969) is an American television host, conservative political commentator and writer who has hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight on Fox News since 2016.Carlson began his media career in the 1990s, writing for The Weekly Standardand other publications.

https://www.crisismagazine.com › opinion › tucker-carlsons-catholic-mind

Tucker Carlson's Catholic Mind - Crisis Magazine

Tucker Carlson's Catholic Mind Jane Clark Scharl Lest anyone think that American politics is in any danger of receding back to pre-2016 partisan boundaries, Tucker Carlson used his Fox News segment last week to go after hedge fund manager and GOP mega-donor Paul Singer… for his free-market economics.

https://thehornnews.com › tucker-carlson-just-dropped-a-religious-bombshell

Tucker Carlson just dropped a religious bombshell

Dec 9, 2021Fox News star Tucker Carlson said the arson attack was nothing short of a hate crime because it destroyed a symbol of Christianity during one of the holiest holidays of the year — but predicted the Biden administration would be silent on the crime. Imagine the outrage if someone had torched a Koran in Times Square during Ramadan.

https://www.skywatchtv.com › 2021 › 10 › 26 › tucker

Tucker Carlson: Christianity Is Dying And Being Replaced By Cult Of ...

Oct 26, 2021Turns out not so long ago this was an enthusiastically Christian country. As recently as 2009, 77% of Americans told pollsters they consider themselves to be believing Christians. Then in just 10 years, over the course of the Obama administration, that number dropped by 12 points. Over the same period, the number of atheists and self-identified ...

https://www.newsweek.com › tucker-carlson-fox-news-tree-fire-christianity-1657626

Tucker Carlson Calls Fox News Tree Fire an 'Attack on Christianity'

Dec 9, 2021A Christmas tree is a symbol. It's a symbol of a specific culture, it's a symbol of the much loved tradition that is hundreds of years old," Carlson said. "But above all, it's a symbol of a...

https://hillreporter.com › tucker-carlson-the-cult-of-coronavirus-is-overtaking-christianity-as-the-main-religion-in-the-country-113758

Tucker Carlson: The Cult of Coronavirus is Overtaking Christianity as ...

Sep 27, 2021According to the duo, the Cult of Coronavirus is overtaking Christianity as the country's number one religion. Carlson was particularly angry that New York Governor Kathy Hochul who said that God would want people to get vaccinated. He began, "What's dying is the faith that created western civilization, Christianity. In its place is a new creed.

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Carlson​ faces scrutiny after his remarks defending Andrew Tate resurface

Meaghan Ellis

December 31, 2022

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is facing scrutiny again amid the resurfacing of footage showing him defending kickboxer Andrew Tate who was recently arrested on suspicion of organized crime, sex trafficking, and rape...

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-gave-interview-college-student-now-student-organizing-students-ye

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Tucker Carlson gave an interview to a college student. Now, that student is organizing “Students for Ye,” a group promoted by white nationalists

WRITTEN BY JUSTIN HOROWITZ

PUBLISHED 12/15/22

In July, Fox News host Tucker Carlson gave an interview to college student and right-wing writer Daniel Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is organizing “Students for Ye,” a grassroots group created to support rapper Ye’s (formerly Kanye West) potential campaign for president. The group is being promoted by notorious white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes.

Ye has recently went on unhinged pro-Nazi rants on right-wing media, during which he has denied the Holocaust and praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler.

Schmidt hosted a “students for Ye” Twitter space on December 14.

Students for ye twitter space

CitationScreenshot via the @RealDSchmidt Twitter account

Fuentes, who is reportedly working for Ye, promoted the group on his Telegram account:

Fuentes Students for Ye

CitationScreenshot via Nick Fuentes' Telegram channel

“Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander, who has made antisemitic comments, also praised Schmidt’s work.

Additionally, “Students for Ye” is recruiting students to volunteer on social media, including Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, and Fuentes’ streaming platform Cozy.tv.

It’s unclear why Carlson gave an interview to a college student in July. Based on reporting and available tweets, the interview covered some strange topics, including, but not limited to: dropping out of college, attacking feminism, porn, OnlyFans, the struggles of white men, “anti-white sentiment,” and having children. 

In one segment of the interview, Carlson gave Schmidt bizarre life advice about dating, marriage, and sex.

“This whole idea that like, you know, banging 40 people in your 20s is like, a net positive, or something? It’s like not even that fun,” Carlson told Schmidt.

VideoCitationFrom the July 24, 2022, edition of Piece of Schmidt

According to a Crooks and Liars report from July, Schmidt's LinkedIn page indicates he has “written for some right-wing sites, including the Daily Wire, Epoch Times, and The Daily Caller.”The Daily Caller, founded by Tucker Carlson, has a history of publishing white supremacists, anti-Semites, and bigots.

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Joe Kent was an election-denying candidate for Washington's third congressional district in 2022, and ended up losing his race. Kent embraced far-right politics in the race, appearing frequently on Infowars, Steve Bannon's podcast, and even a QAnon show. He's made multiple appearances on Carlson's Fox News show.

[vid]

GABBARD (HOST): Is it true before you got into journalism you were thinking about joining the CIA?

TUCKER CARLSON (GUEST): Yes.

...

CARLSON: I wanted an interesting life, that's the main thing that I wanted out of life. I never was interested in money,I had the privilege of not being interested in money because I didn't grow up in a family where we were worried about moneyso I just never thought about money.

...

CARLSON: I didn't think the CIA was a sinister force, it never occurred to me the CIA might be playing a role in domestic politics, like that was insane. First of all, it's illegal. Now, the CIA is all over domestic politics – they clearly took out Joe Kent in Washington state I think. And a lot of other ways they are tampering with our democracy.

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Far-right Republican culture warriors have a long history of becoming deeply upset over things that, unlike health care, the economy or foreign policy, have absolutely no effect on voters’ lives.Fox News’ Sean Hannity, in 2009, was relentlessly mocked by his critics after throwing a temper tantrum because then-President Barack Obama put Dijon mustard on a hamburger. During the 2012 GOP presidential primary, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich insisted that now-Sen. Mitt Romney (who ultimately won the nomination) wasn’t a true conservative because he spoke French.

In 2014, Fox News pundits were outraged because Obama wore a tan suit during a news conference.

The U.S. has had two different presidents since Obama left the White House, but one thing that hasn’t changed since then is the ability of far-right GOP culture warriors to become outraged over unimportant things. In a late December edition of the Daily Beast’s podcast “The New Abnormal,” host Andy Levy and Media Matters’ Andrew Lawrence look back on some of the “dumbest” and “silliest” things that “triggered” and outraged Republicans and right-wing media pundits in 2022.

READ MORE: Watch: Candace Owens self-rationalizes 'healthy discrimination' against 'men that paint their nails'

“Conservatives get triggered over the darndest things,” the Daily Beast says in a description of the podcast. “From Lizzo playing a Founding Father’s flute to a gay PDA in a Disney movie, 2022 was full of right-wing outrage so dumb that ‘The New Abnormal’ politics podcast host Andy Levy and Media Matters’ deputy director of rapid response Andrew Lawrence decided to round up the most ‘offensive’ instances in the show’s latest episode.”

Levy and Lawrence noted that a long list of right-wing media figures, including Ben Shapiro, became furious when R&B/hip-hop star Lizzo played James Madison’s flute. Lawrence explained, “She’s incredibly talented, and all it was just a Black woman playing James Madison’s flute that no one knew existed. It just sent them off the deep end…. Three or four days that we waste just talking about this nonsense.”

Levy noted that Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was outraged over an M&Ms commercial, angrily claiming that the commercial was making the female cartoon characters more “androgynous.” And Lawrence interjected, “It’s so silly. It’s so ridiculous. But it feeds into — you know, especially withTucker Carlson — the whole gender roles and masculinity is disappearing is such a huge part of his program. And those kind of insecurities are what he feeds into to draw viewers to his show.”

Lawrence added, “For the rest of us, it’s just silly…. The rest of the country is: Who cares?.... But if you’re a conservative and you’re looking for something to get angry about, this fits. It gives them something to be angry about.”

READ MORE:Gavin Newsom pushes national Democrats to turn up the heat in culture-war battles: report

Levy and Lawrence both stressed that as “silly” and “dumb” as right-wing media pundits can be, their “nontroversies” fit into the us-versus-them narrative that Fox News and other media outlets are pushing.

Lawrence told Levy, “All of these things are dumb and they’re silly, and they’re good to make fun of. But they all have sort of a deeper cultural meaning and a much more dangerous cultural meaning.”

READ MORE:'Violation of my constitutional rights': Newsmax host attacks drag queens while defending Donald Trump

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https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-attacks-brittney-griner-drug-addict-america-hating-criminal-who

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A year ago, Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s January 6 “false flag” conspiracy theories roiled the network. His Patriot Purge special, which portrayed the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol as righteous patriots and the federal government’s response as a pretextual “purge aimed at legacy Americans,” created a media firestorm and had some of Fox’s most high-profile veterans telling executives he had gone too far.

But Carlson won that power struggle: The Fox brass stood by him, and his critics either left the network, like Chris Wallace, or quietly submitted, like Bret Baier. And today, Carlson dominates Fox like no on-air personality in its history, replacing former President Donald Trump as the network’s fulcrum.

Carlson is a demagogue who sneers at America’s heritage as a multicultural nation bound by shared principles like liberty, equality, and democracy. He instead embraces the blood-and-soil nationalism of European autocracies. This radical and reactionary philosophy is swiftly gaining power on the American right, thanks to adherents such as the fascist billionaire Peter Thiel and his pet philosopher Curtis Yarvin and hand-picked Sen.-elect J.D. Vance. Carlson is that movement’s accelerant; he is using his weekday program on Fox and regular specials on its streaming platform, Fox Nation, as well as his influence over the Republican Party, to bring it into the mainstream.

In practice, this means Carlson spent 2022 exhorting his viewers to take action against the purported “replacement” of white Americans and the increasing public acceptance of the LGBTQ community and levying inflammatory conspiracy theories sourced from the right-wing fever swamps and Russian propaganda outlets.

Carlson’s rhetoric — and the frenzy it seeks to inculcate in his viewers — would be disturbing in any case. But he’s the brightest star in the right’s constellation of bigots and demagogues because of the influence he has on the GOP. He remains a key adviser to Donald Trump. He intimidates the party’s political operatives, helps his endorsed candidates like Vance win their primaries, and generates election strategy. Carlson will be one of the major players shaping Republican politics in the 2024 presidential election cycle.

For these reasons and more, Media Matters is naming Tucker Carlson our Misinformer of the Year for 2022.

...sts are adept at misinforming their viewers and turning their grievances into ratings. Carlson is a particularly shameless liar with a gift for stoking his audience’s rage. But he also stands out from the rest by urging his viewers to take direct action — at times even explicitly urging them to respond to his rants with violence.

Carlson has for years promoted the “great replacement,” a white supremacist conspiracy theory which posits that Democrats are using immigration to replace white American voters with foreign hordes. He’s edged closer and closer to the exact phrasing used in the most toxic spaces on the internet, destroying any plausible deniability Fox executivesand business partners may have had about what he is doing. And as that talking point spread through Fox’s programming — and motivated white supremacist massacres — he stood out by repeatedly demanding that his viewers do something about it.

So when a white supremacist invoking the “great replacement” went on a killing spree in Buffalo, New York, in May, it was another opportunity for Carlson and his bosses to change course. Instead, Carlson angrily denounced his critics and doubled down, claiming ignorance of the theory while nonetheless reiterating that Democrats are trying to “change the electorate.” As Fox stood by him amid a media firestorm, avowed white supremacists thanked the network host for mainstreaming their message to millions of people.

By mid-July, the mask was entirely off. “The great replacement — yeah, it's not a conspiracy theory; it's their electoral strategy,” he told the Fox audience.

2022 also saw an outpouring of anti-LGBTQ hate from Fox and others, as right-wing activists, media figures, and politicians demonized members of that community as “groomers” to boost their own profiles and mobilize Republican voters. That hate had victims. Far-right extremist groups targeted Pride events and drag performers, children’s hospitals faced violent threats for providing trans health care, and in November, five people were killed and dozens injured in a mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Carlson emerged as a nexus of that burgeoning anti-LBGTQ movement. He championed its crusaders — Libs of Tik Tok’s Chaya Raichick, Daily Wire podcasters Matt Walsh and Candace Owens, and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo — making their rants about drag queens, trans health care, and teachers who educate their charges about LGBTQ people part of his regular rotation.

He has also added to the fury with his own incendiary invective. Carlson describes trans-affirming health care for youth as the “sexual mutilation of children” and “castrating young people,” saying it’s conducted by doctors who are committing “atrocities” thanks to “a dangerous cult that is causing irreparable harm to children.” And he has repeatedly and explicitly called for violence, saying that teachers who discuss “gender identity” with students “should be beaten up” and asking, “Some teacher's pushing sex values on your third-grader. Why don't you go in and thrash the teacher?”

The Club Q attack brought no reprieve. Instead, Carlson responded by describing the uproar following the murders as “a pretext for yet more censorship of your speech” and condemning what he described as “a deeply unhealthy fixation on the sexuality of children” and hospitals “sexually mutilating kids” due to “a very specific religious ideology.”

...the depraved rantings, dangerous and influential as they are, constitute only a small fraction of the unhinged conspiracy theories Carlson promoted in 2022. In addition:

Meanwhile, the Murdochs have decided that there are few if any limits to what Carlson can get away with. He is their business model; they hope to gain an increasing share of their revenue from the Fox Nation streaming service that he headlines. Carlson’s paranoid specials on topics like Hungary vs Soros: The Fight for Civilization and his lengthy interviews with toxic racists like former Rep. Steve King may be heavily promoted on his program and elsewhere on Fox, but they air commercial-free for subscribers, freeing the network from needing to rely on advertisers.

A decade and a half ago, Rupert Murdoch grabbed Carlson off the cable news scrapheap. Since then he’s climbed the Fox ladder from contributor to Fox & Friends weekend co-host to host of an eponymous weekday prime-time show, until he reached his current status as the nation’s most powerful right-wing commentator, a GOP kingmaker and the linchpin of the right’s misinformation ecosystem. His rising influence within the network and the Republican Party is a testament to their willingness to reward and elevate toxic demagoguery. And since the message he’s been getting from the network brass and party leaders is that they are fully on board, it’s only going to get worse from here.

For more about Carlson's year of misinformation, conspiracy theories, and toxic rhetoric, read Media Matters' report here.

...

FBI, Ray Epps, and pipe bombs

Carlson pushed the baseless conspiracy theory that January 6 was a government plot instigated by FBI

informant Ray Epps despite a lack of evidence. The January 6 committee confirmed that Epps had “informed

us that he was not employed by, working with, or acting at the direction of any law enforcement agency on Jan

5th or 6th or at any other time, & that he has never been an informant for the FBI or any other law enforcement

agency.” Carlson used the same strategy to push an unsubstantiated claim that the FBI planted pipe bombs near

the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee headquarters on January 5, 2021.

•    Carlson questioned why Ray Epps’ photo had been taken off the FBI website without his having been

charged with anything. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/5/22]

•    Carlson hosted Darren Beattie from the conspiracy theorist website Revolver News to suggest that

GOP officials are not interested in Epps “because what the evidence suggests is arguably one of the

biggest scandals in American history,” that government officials instigated the insurrection. [Fox

News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/6/22]

•    After Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called the January 6 insurrection a “violent terrorist attack,” the senator

groveled before Carlson, apologizing for using “sloppy and … frankly dumb” language. Carlson then

pressured Cruz to embrace his claim that the January 6 riot was instigated by the FBI. The next week,

Cruz brought January 6 conspiracy theories into a congressional hearing. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 1/6/22]

•    Carlson stated that it was “obvious” based on video evidence that “the Department of Justice probably

had some role in the events of January 6th.” Carlson then highlighted Cruz and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-

AR) raising the conspiracy theories in a congressional hearing. Carlson continued to implicate Epps

as “maybe the central figure there” and dismissed Rep. Adam Kinzinger’s (R-IL) debunk of the theory.

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/11/22]

•    Carlson again doubled down on the conspiracy theory, saying, “Adam Kinzinger loves Ray Epps. He’s

spent the last 24 hours sticking up for Ray Epps on Twitter against all comers. How strange is that?

It’s impossible to overstate the strangeness.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/12/22]

•    Carlson claimed that the January 6 committee was “lying about Ray Epps.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 1/21/22]

•    Carlson suggested that a pipe bomb found near then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ location on

January 6 could have been placed there by the FBI. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/9/22]

•    Carlson devoted a monologue to Epps: “One man was actually caught on camera planning an

insurrection, encouraging a breach of the Capitol complex. That man’s name is Ray Epps.” He claimed

that to ask questions about Epps is equivalent to “committing a moral crime” and mocked the

harassment Epps has faced as a result of the conspiracy. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/14/22]

•    Carlson again suggested the FBI planted pipe bombs outside the DNC headquarters as a part of a

January 6 conspiracy. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/16/22]

Insurrectionists were not carrying guns ...

COVID-19

Tucker Carlson continued his reckless coverage of the pandemic. From criticizing mask-wearing and attacking

public health experts to airing unfounded claims about boosters to platforming discredited doctors, Carlson

worked to sabotage the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign and successfully dissuade viewers from

taking the shots that could save their lives.

•    Carlson downplayed the severity of child COVID-19 hospitalizations. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 1/10/22]

•    A Carlson guest claimed without evidence that digital vaccine passports would lead to monetary

digitization, and Carlson said that would leave the “average person” a “slave to a supposedly

democratic government.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/18/22]

•    Carlson defended podcast host and serial COVID-19 misinformer Joe Rogan’s interviews with anti-

vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert Malone and discredited doctor Peter McCullough. Carlson

additionally argued that McCullough was being censored not for spreading misinformation, but

because he “criticized the people in charge.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/2/22]

•    Carlson criticized Democratic leaders enforcing public safety COVID-19 restrictions for going “full

fascist immediately.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/9/22]

•    Carlson warned that “we are just beginning to see the outlines of the repression that COVID has made

possible.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/11/22]

•    Carlson minimized COVID-19 deaths: “Severe illness and death for the unvaccinated, Ring around the

Rosie, all fall down. You’re screwed, pal. Whoa. Five months later you look around and honestly, it’s

Media Matters for America                                                                                          8

hard to find a single pile of corpses in the street.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/27/22]

•    Carlson claimed that Biden is giving the World Health Organization complete control over “the

intimate aspects of your life” and American public health emergencies. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 5/19/22]

•    Carlson called COVID-19 “the greatest crime in history.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/8/22]

•    Carlson: “Even Tony Fauci knows that Tony Fauci is in fact a dangerous fraud — a man who has done

things that in most countries, at most times in history would be understood perfectly clearly to be

very serious crimes.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/22/22]

•    Carlson mockingly said the COVID-19 pandemic is “totally real.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

9/7/22]

•    Carlson: COVID-19 “doesn’t actually pose a threat to anybody.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

11/28/22]

COVID-19 vaccines

•    Carlson claimed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin lied about vaccine efficacy so he could “fire more

SEALs.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/3/22]

•    Carlson claimed that “research suggests that it’s possible the vaccinated are more likely to get and

transmit this virus than the unvaccinated are.” (The research Carlson cited was from was not yet peer-

reviewed, and the authors of the study concluded “booster vaccination offer[s] a significant increase

in protection.”) [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/3/22]

•    The next day, Carlson repeated the claim, saying that a study from the Netherlands “found that so-

called secondary attack rate — that means the spread of COVID within a household — is higher in

double vaccinated individuals than in the unvaccinated. That would be ‘pandemic of the vaccinated.’”

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/4/22]

•    Carlson claimed “people who get the booster are more likely to get the latest variant.” [Fox News,

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/7/22]

•    Carlson: “There’s a lot of evidence — a steaming pile of evidence, in fact — that this vaccine, the so-

called booster, the third vax, is negatively correlated to the new variant. You’re more likely to get it and

pass it on. So crazy.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/10/22]

•    Carlson cited a study to insist that natural immunity to COVID-19 is better than vaccinations. This is

not true. The CDC website states, “Getting a COVID-19 vaccination is a safer and more dependable way

to build immunity to COVID-19 than getting sick with COVID-19.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

1/19/22]

•    Carlson said he didn’t understand why vaccination mandates weren’t considered racist. [Fox News,

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/19/22]

•    Carlson launched a bizarre attack on radio host Howard Stern, suggesting that a “hormonal change”

led to his support for vaccine mandates. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/20/22]

•    Carlson compared vaccine requirements to Nazi and Imperial Japanese Army medical

experimentation. Carlson also promoted an anti-vax mandate march that featured anti-vaccine

conspiracy theorist Robert Kennedy Jr. as a speaker. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/21/22]

•    Carlson asked, “How many infants have died of COVID? It doesn’t matter. Looks like they’re getting the

vax too.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/2/22]

•    Carlson claimed natural immunity was “a more durable immunity to future infections” than immunity

by vaccine and that a vaccine mandate at a luncheon hosted by Jill Biden was meant to “humiliate” his

unvaccinated guest and “make [her] into a kulak.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/23/22]

•    Carlson accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of “trying to sell a vaccine on behalf of Pfizer.” [Fox News, Tucker

Carlson Tonight, 4/1/22]

•    Carlson claimed Biden endorsed “inject[ing]” your child with a vaccine that has no benefits for the

health of your family. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/11/22]

•    Carlson lied about “significant risks” associated with the COVID-19 vaccines, encouraging lawsuits and

criminal charges. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/11/22]

•    Carlson claimed the point of the vaccines was “not to protect you, it [was] to control you.” [Fox News,

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/22/22]

•    Carlson mocked Fauci for his COVID-19 infection, saying he got it “despite getting like 27 vaccine

boosters” and calling him the “Typhoid Mary of Georgetown.” [Media Matters, 6/15/22]

Media Matters for America                                                                                            9

•    Discussing Fauci’s diagnosis the next night, Carlson falsely claimed “many thousands” of Americans

“have been killed or seriously injured” by the COVID-19 vaccines. This is not true. According to the CDC,

“Continued monitoring has identified nine deaths causally associated with J&J/Janssen COVID-19

vaccination.” [Media Matters, 6/16/22]

•    Carlson repeated the claim that“many thousands” have been killed or seriously injured by the vaccine.

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/16/22]

•    Carlson claimed the death rates around the world for vaccinated people were “extraordinarily high.”

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/14/22]

•    Carlson: “Everybody who got the vax got COVID.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/21/22]

•    Carlson speculated that the COVID-19 vaccines are harmful: “Is there a connection between getting

multiple COVID vax shots and getting sicker? Is it possible that the vaccine actually can hurt you?

Especially if you keep getting boosted? Can it weaken your immune system? Well, that looks possible.”

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/21/22]

•    Carlson cited a study to again speculate that the COVID-19 vaccine “appears to depress your immune

system.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/25/22]

•    Carlson baselessly cited “the rise in young athletes dying of heart attacks” as evidence the COVID-19

vaccine can kill you. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/25/22]

•    Tucker Carlson claimed Americans were forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine “at gunpoint.” [Fox News,

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/10/22]

•    Carlson said there is “no medical basis” for schools requiring students to get COVID-19 vaccines. [Fox

News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/18/22]

•    Carlson claimed that COVID-19 vaccines could “hurt” children. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

10/19/22]

•    Carlson accused Center for Diseases Director Rochelle Walensky of spreading misinformation about

COVID-19 vaccine efficacy. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/24/22]

•    Carlson: “Everything they told you about the COVID vaccine was a flat-out lie.” [Fox News, Tucker

Carlson Tonight, 10/25/22]

•    Carlson called Fauci’s statement denying that the COVID-19 vaccines were dangerous “a lie.” [Fox

News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/23/22]

COVID-19 origin

•    Carlson emphasized a report from the House GOP oversight committee that claimed Fauci knew

of the possibility of a Wuhan lab leak “a year before that became the common view of the origin of

COVID.” He complained that during the previous year, “anyone who raised the question was denounced

as a racist, anti-Asian, or something, but it turned out to be very likely true.” Carlson then played a clip

of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) questioning Fauci in a congressional hearing and added that Fauci’s prior

knowledge of the theory but simultaneous dismissal of the right-wing conspiracy made him a “filthy

little demagogue.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/11/22]

•    Carlson claimed that Fauci instituted arbitrary and increasingly strict mask guidelines to distract the

American population from listening to erroneous right-wing claims that Fauci was responsible for

funding research that created COVID-19. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/16/22]

•    Carlson dedicated his monologue to defending the Wuhan lab leak theory and arguing that “our

leaders seem curiously uninterested” in investigating the potential leak because the Biden family

is compromised by China and mainstream media outlets were financially biased toward the

Chinese government. Later in the monologue he alleged that the Wuhan lab is now participating in

“Frankenstein crap with monkeypox.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/8/22, 7/8/22]

•    Carlson alleged that at Fauci’s last press conference, as he prepared to step down from his multiple

positions in the Biden administration, he was “shielded” from questions on coronavirus origins.

Carlson then claimed that Fauci was “funding bat coronavirus experiments in Wuhan which, at this

point, seem pretty likely to be the cause of the entire pandemic.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

11/22/22]

Media Matters for America                                                                                           10

Canadian trucker convoy

•    Carlson criticized Canada’s “lunatic” vaccine requirements for Canadian truckers, and praised

protesting truckers for their “bravery” and for “connect[ing] the obvious dots” between vaccine

requirements and future government technological surveillance of citizens. [Fox News, Tucker

Carlson Tonight, 1/27/22]

•    Carlson claimed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau disagreed with the protests because he is

“repulsed by” working class individuals. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/31/22]

•    Carlson defended the Canadian truckers against accusations of racism and suggested that a man

attending with a Confederate flag could be a “Ray Epps”-style government plant to discredit the

trucker protest. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/31/22]

•    Carlson declared that “the Canadian trucker convoy is the single most successful human rights

protest in a generation.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/10/22]

•    Carlson claimed that Trudeau’s opposition to the Canadian truckers was “attacking human rights” and

that others who opposed them were “fascist[s]”. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/10/22]

•    Carlson declared that “Canada canceled democracy last night” after Trudeau invoked the

Emergencies Act due to the blockades and safety concerns resulting from the Canadian trucker

protest. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/15/22]

•    Without evidence, Carlson accused Canadian “state intelligence” of hacking the Canadian truckers’

funding site and doxxing donors. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/15/22]

Guests

Carlson’s guests championed his campaign to undermine public health information and dismiss the severity of

COVID-19 and the ensuing pandemic. His most frequent purveyors of COVID-19 misinformation were Fox News

medical contributor Dr. Marty Makary and COVID contrarian Alex Berenson, whom he hosted 8 and 6 times in

segments discussing the pandemic, respectively, according to Media Matters’ internal database.

•    Berenson credited Carlson and fellow Fox News host and COVID-19 anti-vaxxer Laura Ingraham

for making his coronavirus book “a bestseller.” Berenson later added that “long COVID is a joke …

medically.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/5/22]

•    Then-candidate J.D. Vance claimed the government “conspired” with pharmaceutical companies to

force people to take the “most expensive treatments, instead of doing something that would save the

most lives and cause the least disruption.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/10/22]

•    Berenson demanded COVID-19 vaccines be immediately pulled off market, calling them “dangerous

and ineffective.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/25/22]

•    Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk suggested COVID-19 vaccines have caused “a 40 percent increase

in death amongst the supposed healthiest portion of the American population.” [Fox News, Tucker

Carlson Tonight, 2/7/22]

•    The Claremont Institute’s James Poulos claimed the COVID-19 vaccines have “technology that can go

inside of your body and start tinkering with, you know, mRNA, DNA or whatever.” [Fox Nation, Tucker

Carlson Today, 3/7/22]

•    Former Trump administration adviser and serial coronavirus misinformer Dr. Scott Atlas said Fauci’s

advice “killed and destroyed millions, including sacrificing our children.” Atlas later compared

following public health measures to mitigate COVID-19 to believing in the flat-earth theory. Carlson

agreed with the comparison. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 3/17/22]

•    The Great Barrington Declaration co-author Dr. Jay Bhattacharya blamed the increase in deaths

among young people on COVID-19 social distancing and isolation public health guidelines. [Fox News,

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/13/22]

•    High school student Sophia Mekhael spread the lie that the COVID-19 vaccine is more dangerous than

the illness, and Carlson agreed. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 4/14/22]

•    Talk show host Steve Deace said believing in the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine is “cognitive

dissonance” and “groupthink.” He added, “Frankly, it is rather cultic.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 6/16/22]

•    In an interview with Carlson, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro claimed that “several side effects

[from the vaccine] are likely to emerge this year or next year.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

Media Matters for America                                                                                      11

6/30/22]

• Berenson claimed the “rise in all-cause mortality is pretty clearly connected to vaccinations” and said

it’s “really worth watching” whether declining birth rates are also correlated to the COVID-19 vaccine.

[Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/6/22]

•    Makary claimed that doctors at the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control

are being “muzzled” and unable to speak against COVID-19 vaccination for infants: “They also know

that there’s no health emergency right now among kids 6 months of age.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 7/14/22]

•    Fox News medical correspondent Marc Siegel complained that politicians are too concerned about

whether a virus is “politically correct” rather than whether it’s dangerous. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 7/27/22]

•    Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) claimed that during the pandemic, “we’ve been living under a form of

martial law.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/19/22]

•    Makary falsely claimed that children should not receive the COVID-19 vaccine because of the risk of

myocarditis. Makary also dismissed studies showing that those infected with COVID-19 are more at

risk for developing myocarditis. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/22/22]

•    Makary also discouraged pregnant women from getting the COVID-19 vaccine and suggested science

journal editors are pushing misinformation. (The CDC recommends COVID-19 vaccination to all people

who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or trying to get pregnant. Evidence continues to show that getting

the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy is safe and effective.) [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

9/27/22]

•    Berenson claimed that National Institutes of Health officials are going to “make it harder to prove

that the lab leak is what really happened.” He warned of the seriousness of the threat: “I think you

know, and I think my readers know, I’m not a conspiracy theorist.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

10/3/22]

•    Carlson hosted a mother who blamed her son’s myocarditis on the COVID-19 vaccine and said she was

consequently “ostracized” on social media for the claim. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/3/22]

•    Conservative European Parliament member Rob Roos claimed that vaccine requirements were “real

institutional discrimination.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/11/22]

•    Frequent Fox guest Dr. Janette Nesheiwat criticized the CDC’s decision to add the COVID-19 vaccine

to the recommended children’s vaccination schedule as “irresponsible and illogical” and motivated by

“profit” for drug companies. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 10/20/22]

•    Carlson teased his Fox Nation Tucker Carlson Today interview with discredited cardiologist Dr. Aseem

Malhotra, who claimed that COVID-19 vaccines could lead to heart disease and other negative health

effects. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/29/22]....

[lgbt trans drag]

Masculinity

Carlson blamed a departure from “traditional masculinity” for society’s various supposed crises, from

Democratic leadership to reduced sperm counts, often invoking this rhetoric to criticize an increased emphasis

on diversity and inclusiveness. The culmination of Carlson’s foray into studying the perceived absence of

masculinity was a Fox Nation-produced Tucker Carlson Original called The End of Men. The special was an

incoherent collection of pseudoscientific ideas about modern day men having lower testosterone levels and

sperm counts among modern men and the “bro scientists” movement that’s fixing the problem.

•    Carlson complained that one of the things “that really matter” but was not getting enough attention

was the “unprecedented drop in testosterone levels that scientists have measured repeatedly.” [Fox

News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 1/4/22]

•    Carlson claimed that “traditional masculine virtues” are “now illegal.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson

Tonight, 6/10/22]

•    Carlson claimed the FDA ban on Juul was meant to lower testosterone levels and make people “more

passive and easier to control.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/22/22]

•    Amid his vaccine lies, Carlson paid special emphasis to claims that vaccines lower sperm counts

in men. Though there is no evidence of COVID-19 vaccines causing problems with male fertility, he

would repeat this lie throughout the year. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 6/23/22, 7/6/22, 8/25/22,

9/21/22, 10/25/22]

•    Carlson blamed women “lecturing” men for mass shootings. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight,

7/5/22]

•    Carlson praised farmers in the Netherlands for having enough “testosterone” to protest government

regulations on nitrogen fertilizer pollution. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 7/7/22]

•    Carlson complained, “We’ve never, I don’t think at any point in American history, ever, had, sort of,

all segments of elite culture united in their contempt for — loathing of, really — white men.” [Media

Matters, 7/25/22]

•    Carlson blamed the increase in crime on absent fathers: “There’s no one in charge with a normal

testosterone level who’s willing to just say, ‘No, you’re not allowed to do this. I’m sorry, you can’t do

that. That’s against the law. This is a country of laws.’” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/13/22]

•    Carlson claimed vaccine mandates are part of a plot to rid the workforce of people with “high

Media Matters for America                                                                                         15

testosterone levels.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 9/15/22]

•    Carlson claimed the world was facing “Spermpocalypse”: “Men will not be able to have children in say

another 50 years” because of decreased sperm counts. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 12/1/22]

•    In his Fox Nation-produced Tucker Carlson Original called The End of Men, Carlson aired many

ludicrous claims. The special featured a “right-wing bro scientist” who goes by the name Benjamin

Braddock on Twitter (most likely a reference to the character played by Dustin Hoffman in the 1967

film The Graduate). Braddock encouraged men to use red light therapy to tan their testes, even

though experts warn against the therapy. The special also featured previous Infowars guest “Raw

Egg Nationalist,” who described the “enemy” as “soy globalism,” which he said seeks to control

communities by “sickening them through food.” He encouraged viewers to consume raw eggs to

counter the effort. Carlson also claimed that “man boobs” would “threaten to doom our civilization.”

[Fox Nation, Tucker Carlson Original, 10/5/22]

Guests

•    Carlson aired a clip from Tucker Carlson Today in which guest Jason Whitlock said: “There is no toxic

masculinity. Masculinity is a good thing. That’s how we became number one. That’s how America

became great.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 2/2/22]

•    Oli London, a “British internet celebrity” who detransitioned, claimed that schools are “eroding the

alpha male.” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 11/11/22]

Immigration

Carlson has long been at the forefront of pushing incendiary rhetoric lambasting immigration and

multiculturalism, but in 2022, Carlson explicitly outlined the white nationalist platform for the GOP....

---

----

Over the past year, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who is being named Media Matters' Misinformer of the Year, leveraged his platform to amplify the reach of these 10 individuals as they spread misinformation. They pushed topics including: bigotry against immigrants and the LGBTQ community, misinformation about COVID-19, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and general right-wing grievances.

Right-wing grievances

Seattle-based conservative radio host Jason Rantz was Tucker Carlson’s most frequent guest in 2022, appearing 29 times. Rantz appears on Tucker Carlson Tonight to spread misinformation on a range of right-wing grievances, fearmongering about crime and disparaging the homeless in Democrat-run states and cities in particular.

Former Intercept writer-turned-right-wing “manufactured controversy” commentator Glenn Greenwald appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight 22 times. Carlson platformed Greenwald to demonstrate that perceived conservative injustices, like Big Tech and federal government collusion and election fraud, can be blamed on elitist Democratic forces in mainstream media targeting conservatism.

The Daily Wire’s Candace Owens was Carlson’s second most frequent guest, appearing 28 times on the show. Owens, who purports to be at the forefront of Black conservatism, has a history of defending fascists and racists and attacking victims of sexual misconduct. She is hostile to a society that adheres to principles of diversity and inclusivity, weaponizing culture war issues to attack individuals with ideological differences, including the LGBTQ community.

Former Democrat presidential candidate and brand-new Fox contributor Tulsi Gabbard was one of Carlson’s most frequent guests, even guest hosting for him twice during the year. In these appearances, Gabbard has established herself as a pro-Putin,misinformation-[spreading](https://youtu.be/vwciEh9owo8)-spreading, conspiracy-mongering culture warrior. Gabbard has capitalized on her influence with conservatives, recently launching a podcast where she hosted Carlson to spread conspiracies.

LGBTQ

The Daily Wire’s self-described “theocratic fascist” and anti-trans extremist, Matt Walsh was a frequent guest on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Walsh, who has helped lead a right-wing campaign of harassment against children’s hospitals providing lifesaving gender-affirming care to trans youth and who has previously slandered LGBTQ people as “groomers,” was on the show12 times.

:{While Carlson hosted Chaya Raichik, the woman who runs the prolifically hateful “Libs of TikTok” account, only twice, he repeatedly praised Raichik and the account for targeting and harassing the LGBTQ community. With Carlson’s exposure, Raichik has made :{Libs of TikTok c:(style="background-color:#ffff66ff"):}:entral to right-wing politics by amplifying anti-LGBTQ hatred.}:

Immigration

America First Legal founder and known white supremacist Stephen Miller frequented Carlson’s show to avidly push anti-immigration rhetoric. Miller’s nativism has been well-featured on Fox News (including regular promotion of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory), and the former Trump official has even criticized Fox News founder Rupert Murdoch’s stance on immigration.

Covid-19

COVID-19 contrarian Alex Berenson continued his campaign against the COVID-19 vaccines and credited Carlson (along with Fox host Laura Ingraham) for the success of his coronavirus book. In addition to spreading antivax misinformation, Berenson has misled about masks and baselessly speculated about the origins of the coronavirus. Carlson and Fox News continue to host Berenson despite the danger his commentary poses to their viewers.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine 

Carlson hosted fellow Putin apologist and retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor a startling 17times to push appeasement to Russia. Macgregor is a conspiracy theorist with a long history of xenophobic commentary who was once introduced by Carlson as “an honest man.”

Climate change

Right-wing Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to baselessly claim that a Dutch climate policy was an attempt by the government to steal farmers’ land “under the guise of the made-up nitrogen crisis,” land which would be used “to house new immigrants.” Vlaardingerbroek went on to accuse the Dutch government of conspiring to enact “the Great Reset plan.”

The number of guest appearances accounts for appearances on Tucker Carlson Tonight from January 3, 2022, through December 5, 2022, per Media Matters’ internal database.

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fox stepford mat'l

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-keeps-booking-pharmaceutical-heir-whose-mom-paid-specialist-deprogram-her-wokism

no lnx vid

Fox News keeps booking a pharmaceutical heir whose mom paid a specialist to “deprogram” her from “wokeism”

Mount Holyoke alum Annabella Rockwell works for conservative edutainment organization PragerU, which she credits with freeing her from liberal indoctrination

WRITTEN BY JOHN KNEFEL

PUBLISHED 11/29/22

A spectre is haunting college campuses — the spectre of wokeism. It is an ideology and a cult that separates children from parents, rendering each unknowable to the other. Misery and alienation: This is the goal of these indoctrination centers. But all is not lost. A small band of rebels stand in their way. They are the ragtag freedom fighters at PragerU.

That, at least, is the story the producers and talent at Fox News are telling their viewers.

Leading the charge for liberation is pharmaceutical heir and PragerU director of development for Palm Beach Annabella Rockwell, who can trace her lineage back to the Mayflower, thank you very much. Rockwell fell victim to the siren song of wokeism her first year at Mount Holyoke, a historically women’s college in Massachusetts.

“I studied history and politics at Mount Holyoke,” Rockwell said in a November 15 interview with her boss, Dennis Prager. “Every class was, you know, history, but history with race, history with gender.”

By the time Rockwell graduated in 2015, she was “totally indoctrinated,” she said in a recent interview with the New York Post. Her mom, Melinda, “enlisted the help of a deprogrammer who charged $300 a day as well as Annabella’s old tennis coach, Scott Williams,” to overcome her daughter’s “brainwashing.”

Rockwell had the support of her family’s personal fortune, but she needed something else: a light in the darkness. As she told Fox News’ top star and white nationalist Tucker Carlson on Monday evening, her salvation came at the hands of PragerU, where she now works, when one of its videos came up on a social media feed. This heartwarming story shows how PragerU funnels young people into reactionary politics – and just so happens to be a great branding opportunity to further spread that organization’s propaganda.

“I had to unlearn my four years of wokeism by watching five-minute PragerU videos online for free,” she said.

“Amazing,” Carlson responded. “It is a cult. Its aim is to separate you from the people who love you most.”

Video CitationFrom the November 28, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Teaching history without race or gender is obviously better, which is exactly the type of top-notch scholarship you can get from Prager and his absolutely real university.

Fox News’ Outnumbered analyzed Rockwell's hero’s journey on Monday afternoon, prior to her debut on Tucker Carlson Tonight. Co-host Emily Compagno, a paragon of intellectual rigor — who also knows more than a little about learning history without regard to race or gender — weighed in with the insight and precision that’s become her trademark.

College students are “being taught to hate their country; they’re also being taught to hate their families,” Compagno argued. “And that is step one of true indoctrination.”

Video CitationFrom the November 28, 2022, edition of Fox News' Outnumbered

But, like the totalitarian cult of wokeness itself, Rockwell wasn’t yet satisfied with her conquest. She pushed forward, appearing Tuesday morning on Fox & Friendsto share her tale of woe and redemption, explaining how she finally broke free of her ideological prison.

In 2020, at the height of what has been referred to as the largest protest movement in the history of the United States, Rockwell saw the light.

:{:{}:

}:

VideoCitationFrom the November 29, 2022, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends

:{:{}:

}:

“It wasn't until seeing the riots happening that I realized, OK, this is so hypocritical. Like, why are we fighting for equality and empowerment by burning down people's [PVT PROPERTY = > HU RIGHTS] businesses?” Rockwell explained. “It just doesn't make sense to me.” (One way to make sense of the George Floyd uprisings is to study “history with race.”)

Rockwell closed out the interview with another plug for PragerU. Whatever else the organization’s shortcomings, it appears that marketing is not one of them.

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mma 12 22

Fox News’ near-total silence on former President Donald Trump’s meeting with Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, points to the inroads that white nationalism and virulent antisemitism have made at the network — and the difficulty the Republican Party would have in trying to remove that faction from its coalition.

The news that Fuentes and Ye had dined with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago home and resort last Tuesday triggered a stream of denunciations from civil rights groups and calls for Republicans to speak out. The friendly sitdown came in spite of a weekslong firestorm surrounding Ye’s increasingly open anti-Jewish rhetoric. Fuentes, meanwhile, is a white supremacist leader who attended the deadly 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, called for a “white uprising” to install Trump as a dictator, and has generated a lengthy list of bigoted statements, including his recent exhortation for Jews to “get the fuck out of America.”

Republican leaders are divided over whether bigots like Ye and Fuentes should be shunned and the former president condemned for meeting with them. Ultimately, this argument is a proxy fight over the question of whether the white supremacists, Proud Boys, antisemites, and other deplorables who made common cause with Trump should be ushered out of the party. Some, like former Vice President Mike Pence, have spoken out. Others have criticized Fuentes while letting Trump off the hook, like potential House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), or remained silent, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Fox’s propagandists have joined the side of the silent. The network devoted a mere seven minutes to the dinner from the time the story broke on Friday through the weekend, and ignored it altogether on Monday. Notably, influential prime-time hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham have not mentioned the story at all. Fox is signaling to the viewers who trust it above all other news sources that the story is not important.

Fox’s quiet acquiescence points to a quandary for the network. It would apparently be a step too far for Fox to support Trump meeting with such despicable bigots – that could threaten its relations with advertisers and cable carriers. But the network is also too tightly intertwined with that world to criticize him for it. It has a Tucker Carlson problem.

Fox personalities condemning Trump for meeting with Ye would amount to a hairpin turn for the network. They were touting Ye’s bravery just weeks ago after Ye talked up Trump in Carlson’s fawning interview with him. But as they lavished praise on the rapper, the network was keeping under wraps some of the the anti-Jewish comments West made in the same discussion. When Ye started making similarly antisemitic remarks on social media, some at Fox criticized him – though not Carlson, who pretended that outburst hadn’t happened and continued to laud him.

Fuentes’ noxious racism and antisemitism are more explicit than what is typically found on Fox, and the network would seem to face less risk in condemning him. But Carlson in particular has made his show a clearinghouse for antisemitic tropes, white nationalist talking points, and fringe-right bigots. All the while, he has denied the existence of the white supremacists who praise him for mainstreaming their worldview. How could Carlson plausibly berate Trump for meeting with a white supremacist when he’s spent years telling his viewers that white supremacists don’t exist? And how could anyone else at the network convincingly draw a line between Fuentes’ commentary and what viewers see in its 8 p.m. hour?

Fox’s problem mirrors that of the GOP. Republican leaders believe that it needs the extremists Trump ushered into the party in order to win elections. Fox hosts and executives likewise recognize that if they aim at such deplorables, they may hit their own viewers. The result is that rank and file Republicans may not hear that the meeting ever happened – and if they do, the source will be a mainstream outlet that Fox has relentlessly trained them to ignore. If Fox creates the context through which its viewers interpret news, the message it is sending is that Trump dining with bigots is not important.

The Fox mantra is to “respect the audience.” In practice, that means keeping them cosseted from information that may displease them, no matter how extreme they become or what conspiracy theories they end up believing.

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mma post club Q

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-responds-co-shooting-lgbtq-nightclub-launching-vicious-attack-gender

  1. ### Fox News host attacks children's hospitals providing gender-affirming care

11/22/22

  1. ### Tucker Carlson declares children’s hospitals a “dangerous cult that is causing irreparable harm to children”

11/22/22

  1. ### Tucker Carlson says he can “see why people might believe” that among politicians, there is a “cabal of pedophiles”

11/22/22

  1. TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): It is a stable ofso-called conspiracy theoriesthat at the highest levels of politics and finance, there is a shadowy cabal of pedophiles who use their power to hide the crimes they commit against children -- that people think that. Sounds pretty far out to us, too dark and strange to be true. And of course, we are not obviously endorsing that idea.

On the other hand, you can kind of see why people might believe it. Jeffrey Epstein, for example. Epstein continued to dine with business moguls and heads of state [pix of giselle, not trump] long after he was arrested for having sex with minors. How did he do that? Why did nobody say anything? Why did people keep eating with him?

Well, at the very least, we can conclude, based on the evidence, that there is a tolerance for pedophilia among some, among the most powerful in our society, a tolerance that you would not find in, say, your average middle-class American family. Some of the rich [says TV dinner trust fund baby]really are different that way. That's clearly true.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-defends-alex-jones

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-scrapes-bottom-barrel-friendly-interview-steve-king-one-most-racist

Fox News’ top star Tucker Carlson recently interviewed former U.S. Rep. Steve King on his subscription-only show, offering the disgraced politician an opportunity to defend himself after racist remarks he made to The New York Times in 2019 torpedoed his political career.

The almost-hour-long conversation aired on Tucker Carlson Today on Fox Nation, the network’s streaming platform that has invested heavily in Carlson-branded content. Carlson also hosts a documentary-style series available on Fox Nation, in addition to his regular cable show hosting duties. King appeared on the long-form, conversational show to plug a book he published earlier this year detailing his downfall and exile from the Republican Party after losing his primary in 2020. King spent the entire time either denying, downplaying, or justifying his various bigoted remarks over the years, as Carlson nodded along and interjected to praise the former congressman.

King had previously appeared on Fox News 14 times since 2017, including 6 appearances on Tucker Carlson Tonight, sometimes for clean-up interviews after pushing white nationalist talking points. King hasn't been on the show in years, but Carlson defended him throughout his various scandals. After the then-congressman tweeted that Americans “can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies” (and then later doubled down on the statement), Carlson hosted him on Fox News, saying, “Everything you said I think is defensible and probably right.”

King has a long history of making racist remarks, dating back to at least 2002. “They just want to have this equivalency of multicultural and they say every culture is equal,” he told local news outlet Cleveland.com during the Republican National Convention in 2016, referring to his critics. “Well, every culture has not equally contributed to the civilization we have today."

Then, in 2019, New York Times reporter Trip Gabriel interviewed King for a piece that framed him as a precursor to Donald Trump. “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” King said in the interview, as reported by Gabriel. “Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?"

King disputed the quote, saying he had been referring to “western civilization” when he posed the question about offensive language, rather than “white nationalist” or “white supremacist,” according to follow-up reporting in the Times.

Before Carlson even laid out that context for his audience, he began the interview by praising King effusively, after calling most politicians “sick” and “screwed up people.

11/10 [vid]

"So if you come across someone who's actually a good person, like a decent person who cares about other people, who loves other people on a basic level, you remember,” Carlson gushed. “And Steve King of Iowa was always that guy."

Carlson then made an allusion to the racist great replacement theory, which both he and King have repeatedly espoused. “You were always a, not a crazy, but like an immigration restrictionist,” Carlson said. “Like, we should take care of the people who already live here before we, like, just replace them with new people, because that’s our duty as a government."

Carlson then defended the comments King made to Cleveland.com and CNN, beginning by playing tape of both. [vid]

"I’m just going to start with that intro comment and then let you tell the story,” Carlson said. “Maybe times have changed a lot, but those seem like — that’s not hate, those are obvious observations.”

“A healthy civilization has kids, and a healthy civilization is proud of itself, and every civilization is the product of certain cultures,” he continued. “Those are not white supremacist positions, those are like obvious positions.”

King explained himself by describing the political context at the time, summarizing the widespread, xenophobic fear of Muslims and other people from the Middle East migrating to European countries.

“The ‘somebody else’s babies’ were the young men – 80% of them that were pouring into Europe at the time, horizon to horizon and shoulder to shoulder on gravel roads, pouring into Europe by the thousands daily —I went and walked with them,” King said.

“They were somebody else’s babies 18 and 20 years ago,” he continued. “And so it’s too late for them, they’ve already bring their culture with them.”

Later in the conversation, Carlson gave King an opportunity to challenge the Times’ reporting that led to party leadership stripping him of his committees and his eventual loss to a primary challenger. King described talking with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), arguing his remarks had been misconstrued and that he had simply been defending “Western civilization.”

“I brought with me a sheet of paper on what I believed was said in that interview — there’s no tape and there’s no notes,” King said. “I said, ‘There’s a separation between these two odious ideologies, a pause and separation between white nationalism and white supremacy – I’m defending Western civilization.’”

The Times stood by its reporting, and even on King’s own terms, the phrase “Western civilization” is frequently used as a dog whistle to signal racist beliefs that at the very least heavily imply an adherence to white supremacy.

King’s loss in 2020 relegated him to the dustbin of U.S. politics, at least for now. Even before his defeat, his open racism was something of an embarrassment to Republicans, because of not what he said but how he said it. To Carlson, however, King is the victim. Toward the end of the interview, King claimed that the few members of the Republican Party who had stood by him were scorned and punished for it.

“It almost feels hopeless,” Carlson said, shaking his head sadly. “Becausethat kind of cowardice just abets evil. It really does.”

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Fox News' Tucker Carlson offered acontradictory stance to explain why the Republican Party failed to meet its own expectations for the 2022 midterm elections.

According to Carlson, Fox News was one of the biggest media influences for members of the political party but he's also attempting to blame the media for the party's lackluster election results.

Per HuffPost, the "anticipated 'red wave' washed out in a trickle, in part because of the losing candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump, many say."

READ MORE:Watch: Tucker Carlson spins new conspiracy theory saying US gov will lace country’s water supply with antidepressants

The far-right primetime host dismissed the argument that “bad candidates” were the political party's issue as he argued that “candidate quality is actually not the most important thing.”

“Access to channels of communication” is a critical path to victory — and in that, Fox News did its part, Carlson claimed.

“You can say whatever you want, but if no one hears you, you’re not really speaking,” the host said. “And that’s the case for Republicans. So often, as of tonight, Republicans can communicate their message unencumbered on a single cable television channel and a handful of relatively low-trafficked websites. That’s it.”

He went on to blame the media for the political party's election results. “The rest of the American media amounts to a gigantic filter designed to distort what Republicans are saying,” Carlson said. “It’s a campaign apparatus and only the Democrats have it.”

READ MORE: Tucker Carlson’s ‘baseless conspiracy theory’ about the Jan. 6 rioters has been forcefully debunked

Watch the video below or at this link.

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mma 11 22

Fox News star Tucker Carlson used Wednesday night’s broadcast to demand accountability over the GOP’s lackluster showing in the midterm elections.

“Republicans swore they were going to sweep a red tsunami. That's what they told us and we, to be honest, cautiously believed them, but they did not sweep, not even close to sweeping,” he complained. “The people whose job it was to win but did not win should go do something else now. We're speaking specifically of the Republican leadership of the House and the Senate and of the RNC.”

The problem with Carlson’s analysis is that Carlson, himself, is an influential GOP leader who bears responsibility for the party’s failings. He remains a key adviser to former President Donald Trump. He endorsed Republican candidates in the midterms and helped them win the party’s nomination. He suggested the midterms communications strategy that the GOP ultimately adopted. He can get top Republicans on the phone with ease and the party’s political operatives fear the prospect of him attacking their clients. By his own account, he and his colleagues provided a platform during the elections where “Republicans can communicate their message unencumbered.” Tonight, he will give the keynote address at an event for a faction that constitutes the majority of House Republicans.

He is the party establishment.

Carlson’s outsized influence in the GOP is a problem for the party. Any TV political talking head is likely to be out-of-touch with the concerns of the median American voter. But even by that standard, Carlson is a weirdo.

The Fox host is a millionaire raised by a former ambassador and an heiress who does TV commentary for a living because billionaires like his takes. He is a blood-and-soil nationalist who rejects America’s credal inheritance of liberty, equality, and democracy. He is steeped in white nationalist conspiracy theories about global elites importing brown foreigners to replace “legacy Americans” and is deeply invested in the success of foreign authoritarians.

Carlson spends a lot of time on his show talking about children’s genitals; blames wokeness for everything from the U.S. retreat from Afghanistan to the green and brown M&Ms becoming insufficiently “sexy”; and capes for both the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the violent QAnon conspiracy theory movement.

Most Americans aren’t like this! There are clearly people who are interested in this sort of commentary – Carlson’s show averaged nearly 3.3 million viewers in October, making it the second-highest-rated cable news program. But audience tallies that are extremely impressive for cable news ultimately represent a drop in the bucket for the American electorate.

It is dangerous for a major party to move closer to Tucker Carlson’s views. But those views are also likely to alienate normal American voters and make it more difficult for that party to win elections.

The types of candidates who Carlson likes and tries to elect mimic his bizarre fixations and blindspots. They describe their political opponents as “childless cat ladies,” pay consultant fees to a virulent antisemite and hang out with a “prophet,” run ads featuring themselves “smashing television sets playing newscasts with a sledgehammer,” and distribute lawn signs promising not to “ask your pronouns in the U.S. Senate.”

This behavior may be attractive to Carlson, and to a Republican base that has been trained to want candidates who act like a Fox host. But it seems likely to turn off people who don’t spend their free time immersed in the right-wing media fever swamps, and makes those candidates a harder sell with voters. They can still triumph when the electorate is favorable enough, or if their opponent is weak enough – but it makes the party’s fight more difficult.

And while Carlson may be Fox’s oddest duck, he isn’t the only one in the pond. The network’s roster is stocked with commentators who have an outsized influence on Republican politics and use their platforms to engage in bizarre conspiracy theories about murder victims and raped 10-year-old abortion patients, pick fights with NBA stars and high school students, and rant about everything from lifesaving vaccines to children’s schoolbooks.

The GOP has a Fox News problem. The network’s propaganda megaphone is a valuable asset that strengthens the party’s ability to quickly generate a unified message in response to any news event, and keeps its base from straying out of the right-wing information bubble. But the network’s employees are toxic extremists who are deeply out of touch with the concerns of average Americans, so are the candidates it directly or indirectly supports, and in a close election, that matters.

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mma 11 22

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): So, what they're really arguing is in the wake of this attack -- which is awful against someone who did not deserve it, and we want to be clear about that -- Paul Pelosi really is a nice guy. Hard to believe, but he is. But in the wake of that, they're telling you unfortunately you can no longer have free speech. No you can't.

They're telling you this is an example of stochastic terrorism, which is a completely meaningless phrase that emerged like a virus out of the university to infect our public discourse, or more precisely, to suppress our public discourse. 

...

Okay. What is hate speech by the way?All of a sudden, everyone in the media has, sort of without explaining why, agreed that there's this thing called hate speech that's real, and probably actionable. They can find a billion dollars judgment against you if you commit hate speech.[ref to jones?]  But just to remind everyone watching, there's no such thing as hate speech. Hate speech is speech people hate, usually the people in power. The truth is, all speech, except speech that encourages people to eminent illegal action, like, "Go shoot that guy." Short of that, there's no hate speech. All of it's allowed under the United States Constitution, which is our final hope. [that guy shd be shot, and some brave partiot shd do it is fine?]

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all the phobes?

an 10 22

In most of the U.S. Senate races that reporters are paying close attention to, the two main contenders are a Democrat and a Republican: Democrat John Fetterman versus Republican Mehmet Oz in Pennsylvania, Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock versus Republican Herschel Walker in Georgia, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan versus Republican “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance in Ohio. But a major exception is the U.S. Senate race in deep red Utah, where incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s main competitor isn’t a Democrat, but a Never Trump conservative and former Republican who is running as an independent: Evan McMullin.

The Bulwark’s William Saletan, himself a Never Trumper, examines this race in a think piece published on October 28. As Saletan sees it, the antics of MAGA Republicans in this race and others underscore the “moral emptiness” that the Trumpified GOP is bringing to the 2022 midterms.

While Lee is very much a Trump loyalist and supported the former president’s coup attempt in late 2020, McMullin has no use for Trump and hasn’t been shy about slamming the Big Lie as a fabrication. McMullin can be quite critical of President Joe Biden from a policy standpoint, but like Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, McMullin has made it abundantly clear that he views Biden as the loyal opposition and the legitimately elected president of the United States — not someone who stole an election via widespread voter fraud.

READ MORE: 'We trusted you': Evan McMullin collars GOP Senator Mike Lee over his role in Donald Trump's failed coup

“The most interesting political race of 2022 isn’t between a Democrat and a Republican,” Saletan writes. “It’s in Utah, where incumbent Republican Sen. Mike Lee faces independent challenger Evan McMullin. McMullin, a nearly lifelong Republican, is conservative on most issues, so Lee can’t beat him with the usual playbook: calling him woke or a tax-and-spender or a socialist. By neutralizing the GOP’s favorite lines of attack, McMullin has reduced the race to one crucial difference between the candidates: Lee’s complicity in Donald Trump’s schemes to undo the 2020 election.”

Saletan continues, “The Lee-McMullin race poses a difficult question: What exactly does the GOP stand for? Why should voters support a Republican senator against an opponent who agrees with him on policy but not on subverting democracy? If economic, moral, and foreign-policy conservatism no longer define the party, what does? What does it mean to be a Republican in 2022, beyond conspiring — or defending others who have conspired — to overturn elections when your party doesn’t win? McMullin is discovering that there are answers to that question, and they’re ugly.”

Utah’s Senate race has become a battle between a right-wing MAGA Republican and a right-wing non-MAGA ex-Republican. Saletan notes that because McMullin has promised not to caucus with either Republicans or Democrats if he wins, the Utah Democratic Party endorsed him — and Lee has responded by claiming that McMullin is “a Democrat running in disguise.”

Saletan slams Lee’s anti-McMullin attacks as “pure partisanship,” adding, “They’re about McMullin’s associations, not about issues. Lee talks about the Democratic Party the way red-baiters used to talk about the Communist Party: Any association with it is suspect. It’s true that McMullin courts Democratic voters and donors, along with independent and Republican voters and donors. That’s the whole point: McMullin is campaigning on unity. But to Lee, the Republican voters and donors are irrelevant. Consorting with Democrats, per se, is forbidden.”

READ MORE: 'Please get on board': Mike Lee goes on Fox News to beg Mitt Romney for help against 'fierce' Senate challenger

One of Lee’s cheerleaders has been Fox New’ Tucker Carlson, who, Saletan notes, likened McMullin to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (who is openly gay) in order to “insinuate that McMullin was gay.” McMullin is now married to a woman, but Carlson commented that in 2016, McMullin “was 40 years old, never married, and very obviously odd. Very odd.”

The “ugly” MAGA “smears” against McMullin, Saletan writes, demonstrate “the moral emptiness of today’s GOP.”

“A candidate who’s conservative on spending, values, and national security is under attack for courting Democrats, having been being unmarried in his thirties, refusing to vilify Dr. Fauci, affirming that black lives matter, and acknowledging that House Republicans tried to overturn the last election. In 2022, these are the taboos that define the Republican Party. Win or lose, McMullin has exposed them.”

READ MORE: How Fox News is giving Mike Lee an unfair advantage over challenger Evan McMullin: attorney

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/seditious-conspiracy-trial-tucker-carlsons-favorite-january-6-insurrectionist-thomas

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mma 10 22

Fox News host Tucker Carlson clearly hoped to use his interview with Kanye West (now known as Ye) to advance his own political agenda by highlighting the rapper’s “White Lives Matter” commentary and support for former President Donald Trump. But at the conclusion of their sit-down, Carlson had a problem: West peppered the interview with toxic antisemitic comments, as well as conspiracy-minded rants which suggested that he was in the throes of one of his well-documented manic phases.

Carlson responded to this conundrum by simply cutting the worst of West’s bigotry and paranoia from the version of the interview he aired last week,Vice’s Motherboard revealed on Tuesday, after obtaining original footage from the interview. The deceptive editing points to how much leeway the Fox host thinks he has from the network brass, as well as the deceitful way he handles his show.

Carlson knows where the line is for antisemitism on his show

Tucker Carlson Tonight revolves around an antisemitic conspiracy theory. The host posits that a cabal of global elites controls the heights of U.S. politics, media, culture, and business, and is using its power to corrupt American children, destroy western civilization, and replace its population with immigrants.

Carlson’s innovation is that he generally deracinates these familiar antisemitic tropes. While open white supremacists might argue, for example, that Jews are using immigration to replace the white population with a black and brown one, Carlson tells his viewers that elites like the financier George Soros (who is Jewish) are replacing “legacy Americans” with people from “far-away countries” in the “third world.”

Carlson’s stated worldview is close enough that neo-Nazis regularly praise his show for mainstreaming their blood-soaked positions. But Carlson’s careful use of language, and his furious denials that he is a racist, give the Fox brass just enough plausible deniability that they can continue to defend and support his program.

You can see this balance play out in what Carlson included from his interview with West and the clips Motherboard published that were left on the cutting room floor.

In: West’s suggestion that Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House aide, worked on Middle East peace to “make money” and his comment about Jared and his brother Josh, “What they’re about is making money.” That language aligns with the antisemitic trope of the money-hungry Jew, but it’s apparently palatable to Fox because West did not specifically mention that the Kushners are Jewish (West even asked Carlson whether those comments had been “too heavy handed,” to which Carlson replied, “We're not in the censorship business”).

Out:Nakedly antisemitic comments in which West more explicitly mentioned Jews, including his statement, “Think about us judging each other on how white we could talk would be like, you know, a Jewish person judging another Jewish person on how good they danced or something” (which West himself told Carlson went too far and asked to have edited out) and his remark, “I prefer my kids knew Hanukkah than Kwanzaa. At least it will come with some financial engineering.” Those comments are so obviously bigoted that they apparently could not be aired on Fox in an interview meant to promote its subject.

Carlson could have responded to those comments by changing the way he intended to frame the interview; instead, he cut out the comments to preserve his narrative.

Carlson’s edits left his colleagues in an uncomfortable position, as they were apparently unaware that West’s interview had featured naked antisemitism. Many of them responded to the interview as it aired by praising West’s wisdom and authenticity, and promoting his support for right-wing ideas as a boon to their movement. They were then forced to make an abrupt about-face after West spent the weekend on a social media tirade against “JEWISH PEOPLE” he claimed had “tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

For his part, Carlson simply pretended that antisemitic outburst had not happened when he ran another segment praising West on his Monday broadcast. He hid the antisemitic comments West made on social media from his viewers, just as he had hidden the antisemitic comments West made to his face.

twt]

carlson knowingly lies to his audience about West’s mental state

Carlson stressed to his viewers as he promoted his interview with West that the rapper’s well-documented mental health issues are a fabrication of journalists who want to shut him up — and he presented his sit-down as an antidote that would allow his audience to come to their own conclusions.

“The enemies of his ideas dismissed West as they have for years -- as mentally ill, too crazy to take seriously,” he alleged at the top of Thursday’s show. “But is West crazy? You can judge for yourself as you watch what we're about to show you.”

Carlson added that he did not find West to be “crazy,” adding, “In fact, we've rarely heard a man speak so honestly and so movingly about what he believes, but again, you can judge for yourself.”

Carlson returned to that theme later in the program.

“We told you at the top, you'd be able to assess for yourself whether West is crazy, as virtually every single media outlet on planet Earth claims every day, all year long,” he said. “Is he crazy. As you try to assess that, ask is what you just heard over the past 40 minutes any crazier than what you see on television every day? The lies, the lunacy presented to you with a straight face as reality?”

“No, he is not,” Carlson concluded. “He is not crazy at all. He is a big thinker, though."

vid

it’s easy to see why Carlson is so defensive about West’s mental state. If West is “crazy,” in Carlson’s words, then the Fox host is a despicable hack taking advantage of a vulnerable person’s “lunacy” for ratings and political advantage.

But Carlson is being deceptive in two ways.

One is that West’s struggles with bipolar disorder are not a media creation, but something that he has publicly discussed in detail for years.

“When you’re in this state, you’re hyper-paranoid about everything, everyone,” West told David Letterman in a 2019 interview. “This is my experience, other people have different experiences. Everyone now is an actor. Everything’s a conspiracy. You feel the government is putting chips in your head. You feel you’re being recorded. You feel all these things.”

The second is that West reeled off several conspiracy theories during his interview with Carlson, as the Motherboard videos show. He suggested, for example, that “fake children” had been “placed into my house to sexualize my kids,” and that the fashion house Louis Vuitton had “killed” the designer Virgil Abloh, who died of cancer in 2021.

Those diatribes cut against Carlson’s argument that West is lucid, and thus an appropriate interview subject whose political views should be taken seriously. So Carlson edited them out of what he showed his viewers, even as he told them that they could make their own determination about West’s mental state from what aired.

That’s pretty typical — Carlson is a deeply dishonest person who has contempt for an audience he constantly cons. The Motherboard videos are just a new and compelling example demonstrating his duplicity.

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an 10 22 no lnxArmy general investigated for defending female soldiers against Tucker Carlson’s insults

Daniel Villarreal and The New Civil Rights Movement October 10, 2022

An Army investigation criticized the Army’s top enlisted leader for using Twitter to defend female soldiers after Fox News host Tucker Carlson said they were weakening the military.

The investigation’s outcome has at least one Army general worried that “The Army has gone full MAGA,” a reference to former President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.

In March 2021, Maj. Gen. Patrick Donahoe defended female soldiers after Carlson criticized new military policies providing maternity uniforms, “making it easier for women to pump breast milk on duty, and relaxing grooming standards to allow them to have ponytails and braids,” Insider reported.

In a segment that month, Carlson said, “While China’s military becomes more masculine as it assembles the world’s largest Navy, our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine — whatever feminine means anymore, since men and women no longer exist.”

The statement likely referred to comments that President Joe Biden said referencing women in key military positions. Biden never said the military need to become “more feminine.”

In response to Carlson’s comment, Donahoe published a video on Twitter of him honoring a female officer. Donahoe wrote, “just as a reminder that Tucker Carlson couldn’t be more wrong.”

Donahoe’s response received “national media coverage” from Fox News personalities like Carlson and Laura Ingraham, as well as RepublicWorld.com and OpIndia.com, two right-wing Indian news outlets, Task and Purpose reported.

“While potentially admirable,” the Inspector General report said of Donahoe’s response to Carlson, “his post brought a measurable amount of negative publicity to the Army, enough that [the Office of the Chief of Public Affairs] warned [the Secretary of the Army] of the fallout…. [His tweets] exhibited poor judgment… [and the] subsequent media coverage drew national attention … and it cast the Army in a negative light.”

An Army general who anonymously spoke to Military.com to avoid retaliation said, “Why would any women want to serve now? The Army gave a hunting permit to radical partisans. … The Army has gone full MAGA.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/10/urologist-pushes-back-against-tucker-carlsons-testicle-tanning-push-to-salvage-american-manhood/

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mma 10 22

KATIE PHANG (HOST): What do you say to people like Tucker Carlson who not only have the facts wrong, but use their huge platforms to spread disinformation about climate change?

BILL NYE (GUEST): It's deeply concerning and so the challenge -- the science is settled. The challenge there with conservative media is what -- how do we reach people who might be watching it? Now, the people who already made up their minds, accept everything their conservative talk show hosts tell them, they're probably not reachable right away. But, there's got to be people who watch it with skepticism, who watch it with stroking their chins and those are the people I very much want to influence, want the scientists of the world to influence before the upcoming elections, because if you want to do something about climate change, everybody, it's voting. And we are in a situation where we have lawmakers who are in denial about the science of climate change and it's very concerning.

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mma 9 22 https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/**carlson-kremlin-feedback-loop

Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s dubious allegation that the United States sabotaged a natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany as part of a sinister “escalation” of Russia’s war with Ukraine echoed the Kremlin’s own propagandists. Carlson’s report is now getting substantial attention from Russian state TV, which is promoting his theory — and his suggestion for how Russia could strike back at U.S. interests in light of the supposed attack.

On Monday, “two powerful underwater explosions” damaged the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines. While the former had been shut down by Russia in August and the latter never became operational, both contained pressurized gas which is now leaking into the Baltic Sea. The international consensus is that the pipelines were sabotaged, with U.S. and European Union officials suggesting Russia is behind the explosions.

But the Kremlin, in turn, is suggesting that the U.S. sabotaged the pipelines, latching on to a since-deleted Tuesday tweet from Radek Sikorski, a Polish E.U. parliamentarian, which stated, “Thank you, USA,” alongside a photo of the leak. On social media, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson immediately questioned whether Sikorski’s tweet was an “official statement that this was a terrorist attack,” while another Russian official likewise thanked Sikorski for “making it crystal clear who stands behind this terrorist-style targeting of civilian infrastructure!” Russian state media outlet RT quickly amplified their theorizing under the headline “U.S. praised for Nord Stream explosion.”

[twt]

carlson’s coverage of the crisis created by Russia’s February invasion of Ukraine generally aligns with the Kremlin’s preferred narratives, to the point where Russian state media outlets, following their government’s explicit instructions, regularly air clips from his program.

That is what happened following the apparent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Just hours after Russian officials floated the narrative that the U.S. was responsible for damaging the pipelines, Carlson adopted it as his own.

Describing the ruptures as an “act of industrial terrorism,” Carlson quickly dispatched with the notion that Russia or its dictator, Vladimir Putin, might be involved. According to Carlson, Putin “would not do that” and would have to be “a suicidal moron to blow up your own energy pipeline.”

Instead, Carlson strongly suggested that the U.S. had sabotaged the pipelines. “If they did this, this will be one of the craziest, most destructive things any American administration has ever done,” he said. “But it would also be totally consistent with what they do. What do they do? They destroy.”

Carlson’s comically weak case revolved around two main pieces of evidence – Sikorski’s tweet, and a February statement from President Joe Biden that if Russia were to invade Ukraine, “there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.” That seems to very obviously reference what happened after Russia invaded – Germany froze the pipeline project, which has yet to become operational. But in Carlson’s typically dishonest translation, Biden “said ‘there won't be a Nord Stream 2. We'll put an end to it. Will take it out. Will blow it up.’”

On that scanty evidence, Carlson suggested that the U.S. had blown up an ally’s energy infrastructure. While on-screen text stated “Today’s escalation will have huge consequences,” Carlson asserted that “we've entered a new phase, one in which the United States is directly at war with the largest nuclear power in the world.” He added: “If we actually blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, why wouldn't Russia sever undersea internet cables? What would happen if they did that?" [vid]

it was inevitable that Carlson’s theory would spread through the right-wing media, given his influential role in that ecosystem. But it isn’t just the likes of Charlie Kirk rushing to follow him in blaming America.

Carlson’s monologue “entered heavy rotation” on Russian state TV, as The Washington Post’s Philip Bump noted on Thursday. Bump highlighted 12 different times that Russia’s Channel One, Russia1, and Russia24 networks had aired clips of Carlson highlighting his theory.

Julia Davis, a Russian media monitor and Daily Beast columnist, compiled and translated some of the segments. She noted that the Russian commentators seemed particularly interested in Carlson’s suggestion for how their state might retaliate for the supposed U.S. attack.[twt nice pix of puny panel and big tucker]

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mma 9 22 no vid macho

Fox News star Tucker Carlson eulogized Ralph “Sonny” Barger over the weekend, effusively praising the founder of the vigilante Hells Angels just one month after telling Republicans to run on crime policies. Barger spent around 13 years in prison following convictions for assault with a deadly weapon and kidnapping, among other charges.

Carlson celebrated Barger in his remarks, presenting him as the type of person Carlson aspires to be. “Stand tall, stay loyal, remain free, and always value honor,” Carlson said in a clip shared to Twitter by right-wing conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec. Quoting Barger’s supposed philosophy, Carlson remarked, “If there is a phrase that sums up more perfectly what I want to be, what I aspire to be, and the kind of man I respect, I can’t think of a phrase.”[poso twt]

the Department of Justice considers the Hells Angels to be linked to organized criminal activities, including cross-border drug smuggling, as well as “assault, extortion, [and] homicide.”

Barger himself had a long history of criminal charges and convictions stemming from drug distribution and violence. In 1988, he and another member “were convicted of conspiracy to transport and receive explosives in interstate commerce with intent to kill and damage buildings” belonging to a rival motorcycle club, The Associated Press reported at the time. He was charged in 2002 with aggravated assault after allegedly breaking his wife’s ribs and lacerating her spleen, according to Tom Barker, a professor and expert on outlaw motorcycle gangs.

Carlson’s kind words for Barger come just weeks after he hyped a supposed increase in crime nationwide and instructed Republicans to campaign on it.“If every Republican office-seeker, every Republican candidate in the United States focused on law and order and equality under the law, there would be a red wave” in the November midterms, Carlson said in his August 19 monologue. The next day, Carlson stated that “suddenly, there is a huge amount of stealing in the United States. It’s everywhere.” He offered no evidence for his claim.

vid] carlson’s simultaneous endorsement of Barger and the Hells Angels on the one hand, and propagandizing about a supposed crime wave on the other, is obviously superficially hypocritical. But beneath the hypocrisy lies a consistent political ideology. For reactionaries like Carlson, criminal activity isn’t — and can’t be — an objective, neutrally applied description of behavior.

The classical music composer Frank Wilhoit offered a pithy summary of conservatism that aptly resolves Carlson’s seemingly contradictory positions. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect,” Wilhoit wrote in 2018.

For Carlson, shoplifting is a crime, but conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and engaging in an attempted fascist insurrection isn’t.In his analysis, whether someone counts as a criminal is a post hoc determination based on the identity of the person in question. Poor people, Black people, and immigrants can all be criminals, whereas conservatives who rioted on January 6 are being persecuted by a tyrannical government for their political beliefs.

For all of his supposed outlaw status, Barger had an alternately antagonistic and cooperative relationship with law enforcement, which typifies the symbiotic relationship between vigilante gangs and cops throughout the 20th century in the United States.In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Barger regularly served as an informant to Oakland police, offering tips about weapons caches in exchange for leniency for arrested Angels, according to testimony Sgt. Ted Hilliard offered at the time.

“Mr. Barger would load them in the back of my car—automatic rifles and dynamite, for example,” Hilliard said, according to The New York Times. The Oakland police preferred to work with the Angels and “let the Angels operate,” as Rolling Stone reported at the time, rather than risk the weapons falling into the hands of leftist groups like the Weathermen or the Black Panthers.

That’s the history that Carlson was embracing at Barger’s service. While the hypocrisy on the surface is glaring, the underlying belief structure is entirely coherent. The law is a tool to punish out-groups that have been criminalized, while vigilante gangs that reinforce the dominant social order — whether Hells Angels or the Oathkeepers — must be celebrated and defended.

“I’m honored to be here,” Carlson concluded his weekend remarks. “Thank you for having me.” The applause from the assembled Hells Angels made clear that the admiration was mutual.

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accuse US

https://www.alternet.org/2022/09/tucker-carlson-nord-stream-pipelines/

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9/13/22 big territory gains

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see // they are coming for you mma

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/coup-shaped-hole-tucker-carlsons-new-film-about-brazil

Carlson’s new “documentary” style film about Brazil focuses on what he presents as China’s malignant influence and purported control over the country. Totally absent from the short movie, however, is the fact that Brazil’s crypto-Fascist President JairBolsonaro has said that if he loses in the next election next month, he might not accept the results. This omission tracks with Carlson’s history of embracing Bolsonaro’s illiberal policies, along with those of other authoritarian leaders around the world.

This looming, potential coup has alarmed many in the United States, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Tim Kaine (D-VA). Sanders has spent weeks trying to whip support for a Senate resolution that would make clear that the United States would recognize the outcome of Brazil’s election, scheduled for October 2, as long as it was deemed legitimate by international outside observers. The resolution would also make it clear that the U.S. would not recognize any government that came to power through force or other irregular means. As of publication, no Republicans have signed on.

There are glaringly obvious parallels between Bolsonaro’s position and that of former U.S. President Donald Trump, who spearheaded a multipronged effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Republican opposition to the Sanders resolution is likely at least partly tied to Trump’s control of the GOP, and the risk of angering Trump by breaking with Bolsonaro.

Another possible explanation, which is not mutually exclusive from the first, is conservatives’ obsession with the so-called rise of China. It may very well be that Republican senators would happily support Bolsonaro’s illegal seizure of power if it meant opportunities for U.S. capital investment in the country and a strongman they could pit against China.

Carlson’s team traveled to Brazil in June to film in the country and has had ample time since then to include context about Bolsonaro’s threats to remain in power.

Just weeks before Carlson’s crew arrived, Bolsonarotold supporters that he’s prepared to “go to war” to stay in office.

In July, Bolsonaro hosted foreign leaders to manufacture and legitimize unfounded voter fraud conspiracy theories, clearly laying the foundation for a potential extra-legal challenge to the election if he loses.

In August, Bolsonaro said there were only three available outcomes for him. “I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he told a meeting of evangelical leaders, according to The Guardian.

That same month, The New York Times ran a massive story under the headline: “The Question Menacing Brazil’s Elections: Coup or No Coup?”

In short, the question of whether Bolsonaro will accept an electoral loss is not an ancillary question in next month’s contest, either in Brazilian or U.S. media and political circles.

Nonetheless, all of this information is absent from Carlson’s film, which instead portrays Bolsonaro as a bulwark against Chinese authoritarianism and imperialism.

“If Bolsonaro loses that election, China will certainly dominate Brazil,” Carlson narrates.

Carlson has a well-known admiration for foreign authoritarian leaders, including Bolsonaro. The feeling between the two of them is mutual. In June, Carlson aired an interview with Bolsonaro in which the leader heaped praise on the cable star.

“I can only say that you will be the most welcome in Brazil,” Bolsonaro gushed. “You would be an excellent counterpart to the other vehicles or outlets." [vid]

VideoCitationFrom the June 30, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

that admiration is foregrounded in the new film. “In the past year, traditionally conservative governments like those in Chile and Colombia have been replaced by far-left leaders sympathetic to China,” Carlson says. “Bolsonaro is the only remaining pro-American head of state in all of South America.”

The clear takeaway for Carlson’s viewers is that Bolsonaro is a force for self-determination in the face of Chinese expansionism. The actual story is that Carlson and the conservative movement writ large are happy to export Trump-style election denialism if it will help them achieve their reactionary goals.

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omg rhet

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-laying-groundwork-next-insurrection-or-worse-telling-its-viewers-biden-waging-war

9/13

mma

On Monday evening, Fox News stars Tucker Carlson and Jesse Watters each used the 21st anniversary of 9/11 to tell their millions of viewers that the Biden administration has declared war on conservatives for their political beliefs.

Carlson and Watters argued, as the network has for months, that President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is a tyrannical force bent on persecuting Fox News viewers, and that it’s only a matter of time before Democrats criminalize all political dissent.

Both defended the election denialism that has become core to the Republican Party after Trump’s loss in 2020, reinforcing the idea not only that the election was stolen, but also that those who say the election wasn’t rigged are jackbooted authoritarians.

Carlson approached the topic by playing a clip of Chuck Todd’s interview of Vice President Kamala Harris, in which she described how dangerous it is to have at least 11 election deniers running for secretary of state positions throughout the country. Typically the top statewide election official, the office is incredibly powerful, and those races have been flooded with cash as Republicans seek to install denialists to oversee upcoming elections.

Todd framed the interview, which was pegged to the anniversary of 9/11, as a discussion of how national security issues had evolved from external dangers to “the threat within.”

“Who is this threat?” Carlson responded. “Well, of course, it's you and anyone else in the way of the Biden administration.”

“And especially, as the vice president just said, and you saw it, anyone who questions the legitimacy of the last election,” he continued.

Carlson then added his own election conspiracism, arguing without evidence that “there are reasons not to believe” the final vote count, and that if a conservative voices that belief, under Biden, “you need to be pursued by law enforcement."  [vid]

minutes later, Carlson brought up the Department of Justice issuance of roughly 40 subpoenas to top aides to former President Donald Trump, including white nationalist Stephen Miller.

Carlson argued that the Biden Department of Justice was trying to “suppress political dissent, to hobble an entire political party and to keep these people from ever participating in American politics again.”

One hour earlier, Watters had made a similar point. “This war on Republicans -- it's a war of choice,” he said. “It's a preemptive war so the Republican Party never wins another election. And that is the real threat to democracy." [vid]

fox News’ business model relies on stoking its viewers’ fears, and Monday’s segments come on the heels of months of similar coverage.

In late June, Carlson devoted an entire opening monologue to a lengthy mischaracterization of the legal cases of 14 conservatives, nearly all of whom were involved in some effort to overturn the 2020 election. “The signature tactic of the Biden administration … has been the criminalizing of American politics,” Carlson said at the time.

Carlson and others at Fox also spent part of the summer pushing a preposterous theory that Biden was hiring 87,000 new IRS agents to act as a paramilitary force against conservatives. A Media Matters study found that the network had pushed the bogus theory more than 200 times by the end of August.

Following the search of Trump’s residence and golf resort at Mar-a-Lago, Fox and other right-wing outlets and pundits characterized the DOJ’s actions as additional evidence that Biden was persecuting regular conservatives. “But the real target of this investigation isn't Trump,” Laura Ingraham said. “The real target of this investigation is you or anyone who dares to call out and take on the rank corruption of the D.C. establishment.”

Watters responded to the search by arguing that any attempt to hold Trump accountable wasin reality an attack on Fox viewers. “These are bloodthirsty savages who want to see you humiliatedand violated,”he said. “This is athreat to anybody who opposes them. Look what we can do to you. We can even storm into your president's home and take whatever we want.”

“They don’t need evidence,” Watters said in July, speaking broadly about various DOJ investigations into Trump. “Their goal is to scare you into submission.”

The overall implication of these arguments — that conservatives are being persecuted, and that the January 6 insurrection was really just about asking questions about vote totals — is not hard to understand. Fox News is laying the groundwork for future fascist violence, including but not limited to violence in response to elections won by Democrats.

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an 922

The invasion of Ukraine has not gone as planned for the Russian government. When Russian forces invaded Ukraine on February 24, President Vladimir Putin and his Kremlin allies were obviously hoping to take over the country in a hurry; instead, the Ukrainian military have fought back much more aggressively than Putin anticipated — and done so with the support of the Biden Administration and the United States’ European allies in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). September has found Russian forces suffering some major humiliations at the hands of the Ukrainian military.

Liberal economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman examines the state of the conflict in a September 12 column, drawing a parallel between Putin and his allies in Russia and MAGA Republicans in the United States. Both of them, Krugman argues, underscore the fact that “tough-guy swagger” doesn’t automatically translate to military victories.

Krugman opens his column by noting that on August 29, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson — who Krugman slams as a “Putin cheerleader” — happily told viewers that Putin was “winning the war in Ukraine.”

READ MORE: Russia pursues North Korean arms deal as fighting around Ukrainian nuclear power plant risks disaster

“Carlson’s timing was impeccable,” Krugman writes. “Just a few days later, a large section of the Russian front near Kharkiv was overrun by a Ukrainian attack. It’s important to note that Putin’s forces weren’t just pushed back; they appear to have been routed. As the independent Institute for the Study of War reported, the Russians were driven into a ‘panicked and disorderly retreat,’ leaving behind ‘large amounts of equipment and supplies that Ukrainian forces can use’…. The Russian collapse seemed to validate analyses by defense experts who have been saying for months that western weapons have been shifting the military balance in Ukraine’s favor, that Putin’s army is desperately short on quality manpower and that it has been degraded by attrition and missile attacks on its rear areas.”

Krugman goes on to explain why “Putin cheerleaders” like Carlson are so flawed in their thinking.

“There’s something special about the MAGA embrace of the mystique of Russian might: a worldview that equates tough-guy swagger with effectiveness,” Krugman writes. “This worldview has warped the right’s perception not just of the Russian Army, but also, of how to deal with many other issues. And it’s worth asking where it comes from. Many Republicans have admired Putin for a long time — even before Donald Trump took over the GOP. Back in 2014, for example, Rudy Giuliani said of Putin, ‘That’s what you call a leader.’ And Trump continued to praise Putin even after he invaded Ukraine.”

Krugman continues, “So, it’s not hard to see where the MAGA right’s admiration for Putinism comes from. After all, Putin’s Russia is autocratic, brutal and homophobic, with a personality cult built around its ruler. What’s not to like?.... On the right…. approval of authoritarian regimes is all bound up with assertions about their military prowess…. The MAGA ethos is all bound up with exaltation of tough talk and denigration of expertise.”

READ MORE:How Vladimir Putin's spies in Ukraine blew it for him in Ukraine: report

MAGA Republicans, according to Krugman, “needed to see Putin as a leader made powerful by his rejection of liberal values.”

“There’s growing speculation about what will happen inside Russia if the invasion of Ukraine ends in outright defeat,” Krugman observes. “But you also have to wonder how the U.S. right will handle the revelation that sometimes, tough guys finish last.”

READ MORE:'Cancelling' Russia: Robert Reich explains why Putin, Trump and Tucker Carlson parrot the same 'culture war' rhetoric

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an 922

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has a new description for the Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol. According to HuffPost, Carlson believes the insurrection was more of an “election injustice protest.”

On Monday, September 12, the primetime conservative host made his remarks during the recent segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged hundreds of individuals for their involvement in the plot to overturn the presidential election and halt the confirmation of the Electoral College vote.

READ MORE: Ex-Fox News political editor breaks down the 'red mirage' — and explains how Trump tried 'to exploit this anomaly'

At one point during the segment, Carlson spoke about Vice President Kamala Harris' recent interview on the anniversary of 9/11 where she also addressed the rising threat of domestic terrorism in the United States.

During the interview, NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Harris how domestic terrorism compares to foreign threats. The vice president, according to Politico, said, “Each are dangerous and extremely harmful, but they’re different."

According to Carlson, Harris compared the insurrectionists to 9/11 plane hijackers. "The threat within? What does that mean? What the hell are you talking aboutyou freaking lunatic?There's no group of Americans anywhere in the United States half as dangerous as the 9/11 hijackers," Carlson ranted. "To suggest otherwise is literally insane. Drawing a parallel between the election injustice protests of January 6th and the fall of the Twin Towers? True lunacy."

He later said, "But Kamala Harris didn't even pause, almost likethe whole question was a set up. She just nodded. This unspecified internal threat, she confirmed, is in fact just like Al-Qaeda -- 'very dangerous and very harmful.' You may be wondering at this point, 'What is this threat?' Since we've just declared a new war on terror, but against whom? Who is this threat? Well, of course, it's you and anyone else in the way of the Biden administration."

READ MORE: 'Highly embarrassing': Tucker Carlson is worried about his texts with Alex Jones leaking due to Jan. 6 probe

“So again, that’s the sitting vice president who they tell us over and over, and you just heard her say it, received more votes than any vice president in history," Carlson said, adding, "And if you don’t believe that ― and there are reasons not to believe that ― if you don’t believe that, you’re like [Sept. 11 hijacker] Mohamed Atta. Your beliefs are acts of terror, you’re comparable to a mass murderer and you need to be pursued by law enforcement.”

Watch the video below or click here.

---

omfg

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-accuses-childrens-national-hospital-castrating-young-people-minors-no

no lnx

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): We brought you this saga of Libs of TikTok -- one of the most informative accounts on Twitter. And because it is so informative, it keeps getting banned. Libs of TikTok just proved that physicians are, in fact, castrating young people, minors for no legitimate purpose whatsoever. Libs of TikTok reported -- recorded this call with Children's National Hospital, for example, in Washington, D.C.

[...]

Yeah, castrating kids. They admitted it, flat out. Now Children's Hospital is denying it, pretending it's not true.

Today, Vice.com, which rides to the rescue of anyone in power who's been embarrassed -- whether it's the CIA or the State Department or the Biden administration or Google or in this case, the medical establishment -- went after Libs of TikTok, one person. Vice, like a billion dollars in venture funding, they're claiming that Libs of TikTok is, quote, "helping the Kremlin" -- Kremlin -- "boost anti-LGBT disinformation." And then the Washington Post, owned by the richest man in the world, accused Libs of TikTok of lying. And then NPR, which is funded by your tax dollars and spends all of its time attacking you and your family for whom they have pure contempt, is pushing to ban Libs of TikTok. And then shortly after that, not surprisingly, Twitter obeyed and suspended Libs of TikTok, alleging hateful conduct.

THE LATEST

Fox’s Jeanine Pirro warns of violent “retaliation” from Republicans in reaction to Joe Biden’s speech

09/01/22 5:42 PM EDT

Donald Trump may have confessed to a crime on Truth Social. Legal experts are discussing the ramifications of his self-incriminating post.

09/01/22 4:36 PM EDT

Apple should follow Google’s lead and refuse to carry the Truth Social app on its store

09/01/22 3:29 PM EDT

The right will accuse DOJ of partisanship whether or not it indicts Trump

09/01/22 1:03 PM EDT

Tucker Carlson accuses Children's National Hospital of “castrating young people, minors for no legitimate purpose whatsoever”

Related

Tucker Carlson says children’s hospitals all over the country “are performing horrifying experiments on children”

08/31/22 9:29 PM EDT

Tucker Carlson suggests Mississippi water crisis was intentionally caused by the mayor of Jackson as part of a plot to radicalize the city

08/31/22 9:00 PM EDT

Jeanine Pirro says the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago was “a blatantly political move” meant to influence the midterm election

08/31/22 7:59 PM EDT

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mma 8 22

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): The Europeans have discovered that the real threat to human civilization is not global warming, it never was global warming. The real threat to people is global cooling, otherwise known as winter. Far more people freeze to death every year than die of heat. In 2019, for example, four times as many people died of cold as of heat. That's according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. So when temperatures in Europe begin to drop a few months from now, this is a huge problem and that will be obvious to everyone. It's not global warming, it's global cooling. That's what's going to kill your grandmother. 

:{:{}:

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legit src but

https://www.wral.com/study-finds-very-concerning-74-increase-in-deaths-associated-with-extreme-heat-brought-on-by-the-climate-crisis/19834115/?version=amp

:{:{}:

}:

cNN — A pair of new studies out Thursday find a "very concerning" rise in the number of climate-related deaths and paint a picture of world where people struggle with regular temperature extremes.

One of the studies finds the number of deaths caused by high temperatures increased by 74% globally between 1980 and 2016. Deaths related to extreme cold increased 31% since 1990, a new report, the first of its kind, finds.

Human-caused climate change -- generated by carbon, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from industry, transportation, and agriculture -- has led to a "new normal" with more days of extreme temperatures than in recorded history. The studies published Thursday provide more evidence that both hot and cold extremes can be deadly.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-calls-student-debt-relief-reparations-being-paid-drug-addicted-robots-no

quite a lot of RW BS on student loan forgive, bannon , tucker called reparations?; mebbe a string of dem wins/bills ~ 2022 red wave;

also try culture/class war BS rich college kids vs hard working real am, socialism

https://www.mediamatters.org/steve-bannon/steve-bannon-rails-against-student-debt-forgiveness-then-brags-about-his-ivy-league

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2x? prozac in water supply

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/tucker-carlson/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-suggests-government-wants-put-chemicals-milk-turn-kids-trans

snark?

amish

JEREMY LOFFREDO (GUEST): By taking out the middleman, by taking out the government, you're taking power away and taking leverage away from the government, and putting that power and leverage in the hands of the community and the farmers and the people. And another thing I'll add is Amos' farm doesn't use any gasoline or any fertilizers. Now as you know, these commodities have become very expensive because of Biden's policies in regards to the war in Ukraine and Russia. So Amos has completely eliminated any risk coming from the international or domestic politics of the Biden administration and they're coming after him for it.

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Maybe if he promises to put more chemicals in the milk to turn kids trans, they'll lay off.

---

Faucci announce retire dec 8 22, some gop midterm nom said hang?

i really don't get why fox maga ppl think he is hero of elite?  masks to protect from maga germ carriers?

Fox News' Tucker Carlson weighed in with his opinion of Dr. Anthony Fauci's announcement of his retirement -- and his attack appears to have backfired on social media.

On Monday, August 22, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious who has also served as the nation's top infectious disease expert for decades, announced his plan to retire in December of this year.

During his Monday evening broadcast of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the far-right talk show host wasted no time sharing his reaction. “Imagine the pandemonium at SoulCycle studios across the Northeast this morning when Tony Fauci announced his retirement,” Carlson began.

READ MORE: Why Tucker Carlson is showing 'no embarrassment, no shame' over damning NY Times exposé: conservative

“Ugly doesn’t begin to describe it. Picture the chaos, if you can, in the organic chaga aisle at Whole Foods in Brookline. Try to envision the panic and hysteria that must have broken out at espresso bars in Edgartown and Aspen and Santa Monica and Bethesda as thousands of masked ladies in Lululemon discovered, all at once, that the one religious leader they still revered, their own even tinier version of the Dalai Lama, had decided to retreat forever from public life.”

He wasn’t done: “You can picture the carnage, the wailing, the swooning, manicured hands clutched to breasts, then fumbling for Xanax and expensive handbags,” Carlson continued. “Not since the orange man seized the White House in a Russian coup have more 46-year-old Cornell-educated lawyers with weak husbands wept shamelessly in public. There’s not enough rose’ in Napa to quell that pain.”

It didn't take long for Twitter users to fire back with opposing views as they highlighted Carlson's own privileged background. "Tucker pretending he’s Joe Sixpack and not the very preppy, manicured trust fund baby he’s ALWAYS been somehow works on the trailer trash who lap this shit up," one Twitter user tweeted.

Another user chimed in tweeting, "The guy whose family got rich selling us salt and carb loaded frozen 'dinners' is talking about elites like he isn't one."

READ MORE:Tucker Carlson has a new baffling conspiracy theory about the Uvalde school massacre and it somehow involves COVID lockdowns

"Ok Tucker, I have say you sound like Curly of The Three Stooges when your voice gets high and squeaky," another Twitter user wrote. "I automatically visualize a stooge when you speak."

Watch the video below or at this link.

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87K armed IRS BS //

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-suggests-fbi-planted-pipe-bombs-outside-dnc-headquarters-part-january

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https://www.mediamatters.org/alex-jones/conservative-media-outlets-are-embracing-alex-jones-more-ever

mma 8 22

Conservative pundits are increasingly embracing far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, even as his financial losses mount and his professional future remains uncertain following a high-profile lawsuit. Right-wing outlets have not only adopted many of the fringe host’s conspiratorial affects and theories, but several have also provided Jones with a platform to spread his extremist brand of paranoid quackery.

The decision to give Jones an opportunity to find new audiences — or to tap into his own — is especially fraught right now, given that he was just found liable for defamation and forced to pay more than $45 million in damages to parents of a 6-year-old child killed in the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. Jones now faces another defamation suit in Connecticut, also related to comments he made about Sandy Hook, which the talk show host and vitamin supplement salesman referred to as “a giant hoax.”

Although Jones has long been legitimized and defended by the right, conservative media’s increasingly open celebration of him appears to signal a new phase of their relationship with the serial fabulist. Conservatives are bringing him in from the fringe under the guise of free speech and fighting back against the supposed Big Tech censorship, using his deplatforming in 2018 and subsequent court-ordered payments in the Sandy Hook trial to transform him into a First Amendment martyr. And following the FBI’s search of former President Donald Trump’s residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, several right-wing hosts interviewed Jones as though he were a Casandra-like figure whose long history of alarmist warnings of government tyranny had finally come to pass.

Fox News’ top star Tucker Carlson reportedly regularly texts with Jones and has praised him in various venues repeatedly. In July, Carlson once again told his audience that the antisemitic Great Replacement conspiracy theory was real, but mainstream outlets wouldn’t acknowledge it for fear of being categorized alongside Alex Jones. Earlier this year, Carlson said Jones is “a lot more talented than I am” and generally endorsed his conspiracy theories about liberal philanthropist George Soros. Carlson has been a guest on Infowars and wrote a blurb for Jones’ new book.

Steve Bannon, the host of the War Room podcast and a former Trump chief strategist, appeared on an episode of Jones’ Infowars following the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago. He heaped accolades on Jones, recognizing Infowars as “one of the major news sources out there for the MAGA movement.” Along with Jones, Bannon proceeded to lay out wild, completely speculative conspiracy theories. [vid]

"I do not think it's beyond this administrative state and their deep state apparatus to actually try to work on the assassination of President Trump,” Bannon said, providing no evidence to support the claim.

Bannon then suggested that the FBI may have “planted stuff” — that is, incriminating evidence — during the search.

“Exactly. How do we know a hundred agents in there with their long history of planting things, didn't plant something classified,” Jones echoed.

“You're absolutely right,” Bannon responded. (That theory has since been adopted by Fox News hosts and Republican Sen. Rand Paul.)

One day earlier, Bannon hosted Jones on his own War Room podcast to praise the serial liar as the leading edge of conservative thought, using a string of military metaphors to make his point.

“If you think of military, you've always been like force recon. Or you've been like LRP, long-range patrol,” Bannon said. “You've been out ahead of, cutting, you know, cutting through, bushwhacking through and laying out the tracks and the trails for where the narrative, then the big narrative engine comes in back of it.

Bannon also positioned Jones as a warrior and martyr that left-wing activists and tech companies are trying to silence. “They're trying to break you as a man and they're trying to break your incredible organization,” Bannon added.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk also interviewed Jones the day after the Mar-a-Lago search, introducing him as “the most canceled man in America” and framing the interview as a defense of the principle of free speech. Kirk then proceeded to give Jones a platform to obfuscate and justify his long, well-documented history of Sandy Hook denial. Kirk then asked Jones to give his listeners advice on how to “keep on going — how do I push on through if people try to cancel me.”

Kirk later characterized Jones as a brave truth-teller, freeing his listeners from the blinders that had been placed on them. “How do you break people out of the comfort of the lies they live in?” Kirk asked Jones. “Because that’s what you do for a living.”

Jones eventually responded with an unhinged rant about who makes the best resistance fighters against what he believes is a demonic globalist cabal. “Because men haven’t been alpha males and stood up for Western civilization and the empowerment of the future and a pro-human future, we’ve allowed sick, degenerate alpha males to come in and threaten the women, and children, and men to get in line with them,” Jones explained.

“Alex Jones, he’s not crazy, he’s just early. He’s ahead of the curve,” Kirk said to close out the segment.

The previous day, Kirk had praised Jones as someone who was “not wrong a lot of the time,” even as he acknowledged that “he is not right a lot of the time.”

Elijah Schaffer, a reporter at The Blaze and host of Slightly Offens*ve, also interviewed Jones in August after the conclusion of his Sandy Hook defamation trial. Like Kirk and Bannon, Schaffer framed the discussion as a defense of free speech against those who are trying to “silence the truth.”

Failing Fox News competitor One America News Network interviewed Jones’ colleague Owen Shroyer, currently facing charges in the January 6 riot, following the conclusion of the Sandy Hook trial.

“​​We are increasingly seeing, you know, here at one American News, we haven't been banned quite as hard as you guys, but we got taken off FiOS with Verizon,” host Addison Smith said. “We got taken off Comcast TV, you know, you name it. And that's because for very similar reasons, we have a commitment to reporting the truth as we see it and reporting the facts as we see it.”

Shroyer responded by praising Alex Jones’ “almost prophetic-like foresight of geopolitical developments and political developments.”

The two continued their mutual admiration the following night, when Shroyer invited Smith on his show to discuss the Mar-a-Lago search.

A host at Newsmax, an OAN rival, defended Jones’ defamatory comments on the grounds that “this is America and you can say what you want.”

And it’s not just backwater, fledgling right-wing networks and podcasts that endorse Jones. His reach extends to the highest echelons of right-wing media. Reactionary podcast megastar Joe Rogan has long been a supporter of Jones, and the two appeared together on astream of the bafflingly popular Timcast IRL. Hard-right politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and, of course, Trump, are also long-time champions of him as well.

Still, there seems to have been a notable difference in the reaction to Jones over the last several weeks. When he was roundly deplatformed in 2018, many conservatives came to his defense on free speech grounds while at least nominally distancing themselvesfrom his content and arguments. Following the Mar-a-Lago search and his liability in the Sandy Hook lawsuit, conservative pundits appear to be following his lead.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlsons-embrace-foreign-authoritarian-leaders

pulldown menu?!

In the past two years, Tucker Carlson has repeatedly hosted global leaders with authoritarian tendencies and embraced anti-democratic regimes on his Fox News and Fox Nation shows.

In interviews with Hungary’s president Victor Orbán, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, Poland’s president Andrzej Duda, and most recently, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro, Carlson has pitched softball questions, praised anti-democratic ideas, and allowed lies about some of the regimes to go unchallenged. Carlson has also repeatedly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, excusing his regime’s aggression in Ukraine.

By promoting and celebrating anti-democracy leaders to his audience of over 3 million viewers, Carlson is whitewashing their authoritarian tendencies and inaccurately covering the implication of their policies. Reeling from the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection, the majority of voters believe American democracy is already at risk. Carlson's embrace of authoritarian ideologies from around the world only further threatens its future.

no lnx many some vid

Russia

Fox News has a documented pattern of supporting Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s Russia, and Tucker Carlson has clearly led this charge.

A month into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Carlson praised Nigel Farage for saying, “Whatever we may think of him [Putin] as a human being,” he is “actually on our side.”

Video CitationFrom the March 30, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Media Matters has documented Carlson’s extensive history of pushing pro-Kremlin talking points on Tucker Carlson Tonight.

He has mocked criticism of the Russian president and downplayed the significance of his invasion of Ukraine. He also suggested the Biden administration backs Ukraine only because of Hunter Biden’s ties to the country and questioned the U.S.’s efforts to support Ukraine, asking, “Why do we care so much” about “Russia messing around in Ukraine or Estonia or Crimea or whatever?” and “Why wouldn’t we be friends with Russia?”

He even went so far as to throw a jab at his Fox News colleague Jennifer Griffin’s reporting on the region, accusing her of “lying” while not bothering “to do any reporting whatsoever.”

Putin leads an authoritarian state in which he cannot be prosecuted and officials in his government are protected under strict confidentiality laws. The country has cracked down on free internet access by limiting access to social media platforms, and critics of the Kremlin are labeled “foreign agents” and silenced. A Media Matters report from April 2022 found that Facebook videos featuring 5 pro-Russian segments from Carlson received more than 2 million views and nearly 200,000 interactions.

In 2019, Carlson asked on his show, “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia? Which I am,” in reference to the conflict with Ukraine. (Later in the show he claimed he was joking.)

Video CitationFrom the November 25, 2019 edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight:

In return for his fealty, the Kremlin has praised Fox and Carlson, amplifying segments of Carlson’s show on its state-run social media accounts and state-run television. A leaked Kremlin memo distributed to Russian media outlets instructed broadcasters to use as many clips from Tucker Carlson as possible.

Brazil

In June, Carlson traveled to Brazil to film a new documentary for his “Tucker Carlson Originals” series. While there, he interviewed Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, who, since he assumed the presidency in 2019, has created a government in Brazil that is anti-LGBTQ, anti-Black, and anti-woman, once even stating he would rather see his son “die in an accident” than have a gay family member.

Despite international attention on Bolsonaro’s anti-democratic regime, Carlson hosted the Brazilian president for a friendly interview, during which they promoted a variety of false claims and conspiracy theories. Bolsonaro and Carlson embraced their similar ideologies, with Bolsonaro praising Carlson’s show and Carlson suggesting Brazil gets its own Fox News Channel.

Video CitationFrom the June 30, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Carlson and Bolsonaro pushed a number of other right-wing talking points.

Carlson cheered on Brazil’s pro-life and Christian ideology, and Carlson and Bolsonaro agreed “the left” in Brazil will be responsible for the downfall of the good, Christian-centric society. Carlson implied the same would happen in the United States.

Carlson falsely claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “arms Nazis,” saying Bolsonaro is not like him.

Carlson claimed Bolsonaro is a “liberal” and has “done nothing to stop civil liberties in Brazil” although the president is known to arrest and investigate his critics under a vague national security law.

Carlson and Bolsonaro repeatedly called a man who attacked Bolsonaro in 2018 “leftist” and claimed the stabbing was politically motivated although a judge ruled the attacker was mentally ill after he told investigators he was “acting on the orders of God.”

Bolsonaro shared false claims that he did not need the COVID-19 vaccine because he had previously had the virus.

Bolsonaro also promoted both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as effective COVID-19 treatments.

Bolsonaro repeated the generally discounted theory that COVID-19 was started in a “laboratory on the other side of the world.”

Responding to a Carlson question about the expansion of gun ownership in Brazil, Bolsonaro claimed an increase in civilian gun ownership is what caused a “drop in the number of people who are killed by firearms in Brazil,” though the president though in reality states where civilian gun ownership increased the most did not see crime fall by any significant amount in comparison to states with less growth of gun ownership.

Dubbed “Trump of the tropics,” Bolsonaro campaigned on heavy military presence, after years of supporting Brazil’s military dictatorship, and violent policing. He had a plan to appoint military leaders to top government posts and following the election he did just that. Bolsonaro also claimed he would not accept the results of the election if he lost and has “threatened to destroy, jail or drive into exile his political opponents.”

During the 2020 municipal elections in Brazil, Bolsonaro spread narratives meant to discredit the country's democratic voting system after his party’s candidates lost. He has begun to push for restricting votes to paper ballots only for the 2022 election, echoing Trumpworld’s conspiracy theories about compromised electronic voting machines.

On his first day as president in 2019, Bolsonaro targeted Indigenous lands by preventing new lands from becoming demarcated for protection and has since dismantled the country’s environment ministry through cutting the budget, and overseen increased deforestation.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bolsonaro’s failed policies resulted in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths. Bolsonaro spread false narratives about the pandemic, refused to follow the World Health Organization’s recommendations, and even blocked local or state governments that attempted to follow prevention advice such as implementing mask mandates. Federal police have investigated multiple people who criticized the president’s COVID-19 response in public media.

Hungary

Carlson’s coverage of President Viktor Orbán and his governance in Hungary has garnered a flurry of mainstream media press attention in the American press. He has interviewed Orbán, filmed an antisemitic documentary targeting philanthropist George Soros, and spoken at a conference put on in Hungary by a right-wing organization tied to the Orbán government.

Carlson has shown his enthusiasm for authoritarian ideas and frequently connects Hungary’s move to the right as an example the U.S. should follow.

Carlson suggested the U.S. adopt Hungary’s nationalistic immigration policies while calling immigrants “chaos and filth and crime growing all around us.”

He hosted Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in an interview titled “Here's what America should learn from Hungary” in which they discussed Hungary’s extreme immigration policies.

Carlson suggested that without Orbán’s strict immigration policies, “there will be no more Hungarians” and claimed that “neoliberals” would rather “import a replacement population from the Third World,” once again pushing the fascist great replacement theory.

Carlson celebrated Orbán’s election victory in 2022, noting, “Orban described the victory as a win for sensible nationalism -- which it certainly is.”

Carlson claimed on his nightly show that calling Orbán a “facist” or “authoritarian” is “the greatest of all” lies. Orbán is widely known for minimizing democratic freedom in Hungary.

While in Hungary, Carlson claimed “left-wing NGOs” are vilifying Orbán for his facist policies and claimed it’s “insane” to consider Hungary less free than South Africa. He was referring the nongovernmental organization Freedom House’s 2022 list saying Hungary was “partly free” due to “antimigrant and anti-LGBT+ policies, as well as laws that hamper the operations of opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)” created by Orbán’s government.

Carlson has repeatedly promoted Orbán’s policy ideas and supported his political career while repeatedly pushing for similar change to come to the U.S. In an introduction to one his interviews with the Hungarian president, Carlson claimed the U.S. media frequently lies about Orbán and “how repressive Hungary is.” Carlson went on to imply Hungary is a more free nation than the U.S., saying people who “loudly and publicly attack Joe Biden’s policies” are “silenced” and “might very well have to hire armed bodyguards” and falsely claiming “opposition figures here [in Hungary] don’t worry that they’ll be hurt for their opinions.” Carlson commended Orbán’s conservative policies and bashed U.S. leaders who “vilified” him for them.

Video CitationFrom the August 5, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

The admiration goes both ways. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary in May, Orbán described Carlson as a “friend” and told his audience that Carlson’s show should be “broadcasted day and night.”

Orbán recently gave a widely condemned speech during which he railed against “race mixing,” prompting one of his closest advisers to resign. He has downplayed Hungary’s involvement in the Holocaust and promoted antisemetic stereotypes as propaganda.

Orbán’s government has pushed far-right legislation, including banning LGBTQ representation in educational materials and media for kids and passing extreme anti-migrant legislation that goes against the European Union’s policies. Orbán has also undermined free and fair elections in Hungary and tightened his control over national media.

Mainstream media in the U.S. have closely covered Carlson and Orbán’s close relationship. The New York Times has published multiple articles drawing connections between Orbán and the political right in the U.S., and the relationship has inspired a number of think pieces by other media outlets.

El Salvador

Carlson has also interviewed Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on his Fox News show. Carlson focused on Bukele’s promise to curb gang violence in the country by increasing police funding and military presence while also applauding Bukele’s conservative stances and pushing for similar policies in the U.S.

Bukele claimed his solution for MS-13 gang violence is to “give more funds to the police, apply tougher dynamics, get the criminals, and put them in jail” and compared El Salvador’s crime rates to those of popular Fox News target Chicago, saying under his new tactics, crime in the country has fallen below that of the city.

Carlson applauded Bukele’s efforts and called the supposed solution to crime rates “obvious.”

In the past, Carlson has repeatedly referenced MS-13 when fearmongering about supposed white replacement and immigration in the U.S.; most well-known was his claim that Biden would release gang members into U.S. neighborhoods. Carlson also defended Trump when he made comments about immigration from “shithole countries,” even suggesting that El Salvador was indeed a “shithole country” or it wouldn't need immigration protections.

Carlson focused his interview with Bukele on his response to gang violence in El Salvador, praising him for cracking down through police and military power. However, Bukele policies has resulted in human rights violations in many of El Salvador’s jails including torture and death of prisoners, according to Amnesty International.

According to the Journal of Democracy, Bukele’s measures to limit judiciary independence following his rise to power in 2019 were a “serious blow to Salvadoran democracy” and his actions include “classic authoritarian behavior.” He claimed electoral authorities and the media were part of a voting fraud conspiracy during the 2021 election despite his party winning a legislative supermajority. As a candidate, Bukele avoided public debates and press interviews during the campaign, which left many to believe he was “intolerant.”

Since his election, Bukele has used the country’s military to bully opposition into voting for his budget and disbanded an anti-corruption body. Bukele has used his supermajority power to consolidate his power, firing high level judges and the attorney general. After his attacks on the judicial system, the top court in the country announced sitting presidents will be able to run again, even though El Salvador’s constitution states otherwise.

Poland

Carlson also interviewed Poland’s President Andrzej Duda and claimed Duda is an example of leaders “who actually care about their people” and who “defended their populations against international interference.” The interview included staples of Carlson’s conversations with conservative foreign leaders including comparisons to the United States, promotion of conservative and Christian ideals, and blatant lies.

VideoCitationFrom the September 27, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Carlson started the interview by describing Duda’s efforts to stop the European Union from resettling refugees in Poland in 2015 as fighting back.

When asked about the power of technology companies in Poland, Duda stated the government has never introduced any kind of social media restrictions. Buth in 2021 the government planned to create a “Freedom of Expression Council” as a workaround to social media platforms’ power to ban accounts in the country, shortly after Twitter suspended Trump’s account. They ended the interview discussing the importance of pro-heterosexual family and Christian conservative ideals in government.

Video fileCitationFrom the September 27, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

Duda has eroded judicial independence in Poland, forcing out sitting judges by establishing age limits and taking control over judicial appointments. An outspoken homophobe, Duda is known for his so-called “Christian values.” His administration has banned gay parents from adopting children, and under his regime “LGBT-free zones” have appeared across the country. Duda himself has called LGBTQ rights a “more destructive” ideology than communism.

His anti-abortion laws prevent abortion in almost all cases — recently, a bill was introduced to ban abortions for cases of fetal abnormalities — and they have rallied pro-abortion protestors and political opposition against the president. Duda’s government has also cracked down on the free press by introducing a new law that makes it impossible for media entities to be controlled by anyone outside the EU and has amended laws to allow the government to choose the heads of state-run media organizations.

With similar ideologies taking hold in the U.S., Fox News is giving Tucker Carlson free reign to embrace authoritarian leaders from around the world. Carlson has gone out of his way to promote false and conspiratorial narratives that have been repeatedly debunked while pushing these ideas onto his audience.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-claims-hungary-has-more-balanced-freer-press-we-have

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an 8 22

Fox News' Tucker Carlson recently launched an on-air attack leveled at Vice President Kamala Harris. Once again, Carlson is mispronouncing her name; an action that HuffPost suggests may be more deliberate than accidental.

On Wednesday, August 3, the conservative primetime host went on another rant completely mispronouncing the vice president's name throughout his recent segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

“The Democratic Party at this point is a cartel that exists only to perpetuate itself and the elderly mediocrities who run and benefit from it,” Carlson said. “All of them. Carmela Harris is only 57 years old.”

READ MORE: Fox News is now carrying the Jan. 6 hearings — and Tucker Carlson isn’t happy: report

Although Harris' first name is not "Carmela," Carlson forged ahead even referring to her actual name with the correct pronunciation before mispronouncing it again.

“Kamala, Kimala, Carmela, whatever, the vice president, what’s she up to?” Carlson asked.

Carlson's latest remarks follow the backlash he faced for similar actions in the past. However, he previously waved off the critical responses arguing that the mispronunciation was unintentional.

In fact, he even admitted he wasn't pleased when former Democratic presidential campaign adviser Richard Goodstein corrected his error on his own show and called him out for waving off the mispronunciation.

READ MORE:Watch: Tucker Carlson spins new conspiracy theory saying US gov will lace country’s water supply with antidepressants

“OK, so I’m disrespecting her by mispronouncing her name unintentionally,” replied Carlson. “So it begins. You’re not allowed to criticize Kamala Harris, or Kamala Harris, or whatever.”

“It’s not ‘whatever,’” Goodstein said.

To watch the video, watch below or click here.

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not 1st fox (strait) brk w/ trump jan 6 hearings? but he goes further (a bit); note that this // WSJ edit ~ trump

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/bret-baier-donald-trump-horrific/

While CNN and MSNBC have been offering in-depth, comprehensive coverage of the bipartisan January 6 select committee’s series of hearings, many of the far-right opinion hosts at Fox News and Fox Business have either ignored the hearings or outright attacked them. But on Sunday, July 24, Fox News’ Bret Baier spoke candidly about the hearing that had been held during prime-time viewing hours on Thursday, July 21 — and acknowledged that the evidence presented made former President Donald Trump “look horrific.”

That night, members of the select committee took a close look at Trump’s actions when the U.S. Capitol Building was being attacked on January 6, 2021. The participants during the hearing included its chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, and the co-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, as well as Rep. Elaine Luria of Virginia and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. Although most members of the committee are Democrats, Cheney and Kinzinger are conservative Republicans chosen by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Baier, discussing the 187-minute period the committee examined on July 21, told his colleagues, “Laying out all these 187 minutes makes him look horrific, it really does…. To hear it and see it in that chronological order can be very powerful.”

READ MORE: Eighth January 6th hearing provided the 'starkest illustration' yet against Donald Trump: journalists

The 51-year-old Baier, who has been with Fox News since the late 1990s, found the July 21 testimony of former Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger and former Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews especially compelling.

"All of these people who have been testifying at one point or another wanted Trump to win," Baier noted. “They served under his leadership. They wanted him to be a success.”

Business Insider’s Mia Jankowicz, reporting on Baier’s comments, stressed that others at Fox News have a very different view of the hearings — one that is much more negative.

“Baier's criticisms of Trump on the Rupert Murdoch-owned network were not unexpected, despite Fox's strongly conservative leanings,” Jankowicz explains. “But they by no means reflect the network's mainstream view. Fox News' most watched opinion host, Tucker Carlson,invited the Trump strategist Steve Bannon onto his show Friday just hours after Bannon had been found guilty of contempt of Congress for not complying with a subpoena by the House select committee. Bannon called for a ‘real’ hearing, baselessly saying the bipartisan committee was presenting ‘lies and misrepresentations.’”

READ MORE: Meadows allegedly behind possible attempt at witness intimidation of Cassidy Hutchinson: reports

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i was hoping  Morano banished/ quar to epoch but sadly tucker boosts:

Tucker Hosts Climate Denier, Calls Green Energy a 'War Against People'- Yahoo News

Yahoo News

Marc Morano. Political activist. Fox News. Tucker Carlson opened his Tuesday show railing against environmentally friendly means of energy ...

Carlson opened his Tuesday show railing against environmentally friendly means of energy production, and then hosted a climate change denier to discuss how green energy is part of a “war against people.”

Carlson began by discussing the ongoing public revolt against political leaders in Sri Lanka amid food and fuel shortages. The protests are the result of a combination of factors including excessive government borrowing, heavy monsoons, depleted tax and tourism revenue, the decreased value of the rupee, anda government ban on chemical fertilizers that limited harvests.Carlson honed in on this final cause.

What has happened in the island nation is an example of a country being “driven into the ground by green energy schemes thought up by morons like… [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] AOC,” Carlson said, marking yet another instance of the New York congresswoman’s name being mentioned derisively on the primetime Fox show.

"We are watching countries around the world… collapsing and entering into a state of revolution because thesemorons tampered with their energy grids. But they don’t care,” Carlson said. “They are going to continue doing it unless someone stops them—until exactly the same thing happens here.”

Marc Morano, a global warming denier whom Carlson did not introduce as such, had a similar point of view.

“I think green energy and this whole war on agriculture… the voters cannot support this anymore,” Morano said.

“We are seeing what’s happening in Sri Lanka, we are seeing what’s happening in the Netherlands, there are protests in other countries growing, [and] Canada is following the same line with fertilizer. This is a war against modern civilization,” he added, reminiscent of past criticisms of Ocasio-Cortez’s proposals from Fox figures.

“It is a war against people,” Carlson chimed in. Life expectancy will “drop to the floor” if decision makers even so much as “tamper with” fossil fuels, which are “our greatest blessing,” he added.

“How do we allow people like [Ocasio-]Cortez and [Joe] Biden, who do not know what a carburetor is, to lecture us about something as complex as energy policy? Like, this is insane,” Carlson huffed.

Morano responded by blaming individuals in the World Economic Forum and U.S. climate envoy John Kerry, who “can go to the CEOs of major corporations and get them to sign a climate pledge, which then commits them to all of these green goals.”

“They believe that us, the unwashed masses, if left to our own devices, will create inequity, racism, environmental destruction, [and] the climate crisis,” Morono claimed. “They literally want to regulate not just our farming but every aspect of our lives, and that is really what the World Economic Forum and the United Nations is after here, is controlling humans.”

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What's happening in the Netherlands is 'literally a preview' of what will happen globally: expert

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On Sunday's Wake Up America Weekend, ClimateDepot.com founder Marc Morano reacted to Dutch farmers' protest government climate plans that threaten ...

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Tucker Carlson: Fossil fuels are what make the US a rich country - but Biden doesn't care

BizPac Review

Author Marc Morano punctuated the discussion by telling Carlson that “they've been at a war on agriculture for decades, and their goal is to ...

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no lnx vid biz pac rev

LATEST

Tucker Carlson: Fossil fuels are what make the US a rich country – but Biden doesn’t care

July 13, 2022 | Robert Jonathan | ...

Gab

(Video: Fox News)

Fox News host Tucker Carlson is going scorched earth, as it were, on globalists and Green New Dealmakers who allegedly would destroy domestic and worldwide economic prosperity and worsen the energy crisis in the name of environmentalism.

In one of his signature, thought-provoking editorials that contain a lot to unpack, Carlson called out the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, President Joe Biden, and Squad member “Sandy” Cortez (“Westchester County’s first socialist revolutionary,”) and others for circumventing the democratic process in imposing disastrous policies to supposedly combat climate change with the implementation of renewables.

The obsession by gatekeeping institutional investors with a highEnvironmental, Social and, Governance (ESG) score is also a culprit in creating energy shortages and causing the suffering of millions of people. “So, at the very moment that Biden is sending our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which we own, he doesn’t, to his son’s business partners in China, he is vowing to end fossil fuels in this country and boost our ESG score,” Carlson asserted.

“So, the poorer you get, the more human suffering there is, the higher your ESG score, and that’s important because companies will not invest unless you have a high ESG score,” Carlson claimed.

“So, everything that’s happened in Sri Lanka, Ghana, and the Netherlands is happening at the behest not simply of ideologues, but of some of the largest financial institutions in the world,” America’s most influential pundit further claimed in the monologue embedded here in two parts in referencing civil unrest that has occurred in those countries.

Carlson lamented that these decisions are being made by left-wing bureaucrats and elitists who couldn’t figure out how to drive a stick shift or program a coffeemaker and whose knowledge of energy issues is merely theoretical and ideological.

Carlson recalled how Ghana, for example, agreed to limit its carbon emission and also switch over to organic fertilizer. “Last year, Ghana experienced a complete shutdown of its national power supply…International observers say the country is now facing severe food shortages and hunger, starvation within a matter of months…It’s not just Ghana. The same thing just happened in Sri Lanka….”

Authorities in the Netherlands, a country that is said to be the world’s second-biggest food exporter, “just ordered farmers to cut virtually all of their nitrogen oxide emissions to ‘save the environment.’ Now, doing that would shutter most farms in the Netherlands and destroy the country’s food supply and once again, that led to riots,” Carlson observed.

“Fossil fuels are the only thing that stands between the United States becoming Ghana. Fossil fuels are the only thing that make the United States a rich country and not a poor country,” Carlson explained.

“We have the largest recoverable oil reserves in the world. If we can’t tap those, we will be Ghana. We will be poor, but Joe Biden doesn’t care, and so he is clamping down on our ability to extract them and like the leaders of every other country, driven into the ground by green energy schemes thought up by morons like Sandy Cortez, he’s taking no responsibility for the damage he has caused.”

Biden, in particular, “doesn’t know anything about refining or extracting or how the grid works or anything about anything because he’s never had a real job because he’s worked for the federal government since he was in his twenties.”

Noting that energy blackouts have already occurred in California and Texas, states which rely, in part, on renewables, Carlson concluded by warning that “we’re watching countries around the world…collapsing and entering into a state of revolution because these morons tampered with their energy grids.”

Author Marc Morano punctuated the discussion by telling Carlson that “they’ve been at a war on agriculture for decades, and their goal is to literally get us to eat insects and this lab-grown fake meat.”

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

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public cit 2019 Foxic

note interlock?:

Denial Is Alive and Deadly on Fox News

With 391 mentions of climate change or global warming on programs airing from January to June, Fox News Network is far from silent on climate.

In fact, Fox News three most-viewed programs are discussing climate more than their liberal counterparts at MSNBC. From January through June 2019, “Hannity,” “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and “The Ingraham Angle” collectively mentioned climate change or global warming in 86 different segments. During the same period, “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “The Final Word with Lawrence O’Donnell,” and “All In With Chris Hayes” ran a combined 61 segments discussing the climate crisis.

Overall, the right-wing network ran 247 segments. The vast majority — 212 or 86% — were dismissive of the climate crisis, cast its consequences in doubt or employed fear mongering when discussing climate solutions. A mere 35 segments were neutral on the issue or represented straight reporting on the climate crisis or solutions absent editorializing.

Two programs, “Special Report With Bret Baier” and “Fox News @ Night,” accounted for 71% of segments that were neutral when mentioning climate change or global warming.

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Fox Whistles: Top Three Messages Used by Fox News to Undermine Climate Action

A common tactic Fox News uses to undermine climate science, action and advocacy is to frame the climate crisis as a political construct. In these cases, the host or guest assigns values to climate that are misaligned with the network’s largest demographic — those who identify as conservative and Republican. These commentators rarely, if ever, address the body of scientific evidence or climate events directly, but rather project the issue through a political lens. Viewers are left to form opinions about the issues in the absence of facts and evidence.

In the past six months, the following three messages have been invoked repeatedly, in some form, across the majority of Fox News programs, but were highly concentrated in the network’s most popular opinion programs. They are intended to elicit a negative response to the climate crisis and those who advocate the changes needed to address it.

Message 1: Climate Change Is a Vehicle for the Democrats’ Radical Big-Government Agenda

Seventy-two segments discussing the climate crisis (34%) suggested that responding to climate change, especially through policies like a Green New Deal, will result in government control over our lives.

“Hannity” had the most segments featuring this message with 18, or 56% of total segments, followed by “Tucker Carlson Tonight” with 13 (32%) and “The Five” with 12 (41%).

Message 2: Responding to the Climate Crisis would Kill Our Economy and Send Us Back to the Stone Age

Closely associated with the “Big Government” message and often used in the same breath is the suggestion that climate action would mean extreme individual sacrifice and the demise of prosperity. Fifty-five segments (26%) equate climate action, including the transition to a clean-energy economy, with economic collapse.

“Hannity” leads again, using this message 11 times (in 34% of segments on climate), followed by “The Five” using the message 10 times (34% of climate segments). “Fox News @ Night” uses the message six times (26% of climate segments).

Message 3: Concern About the Climate Crisis Is Liberal Hysteria

Rounding out the top three messages is one intended to undermine the urgency of the climate crisis by painting climate advocates or climate scientists as “alarmists”, “hysterical”, “chicken littles” and a “doomsday climate cult.” These labels not only deepen the political divide; they send a clear message to viewers to interpret the latest science on climate as exaggerated and to view scientists and advocates with distrust. Twenty-six segments, or 12% of discussions on the climate crisis used this form of name calling or used the terms “hysteria” or “alarmism” when referring to climate science.

“Hannity” used these labels eight times or during 25% of segments on climate. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” used them six times or during 15% of segments and “Fox News @ Night” used them five times or during 22% of segments.

Fox Fallacies and Tricks...

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7 22 an

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is once again circulating reports about the so-called "Great Replacement" theory.During the Tuesday night broadcast of "The Tucker Carlson Show," the Fox News host made his arguments about the great replacement theory as he explained why he doesn't believe it's just another conspiracy.

“The great replacement? Yeah, it’s not a conspiracy theory. It’s their electoral strategy,” Carlson said as the headline "Democrats often celebrate demographic change” was displayed at the bottom of the screen.

“You’ve heard a lot about the great replacement theory recently; it’s everywhere … we’re still not sure exactly what it is,” he later said.

READ MORE:'Deeply dangerous': MSNBC host reveals the history behind the GOP embrace of a deadly conspiracy theory

According to HuffPost, the theory centers around the belief that "white Christians are being intentionally replaced by immigrants, people of color and non-Christians." On multiple occasions, Carlson has also managed to tie the replacement theory to the various mass shootings that have taken place across the United States in the last several months.

Like Carlson, a number of mass shooters have also attempted to blame the great replacement theory for their actions. Among those are the suspects allegedly involved in the recent mass shootings that took place in Buffalo, N.Y., El Paso, Texas, and Christchurch, New Zealand.

Carlson's latest remarks have drawn more criticism as there are concerns about the dangerous rhetoric he is sharing with Fox News viewers. Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, weighed in with his assessment of Carlson's broadcast.

“The difference between a Tucker Carlson monologue and a white supremacist mass murderer’s manifesto is the Tucker Carlson monologue gets aired in prime-time on the nation’s most-watched cable news network,” said Gertz.

READ MORE: Matt Gaetz provokes horror by openly embracing Tucker Carlson's white supremacist 'replacement theory'

To view Carlson's latest broadcast, watch below or at this link....

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strict fr vs

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/watch-tucker-carlson-finds-a-way-to-blamewomen-and-marijuana-for-the-most-recent-mass-shooting/

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mma 7 22

Just a week after the Supreme Court effectively gutted the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases in the United States, Fox’s leading prime-time hack Tucker Carlson hosted fringe right-wing Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, to spread transparent lies about the Dutch government implementing climate policy designed to reign in emissions of nitrogen oxide and ammonia from the agricultural sector by 2030.

According to Dutch government data, about “70 percent of the country’s surface area exceeds critical limits for nitrogen.” In Europe, nitrogen pollution has caused billions of euros in economic damages and has cascaded through environmental trophic levels, leading to the destruction of drinking water sources, soil health, and biodiversity. In the Netherlands, scientists have also reported decreased plant and species diversity in dunes, bogs, and heathlands.

Despite clear scientific evidence to the contrary, Carlson introduced the July 7 segment by insinuating a longtime right-wing narrative – climate change and its environmental protection policy solutions are nothing more than a sinister ruse by global elitists designed to “whip you into a panic” in order to demand obedience and increase political power. Referencing protests on July 5, during which Dutch police fired on farmers protesting plans to cut nitrogen emissions, Carlson warned his audience the United States could face similar turmoil if “we let them do it.” He later cautioned: “This is what climate activism actually looks like: men in uniform shooting at 16-year-olds.”

Video] citationFrom the July 7, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

While Carlson claimed the emissions reductions would have the “effect of destroying agriculture in the Netherlands,” he failed to mention the Dutch government has earmarked billions of euros to help farmers transition through a voluntary program that offers various strategies to increase sustainability in farming, with only the “very last option” involving the “complete ‘buyout’ of the farmers involved.” Instead, Carlson employed a jingoistic red herring criticizing China’s and India’s use of fossil fuels that failed to account for developed countries’ disproportionate roles in climate change.

Carlson then brought on Vlaardingerbroek to baselessly claim that the Dutch government is “stealing our farmers’ land … under the guise of the made-up nitrogen crisis.” This is a clear lie fueled by years of denial of the climate’s impact on future economies. (A 2022 report from the World Economic Forum estimated that climate inaction would cost $178 trillion over the next 50 years.) Vlaardingerbroek then returned to her nativist tendencies to claim the emissions reduction is designed to push farmers off their land to “house new immigrants,” subtly encouraging anti-immigrant sentiments.

The pair then pivoted to a recent favorite narrative of Carlson, suggesting that climate activism and President Joe Biden’s policies around the war in Ukraine are pushing us toward food shortages and a global famine. Carlson further suggested that the resulting American climate policies would increase food prices. Vlaardingerbroek enthusiastically agreed, saying Dutch citizens understand “no farmers, no food.” Yet, Carlson and Vlaardingerbroek ignored scientific evidence that demonstrates the opposite as true: Climate change has already impacted our food and drinking supply. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2019 Special Report on Climate Change and Land projects an increase of up to 183 million additional people at risk of hunger due to climate change impacts.

The urgency to implement climate mitigation strategies comes not from power-hungry global elitists craving control, but from climate scientists who have warned for decades that unless immediate action is taken, irreversible environmental consequences will impact every aspect of daily lives -- including American and Dutch.

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DICTATOR ROADSHOW CONTINUES

omfg

https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/record-deforestation-amazon-tipping-point/

jake j cmn dr

the Brazilian government published data Friday showing that more than 2,500 fire hotspots were recorded in the Amazon rainforest last month, the highest number for June since 2007—one of the worst years ever for the critical ecosystem.

The latest report from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research showed that the Brazilian Amazon has lost 1,450 square miles of jungle since the start of 2022.

Greenpeace Brazil said in response to the alarming figures that the far-right Bolsonaro government's systematic rampage against basic environmental protections is responsible for the surge in rainforest fires and overall deforestation, which have helped transform parts of the Amazon—long known as a key carbon "sink"—into sources of planet-warming greenhouse gas.

"Agribusiness is hitting new records for forest destruction as the dry season arrives in the Amazon," said Cristiane Mazzetti, a spokesperson for Greenpeace Brazil. "Illegal burnings and deforestation have accelerated over the last three years as a direct result of the Brazilian government's anti-environmental agenda that encourages the destruction of the forest."

"If this trend does not change," Mazzetti added, "we will approach the tipping point of no return in which the Amazon could fail as a rainforest."

Brazilian academics have warned in recent months that a Bolsonaro victory in the October presidential election would mean total demise for the Brazilian Amazon. Recent polling shows that Bolsonaro is trailing leftist former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who has vowed to pursue "net-zero deforestation" if elected.

"If Bolsonaro remains in the power of presidency, it's hopeless in terms of the environment," Marcio Astrini, executive secretary of the São Paulo-based Climate Observatory, told HuffPost in April, a record-shattering month for Amazon deforestation.

"There will be more deforestation," said Astrini. "The Amazon will fast forward to its collapse point."

Environmental groups have voiced dismay at the Biden administration's failure to confront Bolsonaro on the international stage over his government's assault on the Amazon. The U.S. is Brazil's second-largest trading partner.

Last month, during the U.S.-hosted Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, President Joe Biden went as far as to praise Bolsonaro for trying to "protect the Amazon."

"In addition to being divorced from reality, Biden's statement is remarkably tone-deaf," Maria Laura Canineu and Luciana Téllez Chávez of Human Rights Watch wrote on the final day of the summit, where the two leaders met for the first time. "Biden has shamefully squandered the opportunity to leverage his meeting with Bolsonaro to support the courageous defenders of the Amazon."

"These defenders are putting their lives on the line to protect the world's largest rainforest and a vital bulwark against climate change," they continued. "Biden should correct this mistake and press Bolsonaro to reverse his damaging policies, urging Bolsonaro to get Brazil back on track in fighting deforestation and protecting forest defenders from violence."

Diana Ruiz, the head of forests at Greenpeace USA, said in a statement Friday that "up to now, the Biden administration has only legitimized the Brazilian government's anti-Indigenous and anti-environmental agenda."

"The U.S. has a responsibility to act and stop making deals with President Bolsonaro, who continues to wage an assault against Indigenous Peoples and environmental defenders," Ruiz added.

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https://newrepublic.com/article/166976/tucker-carlson-jair-bolsonaro-interview-brazil

no lnx

live From Brazil: A Clueless Tucker Carlson

Fox News’s chief wingnut has spent all week fawning over authoritarian President Jair Bolsonaro and making absurd, ignorant statements about the country.

Last year, Tucker Carlson traveled to Budapest to celebrate Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s aggressively illiberal and xenophobic prime minister, by filming a week of episodes that included “lessons” the United States could draw from his anti-democratic, immigration-restrictionist rule. In a sit-down interview, Carlson nodded approvingly as Orbán railed against “post-Christian, post-national societies­” and their “very risky” mixture of Muslim and Christian communities. This week, Carlson visited another country undergoing an alarming democratic erosion and fawned over its far-right ruler: Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro.

Broadcasting from both Rio de Janeiro and the capital, Brasília, Carlson has been urging his viewers to pay attention to what’s happening there. This October, Brazilians will go to the polls either to reelect Bolsonaro or cast him out of office. Carlson was there to insist that Bolsonaro isn’t the villain he seems to be in much stateside coverage. “Guess what, this will shock you: Bolsonaro bears no resemblance whatsoever to the descriptions of Bolsonaro you have read in The New York Times—completely different person,” Carlson said in a teaser of his sit-down interview with Bolsonaro, which aired Thursday night. “Seen that before?”

Though he doesn’t explicitly say it, Carlson’s goal with these field trips is to rehabilitate the images of reactionary leaders who have rightfully earned international scorn. But by parachuting into Brazil without any apparent grasp of its politics and culture, Carlson ended up on a sort of confirmation-bias egg hunt: finding evidence everywhere that the real threats in global stability are coming from the liberal internationalist order.

Carlson clearly believes the press unfairly picks on anti-democratic leaders like Bolsonaro—and presumably guys like Orbán, Trump, and maybe even Putin—because of what they get right with the power in their hands rather than their misdeeds.According to Carlson, for example, the Hungarian prime minister “thinks families are more important than banks.He believes countries need borders. For saying these things out loud, Orbán has been vilified.” Bolsonaro, according to Carlson, has been the target of so much animus because he is at heart a nationalist, which places him at odds with the “globalist” agenda in general and China’s hegemonic aspirations in particular.

Highlighting the latter was Carlson’s putative aim in Brazil. In addition to his interviews with Bolsonaro and those close to him, Carlson was filming a documentary for Fox’s premium streaming service about Chinese encroachment on the Americas—he seems downright giddy about the prospect of a new cold war. “China is working hard to turn the developing world into a colony … and that’s particularly true in Brazil,” he stated this week, wildly speculating about Brazil serving as a launching pad for Chinese military incursions in the Western Hemisphere. As far as Carlson is concerned, the U.S. has an interest in a Bolsonaro victory because he is the only one in the region standing in the way of a hostile takeover by Xi Jinping.

In domestic terms, as Carlson put it in the interview that aired Thursday night, Bolsonaro faces “a coalition of billionaires, college professors, and CNN,” all of whom are supposedly eager to pledge allegiance to the Chinese Communist Party. In asking Bolsonaro how he plans to deal with this type of opposition, Carlson is grafting the image that U.S. conservatives have of the Democratic Party onto Brazilian politics, and it’s not even remotely accurate. For one thing, polls show that the supposedly populist Bolsonaro performs best among the wealthiest Brazilians. (To quote Carlson: Seen that before?) Furthermore, CNN launched in Brazil just two years ago. It is hardly the influential behemoth in Brazil that Fox anchors seem to think CNN is in the U.S.

If Carlson had followed Brazilian politics for even one month over the past five years, he would know the depths of animosity that the largest media outlets have toward Bolsonaro’s leading opponent.

“Why is there no Fox News in Brazil?” Carlson asked Bolsonaro in Thursday’s interview, suggesting that the president’s reputation might improve with a stronger media apparatus backing his agenda. Bolsonaro talked a bit about Jovem Pan, a trollish conservative radio and television empire that frequently traffics in homophobia, classism, and sexism—it’s the station on which journalist Glenn Greenwald got into a live scuffle with a right-wing journalist in 2019—but lamented the broader hostility of the press corps.

But if Carlson had followed Brazilian politics for even one month over the past five years, he would know the depths of animosity that the largest media outlets have toward Bolsonaro’s leading opponent, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former metalworker and union leader who governed the country for eight years and left office with an approval rating in the 80s before being targeted by a biased judge and imprisoned on flimsy corruption charges (he was freed by the Supreme Court in 2019). In fact, major newspapers, magazines, television channels, and radio stations were integral in fomenting the deeply reactionary wave that launched the relatively obscure Bolsonaro to national leadership in the first place. Brazil may not have Fox News, but its media landscape is hardly progressive.

Carlson is primed to castigate the mainstream press—how many Fox anchors have made a living doing just that?—but that political dynamic isn’t coded the same way in Brazil. If anything, the left is historically critical of major outlets, which, like elsewhere in Latin America, are concentrated in the hands of a few conservative families invested in the unequal status quo. Lula’s Workers’ Party has long proposed revisions to the legislation governing how large media companies operate in Brazil. But for Carlson, the mainstream media targets conservatives for special opprobrium in the U.S., so it must do the same in Brazil. Indeed, Carlson seems to have gone to Brazil expecting that what he’d find would align with the worldview he espouses nightly without serious contestation. As a result, he fit everything he heard and saw into a tidy preexisting framework that is digestible to his audience but does very little to teach them anything substantive about Brazilian politics today.

At one point, Carlson asked Bolsonaro about the stakes of October’s presidential election, lobbing the softest of softballs. Decrying identity politics and the divisive rhetoric of Brazilian progressives who have the nerve to be outraged by the country’s enduring injustices, Bolsonaro cast the election in dire terms. Describing his opponents as “atheists,” he insinuated that Lula would crack down on religious practice in Brazil, including by loosening limits on abortion (which is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or serious risk to the mother’s health). Referring to his election as “almost a miracle,” Bolsonaro also asserted that if “the left wing” regains power, they will refuse to leave again, aligning Brazil with the authoritarian governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua. This is the exact rhetorical playbook Bolsonaro drew from in 2018, and it’s one that will ring familiar to Fox viewers fed a steady diet of hysterical coverage of the Democrats’ supposed plots to shred the fabric of the U.S. Bolsonaro, in this rendering, is a kindred spirit waging a similar war four thousand miles away.

Whatever one thinks of heads of state like Bolsonaro, Orbán, and Trump, it is important to recognize that they operate within particular political contexts, with different oppositions, allies, strategies, and priorities. There may be similarities, but one cannot draw neat, satisfying conclusions about one place based on the developments of another. Carlson seems incapable of grasping this (or at least pretends not to).

Interviewing Eduardo Bolsonaro, one of the president’s sons and also a politician, Carlson notes approvingly that Brazil has loosened its rigid gun restrictions since 2018. “What happened?” he asked rhetorically. “Did people go crazy? [Were there] more mass shootings? No, the country became a lot safer.” Last year, in fact, the murder rate dropped to the lowest rate in a decade, continuing a downward trend since 2019. Carlson cites this as evidence that civilian ownership of firearms makes even the most crime-ridden societies safer.

The obvious rejoinder is that Covid-19 struck Brazil in February 2020, just a year into Bolsonaro’s administration, forcing millions of people into the relative safety of their homes. Surely this had an effect on the crime rate. But sociologist Renato Sérgio de Lima, the director of the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, offers an even more sophisticated rebuttal: In states where there were more guns in the hands of civilians as a result of Bolsonaro’s policy changes, crime did not go down by any consistent metric relative to those that saw a smaller increase in civilian gun ownership. In other words, the reduction in violent deaths simply cannot be attributed to Bolsonaro’s gun policies. It is all the more dubious to say Bolsonaro has eased concerns about violent crime considering that on his watch last year, there was a 5.8 percent increase in the number of Afro-Brazilians killed by security forces while the same number for white Brazilians declined by 31 percent.

Carlson did not hear about any of this—or if he did, he chose not to share it with his audience. After all, he didn’t come to Brazil to learn about the complexities of South America’s wealthiest, most populous country and how it is still riven by a history of slavery, inequality, and violence. He came to confirm his priors and to bask in the reflected villainy of another strongman promising to stand up to the liberal international order.

Andre Pagliarini @apagliar

Andre Pagliarini is an assistant professor of history at Hampden-Sydney College. He is currently preparing a book manuscript on twentieth-century Brazilian nationalism.

Read More: Politics, Brazil, The Soapbox, Media, Tucker Carlson, Jair Bolsonaro, Foreign Affairs, FOX News, Hungary, Viktor Orban, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva

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Tucker Carlson: Allowing Brazil to become a colony of China would be a ...

4 days agoFox News host Tucker Carlson reveals why the American media and liberals despise the president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, on Thursday's "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

https://www.bizpacreview.com › 2022 › 06 › 30 › why-tuckers-piece-on-brazilian-trump-president-bolsonaro-is-so-important-to-americans-1256134

Why Tucker's piece on 'Brazilian Trump' President Bolsonaro is so ...

5 days agoTucker Carlson previews his interview with Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro, teasing that he "bears no resemblance" to left-wing depictions.

https://www.businessinsider.com › tucker-carlson-interviews-brazil-bolsonaro-after-orban-fawning-2022-6?op=1

Tucker Carlson Interviews Brazil Far-Right Leader After Orbán Fawning

5 days agoTucker Carlson previewed an interview with Brazil's far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro. Carlson said it showed Bolsonaro "bears no resemblance whatsoever" to how he is shown in Western media ...

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6 22

bkgd grfx childless, penniless, joyless (pink)

fox News' Tucker Carlson is attempting to spin a new conspiracy theory with a tall accusation involving the United States government.

During his latest segment of "The Tucker Carlson Show" on Tuesday, the conservative primetime host claimed the U.S. government will be lacing the country's water supply with "SSRIs – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – in an effort to placate an increasingly dissatisfied population," Mediaite reports.

Broadcasting from Rio de Janeiro, Carlson expressed concern about the United States' low fertility rates. On multiple occasions, Carlson has leveled attacks at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) over her concerns about having children. In fact, last year, the Fox News host reportedly said claimed: "some liberals are 'offended by fertility and nature and the idea that people reproduce.'”

During Tuesday's segment, Carlson revisited the same argument but went a step further this time.

[**READ MORE**:Adam Kinzinger roasts Lindsey Graham after he criticizes Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony

“The more atomized and unhappy American society becomes, the easier it is for them to control,” said Carlson. “Fewer marriages and babies and family-owned homes means more rootless and dissatisfied people. It means an entire nation of desperately unhappy grad students. Sandy Cortezcould become the queen of a country like that.”

Carlson went on to highlight the inflated cost of having a family as he insisted that the issue is no longer just a temporary problem, but rather a new staple in American society.

“Families are for the tech tycoons in Napa, they’ve got a ton of kids,” he continued. “And for the Haitians huddled underneath the bridges at the border in south Texas, they’ve got a ton of kids too. But for you, a middle-class American, sorry. Your deepest desires are far beyond reach.”

The host concluded with a conspiratorial prediction about what the U.S. government may do next to "numb the public into accepting their childless fate," per Mediaite.

“You have to wonder, how long before Democrats sponsor legislation to distribute free cats to young people in the cities, placebos to replace the families they can no longer have,” he said. “That’s coming, along with SSRIs in the water supply, so you don’t have to think too much about it. We’re finally getting to see what their utopia feels like. Hope you feel better.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

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JAN 6 HEARING FAIL FLAIL:

overruled by?  https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/fox-news-is-now-covering-the-jan-6-hearings-and-tucker-carlson-isnt-happy/

https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/watch-chris-hayes-analyze-fox-news-pitiful-attempt-hide-january-6-hearing-its-viewers

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-makes-humiliating-and-pathetic-attempt-shame-every-other-news-network

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlsons-counterprogramming-january-6-hearing-spread-rapidly-facebook

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-tells-bizarre-lie-traditional-masculine-virtues-are-now-illegal

AN 6 22

no lnx twt

Watch: Tucker Carlson goes on a wild tangent during the first January 6th hearing

Meaghan Ellis June 10, 2022

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is not pleased with the airing of the House Select Committee's hearing on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and opted to rant about it during his latest broadcast.

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On Thursday, June 9, Carlson aired his grievances during "Tucker Carlson Tonight" where he described the hearing, as “'deranged' and 'insulting,' and he simply refused to 'play along,'” per HuffPost.

“This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,” Carlson said, comparing the hearing to the stuff you might see in “totalitarian regimes.”

“They are lying, and we will not let them do it.”

At one point during the segment, Carlson also appeared to threaten the possibility of another insurrection all while arguing that the first one never occurred.

“This was not an insurrection,” he said of the Capitol siege where Trump supporters aggressively tried to stop lawmakers from certifying the Electoral College vote for the 2020 presidential election, “but you know what will give you an insurrection? If you ignore legitimate concerns of a population. If you brush them aside like they don’t matter when gas goes to $5 and say ‘Buy an electric car.’ When cities become so filthy and dangerous that you can’t live there. When the economy becomes so distorted your children have no hope of getting married and giving you grandchildren [cheap shot]. When you don’t care at all about any of that and all you do is talk about yourself, nonstop, you might get an insurrection if you behave like that, speaking of insurrections.”

Amid the latest bizarre rant, Carlson has faced blowback for his actions and the network is also being criticized for allowing the conservative host to use their platform for his antics.

Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters, weighed in via Twitter with his reaction to Carlson's arguments. He also noted the fact that Fox News even allowed Carlson to rant for a full hour straight with no commercial breaks.

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“Carlson went the whole hour without a break,” Gertz tweeted. “Fox is desperate to keep its viewers from switching to another channel and seeing the hearing in real time."

He added, "Fox News isn’t just letting Tucker Carlson do his regular show, they’re airing it without commercials. They want to push his propaganda so much that they are leaving money on the table to do it.”

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gun control sen framewk

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-attacks-red-flag-laws-meant-address-mass-shootings

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UKRAINE WAR

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/tucker-carlsons-history-pro-kremlin-anti-ukraine-propaganda

https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/fox-news-has-pushed-pro-russia-talking-points-every-day-invasion

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/right-wing-media-use-bidens-green-economy-comments-launch-full-scale-defense-fossil-fuels

at a joint press conference with the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo on May 23, President Joe Biden was asked by a reporter if Americans should expect a recession as gas prices currently remain high. After initially responding that he did not think so — as the U.S. is growing economically and unemployment is at a pandemic low — Biden then noted that when it comes to gas prices, “we're going through an incredible transition that … when it's over, we'll be stronger and the world will be stronger and less reliant on fossil fuels.”

The mere suggestion that gas prices are helping drive the transition away from fossil fuels was enough to send right-wing media into a frenzy,illustrating both the utter contempt they hold for a future that is not dominated by polluting industries and their penchant for falsely claiming Biden is responsible for high gas prices.

Right-wing media predictably twisted Biden’s comments to advance their attacks on the Biden administration’s climate agenda

The right-wing media backlash to Biden’s comments was swift. Predictably, conservative outlets and commentators zeroed in on the “incredible transition” phrase and disregarded his other comments, where he noted his concern for high gas prices and laid out some of the things the administration is attempting to do to alleviate them, including a release from the strategic oil reserve.

One common line of attack suggests that Biden is somehow celebrating high gas prices. Articles published by the Murdoch-owned outlets New York Post and Foxnews.com, as well as The Washington Times, Breitbart, and The Federalist, ran with this framing that Biden is celebrating high gas prices. Fox Business correspondent Charles Gasparino also suggested this on Twitter. Meanwhile, Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner also led viewers to this conclusion on the May 24 edition of The Faulkner Focus, stating that "President Biden is getting called out for appearing to cheer on the high gas prices. While he says it's an incredible transition that would likely be going green faster.”

The framing that the Biden administration is somehow celebrating high gas prices is not new. For example, on the May 20 edition of Fox News’ America Reports, Fox anchor John Roberts said that there is “a growing sense out there among some people … the White House and people on the left are looking at these gas prices going, ‘This is great because it’s going to push people into the green energy sector. It’s going to get people buying electric cars.’”

Earlier, on the April 1 edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight, host Tucker Carlson had pushed aconspiracy theorythat the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an excuse for theBiden administration to raise energy prices “to get a Green New Deal.”

In line with the “celebration” framing, right-wing media also twisted Biden’s comments to suggest that high gas prices are “intentional.” For example, the Daily Caller tweeted, “So the high prices are intentional, Joe?” while Glenn Beck’s website wrote, “Did Biden just let slip that record-high gas prices were PLANNED?” Paid polluting-industry shills and longtime Fox News guests Daniel Turner and Steve Milloy also insinuated the same on Twitter.

Right-wing morning news shows on May 24 also followed this line of attack — on Fox & Friends First, Fox News contributor Brian Brenberg stated in regard to gas prices that “higher prices are part of the plan. They have always been part of the plan for him. He wants you to pay for his green dream transition.” On Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria, host Maria Bartiromo stated that Biden “just admitted it … this is all intentional. It’s a plan.” Will Cain, co-host of Fox & Friends, stated that Biden’s transition comments were an “absolutely outlandish statement that we are going to be talking about more this morning. Because it also plants the idea, confirms the idea in many people's minds, that this isn't an accident.”

Right-wing media’s “intentional” framing is absurd given that the president has very little control over gas prices, which are high right now for a number of reasons, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rapidly surging demand for oil. It also contradicts Biden’s own position on the issue, as he recently promised to “work like the devil to bring gas prices down.” In fact, right-wing media have been making this claim even before Biden’s Tokyo comments. For example, on the May 20 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Steve Doocy implied that Democrats “want to inflict some pain upon people” to get them to stop using fossil fuels. On the May 19 edition of Fox Business’ Kennedy, Fox Business host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery aired clips of Republican senators accusing Biden of deliberately raising gas prices to force a transition to clean energy.

As usual, right-wing media took Biden’s transition comments and used them to attack any and all efforts to transition to clean energy. Fox News anchor David Asman tweeted that “Nothing is more dangerous” than Biden’s goal to transition away from fossil fuels. Longtime climate denier and Fox News regular Marc Morano tweeted, “The climate policies of the Biden administration are not only disastrous to the economy and are imposing maximum pain on the American people, but they areanti-human and anti-freedom." On Fox News’ Outnumbered, Republican businessman John James stated, “This is the modern day equivalent to let them eat cake … the agenda that Biden is pushing forward that's crushing American jobs and crushing our wallets.”

Right-wing media are carrying water for the fossil fuel industry

In the wake of these comments, some right-wing media commentators defended the oil and gas industry and called for increased fossil fuel use in the future.

On Fox & Friends First, Texas Republican congressional candidate Wesley Hunt stated about Biden’s comments: “He's got his words wrong. It's not about energy transition; it's about energy addition. … The bottom line is this — it's an all-hands-on-deck approach to fulfill the energy needs of this country. … This administration is trying to kill our industry but we are not going to allow that to happen.” On Fox & Friends, Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney blamed Biden for high gas prices and admonished him for ending America’s so-called energy independence. On Fox Business’ Varney & Co., Fox Business anchor Larry Kudlow called the idea of transitioning away from fossil fuels “woke” and then made the baffling claim that “there's all kinds of new technology that makes fossils very low carbon — we have the lowest emissions in the world.” Immediately following this segment, investment portfolio manager and frequent Fox guest David Bahnsen stated “You could have an incredible transition, you could admit you need natural gas, you could … admit that wind, solar is not going to get it done. He said it's not going to happen overnight — he’s right about that. It is also not going to happen in the next 30 years.”

Any and all climate and clean energy issues are attacked with fervor across right-wing media, which have historically been staunch defenders of the fossil fuel industry and willing collaborators in promoting climate change denial. This defense of the fossil fuel industry has only worsened throughout the Ukraine crisis. Even though oil companies are making record profits, and refusing to drill for more oil because high oil prices allow them to return more money to shareholders, and oil and gas production is close to hitting all-time highs under Biden, right-wing media perceive any criticism of the industry or any comments on attempting to transition away from the industry (as Biden suggested in 2020) as an affront to all that is good and holy.

Transitioning to a clean energy economy is the only way for consumers, in the long run, to feel less pain at the pump

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is largely financed by fossil fuels, as Russia is a major exporter of natural gas as well as a global supplier of oil and coal. Luckily, there are many prominent voices pointing this out and saying that Russia’s invasion should hasten the transition to clean energy. The European Union is speeding up its plans to adopt renewable energy. The International Energy Agency is also calling for a transition away from a fossil fuel economy. And climate scientists are urgently spelling out the need to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels in order to stave off the worst effects of climate change.

Consumers will be more insulated from gas price volatility the less beholden they are to the global oil market. Rather than heeding right-wing media’s calls for increased drilling, and giving in to their fears that a clean energy economy will be devastating for the U.S. (quite the contrary), now is the time to begin the transition.

Related

Fox News dominated coverage of congressional hearing on Big Oil and gas prices

04/08/22

Fox News heaps praise on the fossil fuel industry as the Russian war in Ukraine rages on

03/17/22

Fox is using the Ukrainian crisis to suggest the Biden administration’s climate policies emboldened Putin

02/24/22

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Though they deplored Babbitt's death shortly after the event, few among Republican Members of Congress and conservative media initially claimed any wrongdoing from law enforcement, or suggested that it warranted a backlash.

Gradually, though, efforts were made to suggest that Babbitt was a martyr, or at least a patriot who was unjustly killed.[72] Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Mark Levin were sympathetic to Babbitt, with Levin understating Babbitt's actions and claiming that she had been just "walking around with the rest". Republican representative Paul **Gosarclaimed that she had been "executed", later doubling down on that commentand adding that the police officer had been "lying in wait" and demanding to know his name. This drew a rebuke from representative Liz Cheney, who accused Gosar of "[smearing] the men and women who defended us". Fringe conservative figures[72] and far-right extremists[73] have also cast Babbitt as a martyr or a "freedom fighter".[73] Democratic strategist Mark Burns said that this was a "dangerous development for a Republican Party with members ^[27] increasingly comfortable pressing for and defending political violence".[74] Both he andDavid Frum in The Atlantic compared these efforts to the Nazi glorification of Horst Wessel.[75]

Some QAnon supporters, including Lin Wood, have claimed instead that Babbitt is still alive and that her apparent death was a "false flag" operation.[27][76]

In October 2021, Trump recorded a video message arguing that "There was no reason Ashli should've lost her life that day. We must all demand justice for Ashli and her family".[77][78][79] Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the shooting of Babbitt, describing it as an "assassination".[80]

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omfg

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/oan-falsely-reports-upwards-25-million-people-have-been-killed-covid-19

pEARSON SHARP (CORRESPONDENT): Our government is trying to kill us. It's not the first time it's happened, and it probably won't be the last. Of course, that's just a conspiracy, though, isn't it? Our government would never do anything to harm us. Just like the CIA didn't spend 20 years secretly conducting hundreds of illegal mind control experiments on American citizens, without their knowledge, under theMK-ULTRA plan.

The CIA used colleges, universities, prisons, and got the help of doctors and hospitals and even pharmaceutical companies to carry out these illegal tests on thousands of patients who didn't know they were being experimented on. Sound familiar? It's all real. Look it up. It happened -- a proven case where our government illegally experimented on us. And you think that was the only time?

We could wonder about what else they're doing, but it's really not much of a mystery. Just look at the experimental vaccines they forced on hundreds of millions of unwitting Americans. The forced vaccination program has been the largest human experiment in the history of the world, and so far the consequences have been appalling.

Conservative estimates from the VAERS programs show upwards of 2.5 million people have been killed by the vaccines, and that's just here in America. Another 100 million have suffered injuries ranging from persistent headaches, to paralysis, to amputation of all four limbs. In fact, there are so many injuries that the federal programs set up to help treat patients who suffered from injuries are totally overwhelmed. Even Politico, of all places, admitted programs like the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program doesn't have enough staff to handle the thousands of people flooding through their doors, all of them suffering from injuries after getting the experimental injections. These numbers are way up from previous years. 

…

At this point, it's more of a conspiracy to believe the vaccines work than to believe they're causing us harm. But that's just what the government wants you to think, and they're doing their level best to cover up any evidence that exposes how dangerous these injections really are. It turns out the CDC has been quietly going through and deleting official records on the U.S. government's VAERS website, which is used by health professionals, doctors, and insurance companies to track injuries and deaths from vaccines. According to data analysts, the Center for Disease Control has been erasing reports of deaths or injuries caused by the COVID vaccines and has already deleted about 10,000 reports so far. 

This isn't the first time this has happened, either, with reports that the CDC went through and deleted up to 6,000 deaths from the database last year, but only for reports on the COVID vaccines. It's already been confirmed that both the FDA and Pfizer knew before the vaccines were released that they were dangerous and ineffective, and yet they decided to release them anyway. Now we're seeing the gruesome consequences of that decision.

No one can guess how many more innocent lives will be lost because of these toxic injections. But as we said in the beginning, this isn't the first time our government has illegally experimented on us. And although we don't know what their true purpose is, we do know one thing. Our government doesn't care how many of us it has to kill to achieve its goals.

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relATED

Tucker Carlson's blatant lie about the COVID-19 vaccines, debunked

05/06/21 10:14 AM EDT

Emergency room doctor: Hospitalized patients repeat VAERS conspiracy theory that Tucker Carlson has pushed

07/29/21 5:12 PM EDT

On YouTube, Charlie Kirk speculates that 1.2 million people could've died from the COVID-19 vaccine

07/21/21

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gosar said leftist gay illegal?  tx shooter

https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/tucker-carlson-2657394885/

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/eco-fascism-rise-and-its-anti-immigrant-beliefs-have-bullhorn-fox-news

the far right is increasingly embracing an extremist ideology known as “eco-fascism,” which seeks to co-opt legitimate environmental concerns and repurpose them to support white nationalism. The alleged shooters who carried out racist, xenophobic attacks in Buffalo, New York; El Paso, Texas; and Christchurch, New Zealand, all either identified as eco-fascists or espoused eco-fascist views, but these beliefs are also being spread by mainstream conservative media figures. Fox News and other right-wing outlets regularly put forward eco-fascistic arguments that either implicitly or explicitly adopt the racist “great replacement” theory, which holds that a cabal of elites is seeking to displace white people through increased immigration.

Eco-fascism holds that immigrants are to blame for a scarcity of resources and, therefore, must be prevented from entering the United States, Europe, or other countries coded as “the West.” “If we can get rid of enough people, then our way of life can become more sustainable,” the El Paso shooter allegedly wrote. That statement echoed the nativist and proto-eco-fascist Garrett Hardin’s argument that rich countries are like a “lifeboat” with limited social, economic, and natural resources – including food and housing stock – that needed to turn away immigrants, or else the “boat swamps, everyone drowns.”

In addition to this supposed competition for resources, eco-fascists hold racist beliefs about immigrants’ hygiene, respect for nature, and perceived higher birthrates. Historically, eco-fascism has held that the “purity” of a land’s natural resources should be reflected in racist ideas of a nation’s racial “purity,” most explicitly in the Nazi “emphasis on ‘blood and soil’” and “the need for a living space purified of alien and undesirable elements.” Just as the great replacement theory says that white people are being politically marginalized and subjugated, eco-fascists say they are being denied their rightful resources.[vid

November 11, 2019, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight]

The ideas that immigrants are a “drain” on resources or present an environmental risk to the United States are not limited to explicit eco-fascists though. Both of those narratives are common on Fox News, including from the network’s top star Tucker Carlson. On April 25, after Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) blamed migrants for causing “environmental degradation” at the southern border, Carlson thanked him for mentioning the “effect on the physical landscape, on the land.” The host added, “Where is the Sierra Club, you know, as our country is being trampled?”

Carlson has discussed this theme repeatedly over the years. The Potomac River “has gotten dirtier and dirtier and dirtier and dirtier,” he said in a 2019 interview in The Atlantic. “I go down there and that litter is left almost exclusively by immigrants.” (The Potomac Conservancy condemned Carlson’s remarks, calling them “racist plain and simple.”)

“I actually hate litter which is one of the reasons I'm so against illegal immigration. It produces a huge amount of litter,” he said in August 2018.

That December, Carlson said that immigrants make “our own country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided.” He faced a significant backlash following those remarks, including from 26 companies which pulled advertisements from his show. But he doubled down on the comments just days later in a monologue that explicitly called increased immigration levels – not just the act of migrating – a threat to U.S. natural resources.

“Thanks to illegal immigration, huge swaths of the region are covered with garbage and waste that degrade the soil and kill wildlife,” he said. “Illegal immigration comes at a huge cost to our environment.”

“The left used to care about the environment – the land, the water, the animals,” he continued. “They understood that America is beautiful because it is open and uncrowded. Not so long ago, environmentalists opposed mass immigration. They knew what the costs were.”

Far-right website The Federalist wrote up that segment under the headline: “Tucker Carlson Is Absolutely Right: Illegal Immigration Is Destroying The Environment.”

One year earlier, far-right pundit Ann Coulter wrote an opinion piece for the Daily Caller titled “Choose Between A Green America And A Brown America,” criticizing the Sierra Club for adopting progressive immigration policies. In the piece, she made a racist reference to a “Mexican cultural trait of littering” and promoted “taking white Western European immigrants” over “Mass Third World immigration.”

The eco-fascistic right often couches its anti-immigrant conservationism in Malthusian anxieties about overpopulation. “A sensible environmentalism” would have to ask “is it good for us or the environment that the population grows artificially through the mass introduction of foreigners?” Christopher Roach wrote in a piece for American Greatness, a hotbed of far-right Trumpist nationalism. Roach also referenced “an immigration regime that transports billions from the fertile—though impoverished—Third World,” highlighting again the overlap between great replacement panic and eco-fascist narratives.

The far right’s demonization of immigrants as “dirty” or bad stewards of the environment goes hand-in-hand with the lie that they steal wealth from the United States, or otherwise don’t contribute their fair share.

“Our national wealth is up for grabs by whomever gets here first, and they are coming,” Carlsonsaid on May 21, 2019. “The United States is being plundered.”

That segment was based on a report from an immigration restrictionist group that has deep ties to the far-right ecology movement, called the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The group seeks to drastically reduce the level of authorized immigration and stop all unauthorized border crossing, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has designated FAIR as an extremist group.

In a recent blog post, FAIR government relations manager Preston Huennekens argued that “any increase in our population is going to our tax natural resources” and that migration had negative environmental impacts “through the physical act of migrating itself,” including “border trash, smuggling trails destroying fauna, etc.”

The idea of scarcity is crucial to the racist appeal of eco-fascism, and Fox News regularly suggests that municipal and federal resources can’t accommodate increased migration.

“At a time when there were more than half a million Americans homeless living on the streets – a crushing number that our leaders ignore but that rises every single year – at that moment, Joe Biden is giving hotel rooms to illegal aliens,” Carlson declared. “It's hard to believe that's real. Oh, but it is real.”

Anchor Harris Faulkner played that clip on her March 23, 2021, show, to which Fox News’ Will Cain responded: “Welcoming in migrants from Central America, that's all fine and good but not if it’s coming at the expense of a limited amount of resources that we're depriving of Americans.” As Media Matters noted at the time, immigrants contribute more to governmental resources than they use[vid]

March 23, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Faulkner Focus ]

In fact, Cain’s entire premise is wrong. The world has enough wealth and productive capacity to feed every human being. The United States could house every person living here, and the choice not to is due to a lack of political will, not limited environmental resources.

Nevertheless, over a 12-week period in 2021, Fox News repeated some version of Cain’s lie, fearmongering about immigrants taking resources from American citizens in at least 46 segments, according to a Media Matters study. The same research found that Fox News hosts demonized migrant children in 32 segments, accusing them of being a burden on the educational system, such as when Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade said on March 1, 2021, that migrant children who “don't speak English” were “taking time and energy away from your kids.”

Environmentalists have worked for decades to successfully expel any strains of eco-fascism from their movement. Now, right-wing media have openly adopted eco-fascistic rhetoric to conflate an ideology grounded in white supremacy with genuine environmental concerns, all in their crusade against immigration.

To paraphrase the Potomac Conservancy: These attacks are racist, plain and simple.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-tucker-carlson-and-jeanine-pirro-warn-progressive-district-attorneys-will-drive

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5 22

TUCKER CARLSON (HOST): Just today, Biden declared that people who insist on voting for things are not only wrong, but are the single greatest threat facing the United States. People who still believe in yesterday's understanding of democracy where they have power are more dangerous, Joe Biden said, than Al Qaeda, the Weather Underground, even the Nazi party. These people are terrorists and you know what we do to terrorists.

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Timelines: The decimation of Fox's “news side”

05/11/21 12:24 PM EDT

https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/timeline-decimation-foxs-news-side

Tucker Carlson's descent into white supremacy: A timeline

10/28/18

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlsons-descent-white-supremacy-timeline

Tucker Carlson on COVID vaccine: “How are the rest of us supposed to respond to a marketing campaign like this? Well, nervously”

Timeline: Tucker Carlson’s unhinged COVID-19 coverage

12/27/20

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/timeline-tucker-carlsons-unhinged-covid-19-coverage

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4 22 an

Newsmax host Eric Boiling is appealing to Fox News' Tucker Carlson to refrain from circulating Russian propaganda during his news segments. During Boiling's Tuesday broadcast, he insisted that Carlson has gone too far with his support of Russian President Vladamir Putin and the invasion of Ukraine, per HuffPost.

“My compadre continues to push falsehoods that Putin and his propagandists are exploiting to show that, yes, some Americans do indeed side with Russia in this war,” Bolling said.

“Is that the side of history ... you want to be on?” he said as he addressed the Fox News primetime host. “There are far too many wars right here in our own country.”

While he did agree with the conservative host's sentiment that “most Americans don’t want to get further involved in Ukraine,” he also noted that it is possible to argue that point without publicly siding with Putin. “But isn’t it possible to make that point without seeming to be on Putin’s side?” he asked.

Boiling's latest appeal to his former Fox News colleague comes after weeks of Carlson's pandering of Putin and his repeated attempts to circulate Russian propaganda. On April 6, Boiling also verbalized his concerns about Carlson's actions. During that segment, he initially addressed the issue.

“I want to be very clear for our audience,” Bolling cautioned. “I’m anti-war and I believe we should always secure America’s interests first and foremost, and that of the lives of our own citizens, of American citizens, should matter more than any other. Sorry, but that’s true.”

Boiling also noted that the unrest in Ukraine should be the breaking point as it deserves to be condemned, worldwide.

“Blatant and horrifying war crimes committed by Russians against Ukrainian civilians have made it very clear that, yes, this war is in fact more black and white now than ever,” he said. ”If we say anything otherwise then we are on the wrong side of history.”

Watch here via Mediaite.

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brags not vax

https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/tucker-carlson-2657142877/

recall hypoc of fox corp widely reported?

for months, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson tirelessly promoted anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories on his show but wouldn’t say whether or not he had been vaccinated for COVID-19. According to Daily Beast reporters Justin Baragona and Lachlan Cartwright, however, Carlson bragged about being unvaccinated during a Saturday, April 2 appearance at an evangelical Christian fundamentalist megachurch in La Jolla, California.

Certainly, not all Christians are anti-vaxxer extremists. Many Catholic and mainline Protestant churches have helped their members find COVID-19 vaccines. But anti-vaxxer attitudes are common among far-right white evangelicals, including those who attend Awaken Church in La Jolla (a San Diego suburb) and applauded Carlson’s speech on April 2[beat twt]

For more than a year now, Fox News star Tucker Carlson has gone out of his way to avoid confirming whether or not he’s vaccinated,” Baragona and Cartwright report. “This month, however, he bragged about having not gotten a single jab. While speaking at Awaken Church earlier this month, the prime-time star heaped praise on the San Diego megachurch for defying COVID-19 restrictions throughout the pandemic before mocking the need for additional booster shots.”

Carlson’s visit to Awaken Church inspired a protest from Ukrainian-Americans, who were critical of the Fox News host for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Fox 5 San Diego.

During his Awaken Church speech, Carlson mocked the COVID-19 vaccines as well as their booster shots. Carlson, according to Voice of San Diego, told the crowd, “I skipped the first three, I’m not getting that one either.”

Those comments drew applause from anti-vaxxers in the crowd.

Carlson also told Awaken attendees that he isn’t opposed to vaccines in general, only COVID-19 vaccines.

Carlson said, “I’ve had like a million of them…. I look at these people, like, this just does not make sense at all.And I have no idea what’s up here, but whatever you’re telling me, it’s just not true.”

Baragona and Lachlan Cartwright note, “Additional audio provided to Source Material by the nonprofit investigative outfit confirmed Carlson’s remarks, which further included him citing hishaving grown up ‘next to the Salk Institute in La Jolla’ as evidence that he is ‘obviously’ not opposed to vaccines.”

Although Carlson and others at Fox News have often downplayed the severity of COVID-19, the pandemic has been the world’s worst health crisis since the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918/1919. According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 6.1 million people worldwide — including over 985,000 in the United States. But thanks to COVID-19 vaccines, many of the infections that are occurring at this point are not life-threatening.

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// fox nation streaming?

https://www.mediamatters.org/google/march-tucker-carlson-clips-made-nearly-half-most-viewed-videos-foxs-youtube-channel

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/04/fox-news/

Fox News dangerously declares war on teachers: Calls for violence, accusations of 'inclination' to pedophilia

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement April 11, 2022

From Tucker Carlson to Laura Ingraham to Mark Levin, Fox News propagandists have declared war on public school teachers. The dangerous attacks follow the right’s misleading claims – fueled by Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” legislation – about children inappropriately being taught about sex, homosexuality, bisexuality, sexual orientation, and gender identity starting as early as kindergarten.

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Last month, just days after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’ spokesperson Christina Pushaw charged that anyone who opposed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill was “probably” a “groomer” – essentially, a pedophile, pedophile enabler, or pedophile supporter, Fox News propagandist Laura Ingraham jumped into action.

“When did ourpublic schools,any schools, become what are essentially grooming centers for gender identity radicals?” Ingraham asked, as Media Matters reported. The chyron was less ambiguous: “Liberals are sexually grooming elementary students.”

In fact, on Monday Media Matters’ Matthew Gertz wrote, “With Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law, Republicans have weaponized their Fox News base against teachers.”

Sunday night Fox News’ far-right “fringe” host Mark Levin hosted award-winning playwright David Mamet, who has no degree in childhood development, education, or sexual studies, to discuss public schools. He declared that teachers, especially male teachers, are “sexual predators.”

“Teachers are inclined, particularly men because men are predators, to pedophilia,” Mamet charged, pointing to no study that proves his claim.

That claim came just days after Fox News’ top propagandist, Tucker Carlson, called for men to engage in verbal or physical abuse of school teachers, as Media Matters reported.

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“I don’t understand where the men are. Like where are the dads? You know, some teachers pushing sex values on your third grader why don’t you go in and thrash the teacher? Like this is an agent of the government pushing someone else’s values on your kid about sex, like where’s the pushback?

But Insider reports that Carlson was “repeating calls for violence he has made previously.” And The Daily Beast apparently agreed: “The Fox News host yet again suggested that violence against educators is called for.”

Rather than apologize for its hosts and guests, Fox News is doubling down.Monday morning the conservative outlet published an article claiming: “CNN, Washington Post, Vice and more fret that Republicans are worried about child grooming, pedophilia.”

On Twitter, Media Matters Matthew Gertz adds to points he made in his article.

“Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law effectively deputizes the most Fox-News-and-Facebook-addicted members of the GOP base to act on frenzied smears that LGBTQ teachers are ‘grooming’ children,” he writes.

“This vague law is then enforced by parents suing their school districts. Suits will inevitably come from the most anti-LGBTQ parents, and school districts will chill discussion of a wide range of topics to try to avoid getting mired in lawsuits,” Gertz adds.

“These baseless accusations that the right’s political opponents are actually pedophiles overlap with – and at times become indistinguishable from – the QAnon conspiracy theory,” he concludes, “which is moving ever closer to the GOP mainstream.”

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Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Tulsi Gabbard featured in Russian state television segment pushing disturbing propaganda

Meaghan Ellis March 31, 2022

Fox News' Tucker Carlson and former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) have repeatedly defended Russian President Vladamir Putin and it appears their actions have granted them applause from the Kremlin and Russian state media.

Last week, Gabbard was featured during a segment on Russian state television where her remarks were referenced by renowned Putin supporter, Vladimir Soloviev.

Per Julia Davis, a Russian media analyst and columnist for The Daily Beast,Soloviev referred to Gabbard, a former Democratic U.S. presidential candidate as “our girlfriend Tulsi." The segment then shifted to a clip of Gabbard's recent appearance on Fox News.

Following the clip, one panelist reportedly asked if Gabbard is "some sort of Russian agent?” According to Davis' translation of the Russian discussion, she is.

During her appearance on Fox News on Monday, March 28, Gabbard accused President Joe Biden of attempting a plot to have Putin removed from power as she claimed he was advocating for "regime change in Russia through 'economic warfare.'”

"They are doing so by waging this modern-daysiegeagainst Russia, isolating, containing, destroying their economy, starving the Russian people in the hope that the Russian people or the military will rise up and revolt and overthrow their government and get rid of Putin,” Gabbard said during a portion of the excerpt that aired in Russia.

Gabbard's remarks came shortly after Biden's speech in Poland. On Sunday, March 27, according to Yahoo! News, Biden delivered a speech in Poland saying "that Putin 'cannot remain in power' in off-script remarks during a speech in Poland." However, White House officials swiftly released a statement to offer clarity on Biden's remarks. According to White House officials, the president was not pushing for Russian regime change but insisted that “Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”

However, Gabbard argues that “'it was not a gaffe at all' and Biden is 'lying' about his true motives."

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Tucker Carlson issues weird warning as he aims to protect Putin

Tucker Carlson's story about the NSA spying on him is filled with holes

Meaghan Ellis March 30, 2022

Fox News host Tucker Carlson recently issued a bizarre warning about the possible adverse effects of removing Russian President Vladimir Putin from office.

On Monday, March 28, Carlson expressed concern about the looming discussions during his recent segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight."The conservative TV host claims he's concerned about the possibility of Islamic extremists seizing Russia's nuclear weaponry and using it on the United States if Putin is removed from power.

“So, Russia has a large and restive population of Islamic extremists. Do we think it’s possible that with no one running the country ― because of course we have no chosen successor to Putin ― is it possible, if we did that, that one of those 6,000 nuclear weapons might wind up in the hands of some anti-American terror group and be used against our civilian population here?” he asked. “A nuclear weapon! Well, it’s not just possible, it’s likely.”

Carlson's latest remarks follow multiple attempts he's made to defend the Russian authoritarian. Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Carlson has echoed talking points from Russian state media circulating Kremlin propaganda. Like other Russian propagandists, Carlson has also made calls for the 25th Amendment to be invoked so President Joe Biden could be removed from office.

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During the same segment, Carlson said, "The joke is over. Too much is at stake. If there ever was a time — if there was in U.S. history ever a time to invoke the 25th Amendment, it is now. As Joe Biden himself put it, 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.' For all of our sakes."

Carlson’s bizarre remarks were reportedly in response to Biden's speech made while in Poland. Speaking of Putin, Biden called for Putin to be striped of his presidential powers saying, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

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called out by

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tucker-carlson-2656992540/

Fox News' Tucker Carlson recently fired back at a Republican lawmaker who criticized his show as an "organ of Russian disinformation." On Friday, March 18, Carlson responded to Rep. Michael McCaul's (R-Texas) remarks by claiming the statements were "slander."

“In recent days, McCaul has told a number of people that this show is an organ of Russian disinformation,” Carlson said on his show this week. “In other words, not only are we wrong, which is fine, we are disloyal Americans. We’re doing the bidding of a foreign power. That is not fine. That is slander.”

He continued, "Unlike Michael McCaul, we are only and narrowly interested in the interests of our own country. That would be the United States, where we were born and where we plan to die. We don’t care what the Russian government says. We only care what the United States does and what our future looks like because we have children here.”

The Fox host also used the moment as an opportunity to attack President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.

“Russian disinformation is also a well-worn Democratic Party talking point,” he claimed. “Joe Biden, for example, calls anything he doesn’t like Russian disinformation, has for years.”

Carlson went on to slam members of the Republican Party as he suggested that there isn't a distinct difference between both political parties.

“So you have to ask yourself, why are so many Republicans suddenly talking like Joe Biden?” he finished. “And the answer is, because on the big questions, the questions that matter, they agree with each other. And you should know that.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tucker-carlson-putin-2656976975/

bill o defends

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-favorite-douglas-macgregor-stone-age-indigenous-people-south-asian

no lnx vid

Tucker Carlson favorite Douglas Macgregor on “Stone Age” Indigenous people, South Asian immigrants, “rootless cosmopolitans,” and more

WRITTEN BY MATT GERTZ

PUBLISHED 03/16/22

Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, a frequent Fox News guest, has denigrated South Asian immigrants as insufficiently patriotic, described Indigenous Americans displaced by European settlers as “Stone Age” cannibals who lived in “unspeakable filth,” deployed antisemitic tropes about “rootless cosmopolitans” being “largely responsible” for society’s ills, and claimed that Democrats who “bring in large numbers of illegals” may have stolen the 2020 election from former President Donald Trump, according to a review by Media Matters of his publicly available speeches and recent interviews.

Macgregor, a conspiracy theorist with a long history of xenophobic commentary, has made dozens of Fox appearances since 2017 and become network star Tucker Carlson’s go-to voice for foreign policy discussions.

Carlson has described Macgregor as “our first choice for foreign policy analysis,” and defended the retired colonel when Macgregor’s declaration on Fox that the United States should “absolutely” allow Putin to annex as much of Ukraine as he wishes drew criticism from one of Carlson’s colleagues (Macgregor’s comments were so favorable to Putin that Russian state TV channels reaired clips from the interview).

Macgregor’s appointments to federal posts during the Trump administration were dogged by a series of reports from CNN’s KFile unearthing his past comments about Muslims, immigrants, the urban “underclass,” American slaves, women serving in combat roles in the armed forces, and the “Israeli lobby,” among other topics. Media Matters found additional bigoted comments from Macgregor in reviewing dozens of radio and podcast interviews he conducted since leaving government office, as well as his public speeches from prior years.

Macgregor disparaged non-white immigrants, Indigenous Americans, women in armed forces

Macgregor is a European chauvinist who scorns subsequent waves of purportedly less patriotic non-white immigrants to the United States from other continents.

Macgregor detailed his xenophobic criticism of non-white immigration at length during an October 2021 speech to the Serbian American Voters Alliance. Saying that “the most ferocious Americans I’ve ever met” were the immigrants from Eastern and Central Europe he grew up with in Philadelphia, he contrasted those immigrants favorably with the “WASPS and some Jews” who attended his Quaker school and were conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War, as well as more recent, non-white immigrants, who he said face “no requirement to believe in anything.”

“Is it a surprise that large numbers of the non-Europeans coming into this country absolutely have no use for anything that is American?” Macgregor asked the audience.

He went on to complain that his neighborhood is now “overwhelmingly South Asian,” and that when he asks them what they will do if the economy “tanks,” they tell him, “I will not worry, I’m going to go back to India.”

Macgregor also expressed his distaste for the notion that Indigenous people displaced by white settlers during the colonization of the United States had “a great civilization that we destroyed” later in the same speech.

Video

CitationFrom Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor's October 2021 speech to the Serbian American Voters Alliance.

“Now we have critical race theory and now we have equity,” he said. “And what we're being told is everything wrong in the United States is the fault of the quote-unquote ‘white man,’ the European. Everything wrong here is our fault. This would be such a better place, if only it reflected the nature and character of everything that is not European.”

“Well, good luck with that,” he continued. “The possibility that when we got to the New World, that the Stone Age peoples who lived here reach the average age of 30 before expiring doesn’t seem to occur to anyone. That they lived in unspeakable filth and unsanitary conditions, and they brutally murdered each other when they weren’t eating each other. And this is the great civilization that we destroyed. It's nonsense.”

Macgregor also denigrated Muslim immigrants during a May 2021 radio interview, saying that former President Barack “Obama and his administration placed hundreds of thousands of Muslims from Somalia and other Middle Eastern countries all over the United States … bringing in people who are obviously not Americans, recently arrived, and essentially passing out citizenship.” He similarly contrasted those immigrants unfavorably with past waves of European immigration, saying that the current message to them is: “You be whatever you like. You can settle here and stay and we're happy to have you.”

Macgregor has additionally repeatedly criticized having women serve in combat roles in the U.S. armed forces.

He praised the Russian military in a September 2021 radio interview, saying, “They're not going to push women into combat. They're not going to push women who are vulnerable, who are important to the nation, to whose principal mission is to sustain the nation, and bear children, and raise families, and reinforce the social and political and economic identities of the country.”

He likewise said in a January interview that women in the armed services pose a problem for U.S. commanders because they are forced to spend time trying to prevent them from being sexual assaulted. “Your priority is to have no incidents with any of the women who might be in your unit because that'll get you relieved,” he said.

“So where does he focus his attention?” Macgregor added. “You’ve got to protect all those women from any possible problems that they may have. What happens to everything else? Well, it takes a backseat. That's no way to run the military.”

Macgregor’s use of antisemitic tropes

Macgregor’s commentary is also peppered with allusions to antisemitic tropes.

Macgregor explained during his October 2021 speech that his interactions with his South Asian neighbors helped him realize that America’s troubles are caused by an elite class of “what the Russians used to call … rootless cosmopolitans.” That term was used by the Soviets to slur Jewish intellectuals during Josef Stalin’s antisemitic purges.

Video

Citation From Retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor's October 2021 speech to the Serbian American Voters Alliance.

“I remembered Philadelphia in the 1960s, then I heard this and something dawned on me,” Macgregor said. “This is a microcosm of everything that's wrong now in the United States, because we have a huge problem with a class of so-called elites, the people who are wealthy, very wealthy in many cases and they are, as the Russians used to call certain individuals many, many years ago, rootless cosmopolitans.”

“These are the people we refer to as Davos, or Davos people,” he added. “They live above all of this, they have no connection to the country. There is nothing there that holds them in place, and they are largely responsible, in my judgment, for the condition that we are in today.”

“That group more than anything else is what we’re up against, and the other things that you see, whether it’s BLM or antifa – those are just foot soldiers, they are being deployed to attack us,” he concluded.

Macgregor has similarly described the 2020 presidential election as “almost a spiritual battle” against “globalists caught up in the international finance arena.”

“Globalist is used to promote the antisemitic conspiracy that Jewish people do not have allegiance to their countries of origin, like the United States, but to some worldwide order—like a global economy or international political system—that will enhance their control over the world’s banks, governments, and media,” according to the American Jewish Committee.

“The election is not just about Donald Trump. This election next year is almost a spiritual battle, as someone pointed out to me last night, because on one side you have these globalists caught up in the international finance arena, people that are for open borders, people who are absolutely committed to a continuation of our overseas entanglements, and in addition to that we have growing ranks of nihilists, Marxists, who are committed to the destruction of the very country we live in,” he said in a 2019 speech at the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Conference.

“On the other side are Americans,” he added.

Macgregor regularly accuses George Soros, a progressive businessman and philanthropist (and Media Matters donor) who is regularly the target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, of various misdeeds in the U.S. and abroad.

Macgregor alleged that “attorneys general who are Soros-backed individuals” are “committed to essentially tolerating criminality on a grand scale” as part of an effort “to fundamentally destroy what is left of the United States of America – its institutions, its national identity, its history, its culture” during a September 2021 interview.

He claimed that “major donors like Mr. Soros have had a hand in” organizing and funding caravans of Latin American migrants traveling to the United States later in the same interview.

Macgregor also claimed Soros financially supported migrant caravans and thus bears some “responsibility for the massive criminality pouring into the United States from Mexico” during a 2019 Fox appearance, as Media Matters previously documented.

Macgregor additionally accused Soros of using Ukraine as an “advance platform” to target Russia and treating Ukrainians as “cannon fodder,” and described him as “probably the shadow national security adviser for President Biden” during a recent podcast interview with Fox host Laura Ingraham.

Macgregor: Democrats may have stolen 2020 election

Macgregor falsely suggested after the 2020 election that it may have been rigged, echoing Trump’s Big Lie.

“As we know, we didn’t win the election – at least, President Trump was not inaugurated again, let’s put it that way,” he said in a September 2021 YouTube interview.

Macgregor expanded on that false conspiracy theory that Democrats use voter fraud to steal elections at an event the following month.

“We haven’t had a clean, fair election in Philadelphia since 1950, maybe,” he said. “You know the joke, everybody in Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles votes whether they’re dead or not, and unfortunately there’s a lot of truth in that. In many states, where the left controls the polls, they’ll bring in large numbers of illegals.”

Similarly, Macgregor often invokes the white nationalist “great replacement” conspiracy theory – also favored by Carlson and several of his colleagues – to argue that Democrats are trying to replace the American population with more compliant non-white immigrants for political gain.

He explained during a May 2021 interview that Democrats aim to “turn the electorate blue … artificially” in order to “establish a permanent government that is dominated by the left, by the people that we're talking about, who are globalists, internationalists, Marxists, which is really the discussion, you do that by creating an electorate that couldn't reliably vote for you, and you do that by dividing the electorate, by dividing the country, by creating these categories, by destroying any sense of societal cohesion and unity."

THE LATEST

Facebook and Instagram have allowed and profited from advertising pushing the false Ukraine-US biolabs conspiracy theory

03/16/22 11:59 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson favorite Douglas Macgregor on “Stone Age” Indigenous people, South Asian immigrants, “rootless cosmopolitans,” and more

03/16/22 10:31 AM EDT

Candace Owens: “Ukraine wasn't a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians”

03/16/22 10:12 AM EDT

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene returned to Alex Jones’ broadcast to deny calling for violence against trans people and double down on hateful rhetoric

03/16/22 9:24 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson says America could be hurting Ukrainians by providing weapons in their defense against Russia

03/15/22 8:45 PM EDT

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

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Douglas Macgregor, Tucker Carlson’s foreign policy muse, is a coup-curious conspiracy theorist

03/07/22 2:44 PM EST

Tucker Carlson favorite Douglas Macgregor: Putin invaded Ukraine “in defense of his country,” U.S. “brought this on”

03/15/22 11:23 AM EDT

Tucker Carlson’s go-to foreign policy expert, Douglas MacGregor, says Ukrainians “are simply being used as cannon fodder for the United States and Soros”

03/10/22 9:18 PM EST

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How ‘Kremlin-friendly’ MAGA Republicans — and Tulsi Gabbard — became propaganda for Russia’s Ukraine invasion

Alex Henderson March 14, 2022

Some conservative Republicans have been unwavering in their disdain for Russian President Vladimir Putin, including Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah. But in MAGA World, Putin has a long list of apologists — even as thousands of people die during Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. And Never Trump conservative Amanda Carpenter, in an article published by The Bulwark on March 14, takes a look at some of the “Kremlin-friendly” talking points coming from America’s far right.

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“During the Cold War,” Carpenter explains, “the Soviet Union invested heavily in its global disinformation and propaganda efforts. And back in 2016, the Russians had to go to the trouble of creating a troll farm to push their divisive messages to the American audience. But today, they needn’t go to such lengths: Plenty of prominent right-wing media figures in the United States are pushing out Vladimir Putin’s propaganda for him.”

The media figures and politicians that Carpenter slams as “Kremlin-friendly” in her article include Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, former President Donald Trump, “War Room” host Steve Bannon and Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. Carpenter notes that these are the sort of MAGA Republicans Cheney has dubbed “the Putin wing of the GOP.”

“It’s all the same people: fringe internet figures, Fox News hosts, Steve Bannon and his acolytes, Marjorie Tayor Greene caucus members, and the millions of people who love them,” Carpenter observes. “Most of these people claim to be free-thinking contrarians, but their accusations, questions, and conclusions about the United States, Russia and Ukraine always seem to go one way: The United States and Ukraine are somehow wrong, and the Russians have their reasons for waging war. If you don’t believe that, it’s only because all the Democrats are lying to you. Well, all the Democrats except for 2022 CPAC special guest Tulsi Gabbard, anyway.”

Carpenter notes that Carlson’s commentary on Fox News has been “so Kremlin-friendly” that according to a Kremlin memo obtained by Mother Jones, Kremlin officials have asked government-run media outlets to feature more clips of him.

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Mother Jones’ David Corn reported, “On March 3, as Russian military forces bombed Ukrainian cities as part of Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion of his neighbor, the Kremlin sent out talking points to state-friendly media outlets with a request: Use more Tucker Carlson.”

Carlson has promoted the conspiracy theory that the Ukrainian government is manufacturing bioweapons in laboratories and that Putin is merely protecting Russia’s safety by invading Ukraine.

Carpenter comments, “One could have guessed that the same people who blamed Dr. Fauci for the coronavirus might try to find some other government bureaucrats to blame for Putin’s war. This time, according to Carlson, ‘Dangerous biological agents remain, thanks to the Biden Administration, unsecured in a chaotic war zone’…. This is the big story in their minds. Not the Russian invasion and the unfolding humanitarian disaster, but the Russian disinformation about bioweapons, which provides a cudgel for whacking the Biden Administration — no matter how bogus the claims.”

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Fox News' National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin recently pushed back against conservative primetime host Tucker Carlson for his conspiracy theories and inaccurate reporting on Russia.

On Wednesday, March 9, Griffin appeared on "The SeanHannityShow" where she addressed the Russian misinformation suggesting the United States is allegedly running secret bioweapon laboratories in Ukraine.

“In terms of Ukraine’s biolabs, which have come under scrutiny tonight,” Griffin said, “those are Soviet-era bio-labs that the U.S. has been engaged [with] since 2005 in trying to help Ukraine convert the research facilities safely.”

Griffin also weighed in on the concerns some U.S. officials have about Russia's use of such weaponry amid their invasion of Ukraine. “White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Moscow’s talk today about these biolabs has led to concern by U.S. intelligence,” Griffin said, “that Russia could use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine to create a false flag operation using them.”[twt

Griffin's latest remarks are distinctly different from Carlson's remarks. According to Yahoo! News, the conservative primetime host, who has been criticized for repeatedly pushing Russian propaganda, "used the admission by Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland that there are biological research labs in Ukraine as a reason to push the same narrative as Russia."

“Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe,” Carlson said. “It’s hardly a hotbed of biomedical research. We’re assuming these weren’t pharmaceutical labs. Probably not developing new leukemia drugs. From your answer, Victoria Nuland, we would assume, because you all but said it, there’s a military application of this research. They’re working on bioweapons.”

However, Griffin claims that the information about the labs is not considered to [be]  a secret or new development. “It is a long program that has existed, where the Pentagon has partnered with these biolabs,” Griffin said, adding, “The U.S. has been very open about its involvement there with that. But what Russia does is they take that information, distort it, turn it around and turn it into disinformation.”

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https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-didnt-mention-his-guest-trying-decertify-2020-election-wisconsin

on

March 7, Tucker Carlson hosted Michael Gableman, a special counsel hired by the Republican-controlled Wisconsin legislature, to highlight an interim report by Gableman about the 2020 election. The segment was touted by a spokesperson for Donald Trump. But it left out some crucial details. [vid]

 CARLSON (HOST): So you learn a lot about what the people in charge care about by what they won't allow you to say. And at the very top of the list of things you're not allowed to say, can literally get you silenced and censored for saying, is that there was voter fraud in the last election. But the fact is there was and the deeper you dig, the more of it you find. 

The Wisconsin Office of Special Counsel has just released its second report on the subject, and it's pretty unbelievable. The report found, among other things, quote 100 percent voting rates in many nursing homes in Brown, Dane, Kenosha, Milwaukee, and Racine counties. Several of these nursing home residents that had voted had been previously declared incompetent. Michael Gabelman is the special counsel to the Wisconsin Assembly, he is also a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. By the way, we will be speaking to Mr. Gableman at much greater length at Tucker Carlson Today. But we wanted to preview the conversation right now. Mr. Gableman, thanks so much for coming on. Now, I – the report is, in my opinion, pretty shocking. But just give us give us the overview of what you found.

MICHAEL GABLEMAN (SPECIAL COUNSEL TO THE WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY): Tucker, the overview relates right back to what you said in your opening segment, the relatively unremarkable observation that all lives are equal. Well, it should be relatively – It should be also unremarkable to say that all votes in a democracy are equal. But that wasn't the case in Wisconsin in November 2020. We had a wave of massive election bribery in which government officials in the five Zuckerberg-sponsored cities participated, as well as what you related when you introduced your audience to me, which is the government-sponsored elder abuse, all to wring out votes from people who frankly were victimized by the very people at the Wisconsin Elections Commission who are supposed to keep our voters safe.

CARLSON: I'm a little confused. So, Mark Zuckerberg is a tech billionaire. He's not a government official. He has no legal or constitutional right to control our elections. But it sounds like he had a great deal of control over the elections in Wisconsin.

GABLEMAN: He had a great deal. He adopted a plan by a guy who became his employee named David Plouffe, who wrote the unsubtlely-titled book A Citizen's Guide to Beating Donald Trump. And in Nevada, on November 11, 2016, David Plouffe did a postmortem on the Hillary Clinton campaign failure to win. And he said the two big mistakes that the Hillary Clinton campaign made were failing to target cities like Milwaukee and failing to drive out the numbers of the African-American vote. And so Mark Zuckerberg has $330 million dollars that he's going to spend to defeat Donald Trump, and he puts David Plouffe's lessons in the of the 2016 campaign into operation in Wisconsin. And now we are seeing a complete cover-up and obstruction by the very so-called public servants who ran this election, who should have been in charge, but who delegated it out to Mark Zuckerberg's agents and virtually employees. We had one guy, Michael Spitzer Rubenstein, a lawyer from Brooklyn, New York, who was running the election site on Election Day in the city of Green Bay. One of our five largest cities, also one of the five cities to receive the Zuckerberg money – $8.8 million dollars between the five.

CARLSON: That's just it's all beyond belief, and you'd think that people who wanted to defend democracy would be outraged, but of course, they're in favor of it. Michael, this report, and again, we haven't always highlighted voter fraud on this show, but this report proves it. It's horrifying and really look forward to speaking to you at much greater length on Tucker Carlson Today.

Here’s some of what Carlson left out.

To start with, neither Carlson nor Gableman mentioned that Gableman has called for decertifying Wisconsin’s 2020 election, even though that’s not legally possible, according to lawyers for the legislature. That’s a fairly large omission right from the jump, and it gets worse.

Neither Carlson nor Gableman disclosed that Gableman had previously appeared at a Trump rally.

Gableman’s report, his presentation to the Wisconsin assembly, and much of his segment with Carlson were based on a conspiracy theory about Facebook/Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s private donations to the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which helped over 2,500 jurisdictions across the country hold an election during the pandemic.

As NPR reported back in 2020, “The money arrived as historically underfunded election department budgets were sapped from unforeseen purchases during the primaries and were forced to spend money on election workers, postage and printing for the increasing number of voters who wanted to vote by mail.” The NPR report even broke down how some Wisconsin jurisdictions used the money.

Conspiracy theories have swirled in right-wing circles about the grants since the election, but as NPR noted, “An APM Reports analysis of voter registration and voter turnout in three of the five key swing states shows the grant funding had no clear impact on who turned out to vote.” The Associated Press also reported that three lawsuits arguing that the funding was illegal under state law were all rejected.

Sarah Mimms at BuzzFeed News dove into Gableman’s criticism of how the state handled senior citizen voting; he claimed a decision not to send voting assistants into nursing homes meant mentally unfit residents cast ballots. She noted that Gableman's team interviewed nursing home residents about how elections work “apparently as a test of their capacity to have voted,” but that a Democratic legislator at the presentation noted that only a judge can take away a person's right to vote.

Mimms also noted that Gableman’s report asked nursing home residents “whether they would support a hypothetical candidate for office who wanted to raise taxes to create government health insurance, apparently as a test of their capacity to have voted.” And she wrote that a Democrat pointed out to Gableman at the hearing that only a judge can prevent a person from voting.

The AP also noted in a fact check that the history behind the nursing home decision was far more complicated than Gableman let on:

State law does require local election clerks to send so-called special voting deputies to nursing homes to give residents an opportunity to vote. After trying to make two visits, the deputies can mail absentee ballots to the residents instead.

But early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Wisconsin Elections Commission made its decision, the state was under a safer-at-home order and nursing homes were severely limiting who could come into their facilities, often not even allowing immediate family members inside.

The elections commission, split evenly among Republicans and Democrats, in March 2020 voted unanimously that poll workers could not be sent into nursing homes. The commission voted 5-1 in two follow-up votes extending the order through the November 2020 election before rescinding it in March 2021. Instead of sending in voting deputies, the commission directed clerks to mail absentee ballots to nursing home residents who had requested them.

State election commissioners have defended their move, saying they were trying to ensure nursing home residents could vote by sending absentee ballots instead of voting assistants who may not have been allowed to enter.

Mimms also noted that Gableman struggled to explain why, if there was as much fraud as he suggests, Trump did so much worse than other Republicans on the ballot.

And she highlighted one detail that might explain why Gableman is interested in a media tour right now: His contract may be up.

Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, a Republican who is retiring at the end of the year, tweeted Tuesday that he will “do everything possible to stop any effort, to put politicians in charge of deciding who wins or loses elections.” Speaker Robin Vos, who hired Gableman, did not respond to a request for comment.

When Vos first started the 2020 election investigation, under intense pressure from Trump and his supporters, he insisted that its focus wasn’t on trying to undo the 2020 election, but on providing a rationale for passing election reforms through the legislature this year. Gableman’s report, however, came too late for that. As Democratic Rep. Mark Spreitzer noted during the hearing, Vos passed a few election-related bills last week — which would not survive a veto from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers — and the Assembly is unlikely to meet again this session.

Gableman told legislators Tuesday that he is planning to continue his investigation, but that the status of his contract with Vos is “complicated” and they are “going back and forth on the terms and the scope of the continued contract.” Vos did not respond to a request for comment on the contract.

“I believe that I do have a continuing contract through the rendering of services,” Gableman said. “Others take the position that my authority ran out at the end of December of ‘21."

This segment is indistinguishable from the right-wing media segments that served as a pretext for the January 6 insurrection. We’re more than a year past that awful day, and Fox News is still throwing gasoline on American democracy. It’s only going to get worse.

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/watch-tucker-carlson-has-a-bizarre-new-way-of-blaming-the-u-s-for-the-russian-invasion/

no lnx twt pix of vp w/ nukes

Watch: Tucker Carlson has a bizarre new way of blaming the US for the Russian invasion

Image via Screengrab

Meaghan Ellis March 08, 2022

As part of his continued effort to blame someone other than himself for his botched commentary on the war between Russia and Ukraine, Fox News' Tucker Carlson is going to great lengths to blame the United States' Democratic-run White House for Russian President Vladamir Putin's actions.

On Monday, March 7, Carlson pulled a quote from Vice President Kamala Harris' speech at her news conference in Munich, Germany back in February. “Kamala Harris encouraged Ukraine to become a member of NATO. Quote,‘I appreciate and admire President Zelenskyy’s desire to join NATO,’” Carlson said.

“Message: Up yours, Vladimir Putin, go ahead and invade Ukraine,” Carlson continued. “And, of course, Vladimir Putin did that just days later. So the invasion was no surprise to the Biden administration. They knew that would happen. That was the point of the exercise."

:{:{}:

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“We watched all this happen, we missed it. How? Honestly because it was insane and therefore very hard to take seriously. Why in the world would the United States intentionally seek war with Russia? How could we possibly benefit from that war?We still don’t know the answerto that question," he added.

Although President Joe Biden repeatedly issued warnings saying that a Russian invasion of Ukraine was likely and that the United States would react “swiftly and decisively,” Carlson appeared to have omitted that from his commentary.

Carlson's latest long-shot attempt comes just days after he backpedaled and admitted that his previous remarks on the Russian invasion were inaccurate. In fact, the conservative host's inaccurate remarks have been taken as excerpts and featured in critical ads highlighting his mistakes.

Although Carlson has claimed on multiple occasions that he was taken by surprise when Russia invaded Ukraine, his argument of “Why didn’t we see this coming?” is a futile one because there were repeated warnings about the possibility of it happening.

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TUCKER 3 partial bak

7/20

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mainstreams racism white nat'l and now fascism? (see umberto eco)

see wedge culture war

prolly some neglect for routine BS

html  onslaught

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https://www.mediamatters.org/russias-invasion-ukraine/tucker-carlsons-history-pro-kremlin-anti-ukraine-propaganda

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gmail 3/22

Townhall

... we were the largest producer of oil and gas," explained Marc Morano, author of Green Fraud and executive editor of Climate Depot.

Beijing's Energy Policies Benefit Chinese Industry, While US Sacrifices Its Own ... - The Epoch Times

The Epoch Times

That's according to Marc Morano, executive director of ClimateDepot.com, a project of the Washington-based think tank Committee for a Constructive ...

Natural Gas Prices Continue Climbing After Ukraine Invasion, Nord Stream 2 Cancellation

The Epoch Times

Marc Morano, the proprietor of Climate Depot, told The Epoch Times that the G7 statement was “laughable,” given that up to 40 percent of European ...

Fossil fuel apologists blame everyone but Putin. Because of course they do. | Red, Green, and Blue

Red, Green, and Blue

... Carlson (who's been defending Putin) had Marc Morano on his show to –what else – blame Biden and climate concern for the Russian invasion.

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msnbc 2 22 says he makes gop policy/POV?!

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tucker-carlson-2656832200/

~KBB

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/tucker-carlson-2656827634/

no lnx vid

Tucker Carlson tries to gaslight his way out of having pushed Putin’s anti-Ukraine propaganda for a month

David Neiwert and Daily Kos March 02, 2022

Tucker Carlson is utterly baffled that people would think he is rooting for Vladimir Putin and Russia in its war on Ukraine. “You know, it’s such an awful thing to say,” he said on his Fox News show Monday, after playing a clip of Congressman Eric Swalwell saying he and other Republicans were on Putin’s side. “We hesitated to play that, even—it’s very common, you hear it every day. The question is: Why are they saying that? It doesn’t make any sense.”

Gaslighting, of course, has become Carlson’s specialty. In reality, Carlson spent most of the month prior to the invasion praising Putin and echoing Russian propaganda: running down Ukraine, deriding it as a “State Department client state”—not a democracy, but “a tyranny”—and claiming that Russia just wants to keep its borders secure, everything the fault of Joe Biden. So much so that he became the hero of Russian state television, where his rants were translated and replayed, and he was praised as an astute American.

Now that the horror is hitting home, Carlson suddenly has realized that he backed the wrong horse and is scurrying hard to dig his way out. The first step in that, of course, is gaslighting his audience about what he had been saying just the week before, and blaming the war on Putin now—yet somehow it’s still all Joe Biden’s fault. Those clips have yet to appear on Russian TV.

The major tone shift occurred Friday, a day after the invasion: “It’s a tragedy, because war always is a tragedy, and the closer you get to it, the more horrifying it seems,” he said. He also squarely put the onus on Russia and Putin: “He is to blame for what we’re seeing tonight in Ukraine.”

“Vladimir Putin started this war, so whatever the context of the decision that he made, he did it,” [CYA?] he said. “He fired the first shots.”

It’s a sharp and complete reversal of his previous arguments. On Feb. 17, he spouted Russian propaganda in claiming that Ukraine is not a legitimate nation. He also attacked U.S. officials who provided military aid to Ukraine.

“These people are so ghoulish,” Carlson said. “Of course they’re promoting war, not to maintain the democracy that is Ukraine. Ukraine is not a democracy. It has never been a democracy in its history, and it’s not now. It’s a client state of the Biden administration.”

This narrative became a staple of Carlson’s defense of Russia’s war. On his Feb. 22 show, he again spouted Putin’s propaganda: “The point here is to defend democracy. Not that Ukraine is a democracy. It’s not a democracy. Ukraine’s president has arrested his main political opponent, he has shut down newspapers and television stations that have dared to criticize him. So in American terms, you would call Ukraine a tyranny. But Joe Biden likes Ukraine, so Putin bad, war good.”

The next day, he again dismissed Ukraine as “a State Department client state,” claiming that Democrats wanted Americans to “wholeheartedly support jumping with both feet into a highly complicated conflict in a part of Eastern Europe where we have no national interests.”

The most noteworthy part of that Feb. 22 episode, however, was how Carlson defended Putin against his “haters” by comparing him to American liberals, who he clearly saw as far more nefarious:

It might be worth asking yourself, since it is getting pretty serious, ‘What is this really about? Why do I hate Putin so much? Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my kids to embrace racial discrimination? Is he making fentanyl? Is he trying to snuff out Christianity? Does he eat dogs?’ These are fair questions, and the answer to all of them is no. Vladimir Putin didn’t do any of that. So do why does permanent Washington hate him so much?

The day after the invasion began, on Feb. 24, it was more of the same. The invasion, he claimed, demonstrated that Biden was a foreign-policy failure who had promised he would keep it from happening, making Putin’s war a “humiliating defeat for Joe Biden.”

Russian state media promptly began re-airing Carlson’s rants with translated subtitles, particularly the Putin-didn’t-call-me-a-racist episode. His attacks on Ukraine’s legitimacy also received heavy play. They also replayed Carlson’s Feb. 24 interview with ex-Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who told him: "Sanctions don't work. This is the whole problem with the Biden administration: They are so focused on how do we punish Putin."

The clips became the topic of Russian TV news talk shows, where Carlson was uniformly praised. “Excellent performance,” the editor of a Russian national defense journal commented. “We can only have solidarity with this view.”

Of course, Carlson is hardly alone in spreading pro-Russian propaganda on Fox News. On Feb. 24, just before bombs began falling on Ukraine, host Laura Ingraham interviewed ex-president Donald Trump by phone, who praised Putin—“I do know him very well. We’ve had many, uh, times together. I got along with him fantastically”—and ranted at length that the invasion was Biden’s fault, and the war never would have happened if the election hadn’t been stolen from him.

Near the end of the interview, Ingraham asked Trump about the speech given earlier that day by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, describing it as “a kind of really pathetic display” and described Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador as “looking like a defeated man.”

And despite the seeming change in tone, Carlson’s “pivot” still found him ardently defending Russian propaganda, and serving as its useful tool. Angry that authorities and platform owners in the U.S., Canada, and in Europe are taking action against the Kremlin-owned American news outlet Russia Today and other agitprop producers like Sputnik—both of whom also heavily replayed his pro-Russia rants—Carlson fumed that it all constituted “moral blackmail,” gaslighting away his previous remarks: “No one in America takes pride at the sight, feels anything but revulsion at the sight, of Russian troops within Ukraine.”

Sure enough, RT promptly retweeted Carlson’s clip: “Tucker Carlson defends media freedom as Senators use their power to shut down free speech on social media—especially so-called ‘Russian propaganda.’”

As Lis Wahl, a former anchor at Russia Today, explained to The Daily Beast, the distinction between a propaganda operation like RT and what’s aired on Fox News has essentially vanished:

While the American voices Russian media uses to influence Western audiences hail from the far-left and the far-right, the poison of disinformation asymmetrically originates on the ideological right. Research has demonstrated that followers of the former president stick to hyper-partisan and conspiracy-laden sources such as Breitbart, Info Wars, and Fox News. During Trump’s election and throughout his presidency, the rightwing ecosystem grew more conspiratorial, extreme, and anti-democratic. It is during this time that Russian media and right-wing media became indistinguishable.

Today, the chief purveyors of pro-Russian disinformation in the U.S. are now on Fox News. I have warned that quite often the pro-Putin claims on Fox and RT essentially mimic each other. But much of the American public, and even many in the mainstream media, fail to realize the extent to which this disinformation has become part of the fabric of the new media landscape, and therefore, American political discourse.

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/tucker-carlson-says-ketanji-brown-jacksons-nomination-part-effort-humiliate-and-degrade

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an 2 22

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is still defending his support of Russian President Vladamir Putin while dismissing the importance of Ukraine. However, key Republican voters appear to have a different opinion on the critical topic.

On Monday, February 21, the conservative political commentator fired back at Democratic critics during his segment of "Tucker Carlson Tonight." In response to the disapproval of his desire to speak with Putin, he said:

“We won’t be quiet, and not just because this is a news organization,” Carlson said on Monday evening. “Because we’re Americans, and we can talk to anyone we want. We can have any opinion we feel like having. That is not treason, it is not un-American. It’s the whole point of America."

Despite Carlson's claims, Politico is shedding light on a key group of Republican voters who strongly disagree with Carlson. Per Politico, Andrew Futey, who serves as the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America president and an active voice in Republican politics, explained the perspective of Ohio Ukrainians.

"Ohio’s Ukrainians are well-organized and politically active — a Midwestern constituency with a strong working-class element that actually votes in part on foreign policy, and punches above well above its size in their state’s politics, according to many Ukrainian Americans I recently spoke to in Ohio. There aren’t specific polls on Ukrainian voting patterns in the state, but traditionally these voters made up a “Reagan Republican-like community,” says Andrew Futey, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, a nonpartisan national nonprofit that advocates for Ukrainian-American interests."

Futey also noted that “isolationism absolutely, absolutely is not something the community grasps or will ever support."

Andy Fedynsky — the director of the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland Ohio — also argues otherwise. Speaking to Politico, he refuted Carlson's arguments explaining why Ukraine is far more important than the conservative commentator realizes.

“Most of the history of Ukraine is never a history of taking someone else’s land, but rather defending its own,” said Bohdan Danylo, the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, St. Josaphat Cathedral.

“If we, as a birthplace of democracy — and this democracy that is still standing, United States of America … if we think that today those principles are not defended by peace-loving and freedom-loving Ukrainians, we are mistaken,” Danylo also said.

Lubomir Zhybak, a Ukrainian pastor in Youngstown, Ohio had also sounded off about Carlson's rhetoric. In a letter he reportedly sent via Fox News' "Viewer Feedback" platform, he wrote, "The reason why I am writing to you is to express my disdain at your seemingly biased anti-Ukrainian statements that you recently made on your shows regarding the current conflict between Ukraine and Russia. I think your comments not only offend us, Ukrainians, but also the millions of Ukrainian people who have been murdered by the Soviets and Russians throughout the course of history."

As a critical battleground state for the Republican Party, candidates have to consider how the Ukrainian controversy could impact the midterm elections for the party. Although Carlson is a dominant voice among conservatives, he could be doing more harm than good with his relentless dismissal of Ukraine.

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note rubber glue inverse bizarroworld:

an 2 22

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) recently expressed concern about a new lawsuit referencing his "Stop the Steal" rhetoric which could subsequently impact his chances of re-election in the 2022 midterm elections. After fighting to push Trump's self-serving agenda, now, according to The Daily Beast, the Republican senator claims he's focused on the will of the American people.

On Monday, February 21, Cawthorn appeared on "The Tucker Carlson Tonight" where he shared his disdain of the critics calling him out in his own state.

“I’m sure that you were as puzzled as I was following Jan. 6 when they started saying that we were insurrectionists, seditionists, traitors. I thought they were just trying to get a flashy headline,” Cawthorn said.

However, the lawmaker also explained how this was part of a so-called “plan.”

Per The Daily Beast, the lawsuit focuses on the 14th Amendment, which includes a clause designed to prohibit former Confederates from holding public office. It states that no individual “having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same.”

“What is going on here is that they are actually very close to being able to subvert the will of over 700,000 Americans,” Cawthorn claimed.

However, Cawthorn appears to believe every constituent in his district is rallying behind him.

“And make no mistake, Tucker: This is not just about a 26-year-old from western North Carolina in a wheelchair," Cawthorn said. "This is about the future of our very nation. If they’re able to set this precedent in North Carolina, they will be able to keep anybody who had valid and legitimate concerns about what happened in the 2020 election from being able to ever hold office.”

Unsurprisingly, Carlson backed Cawthorn's assessment as he attempted to distort Democratic lawmakers' motives.

“I think your analysis is so smart. You’re exactly right,” the Fox News host gushed. “That’s why they called the rioters ‘insurrectionists.’ And so many conservative officeholders and news organizations have ignored it. They’re so embarrassed. They don’t see what this is really about, which is ending democracy.”

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beef sparked by?

Tucker Carlson nails ‘liberal’ pollster Frank Luntz: He ‘has no business advising the GOP’

May 1, 2021 | Terresa Monroe-Hamilton |  CONST CONSERVATIVE

Fox News host Tucker Carlson shredded liberal pollster Frank Luntz in his opening monologue on Friday, calling him a “conventional liberal” who the Republican Party looks to for answers when “he has no business advising the GOP.”

“Year after year on issue after issue, the leadership of the Republican party fails to represent its voters,” he noted on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

He contended that part of the reason for that is that Luntz is “the Republican Party’s longest-serving message man.” He has close ties to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy out of California as well and, according to Carlson, that adds to his influence within the GOP, “dressing up” his own opinions in what he described as “social science.”

“He’ll conduct something called a ‘focus group,’ that’s a moderated conversation between several people that has, in fact, no actual relevance to anything. It’s just random people yammering. Your 90-second exchange with the UPS guy this morning meant more than a Frank Luntz focus group,” the Fox News host said.

“Yet purely on the basis of that irrelevant conversation, Luntz manages to make pronouncements about the country and how the Republican Party should respond to it. Most of those pronouncements, as you can imagine, tend to comport perfectly with his own views, as well as with the views of Google executives,” Carlson accusingly stated.

(Video Clip: Fox News)

Many of Luntz’s alleged clients are left-leaning big corporations and yet he frequently speaks at Republican events, and conservatives turn to him for wisdom on current polls and the state of politics. His talking points are very liberal in nature and sound far more like they come from the Democratic Party than the GOP. He has also appeared to be anti-Trump at times.

Carlson knocked Luntz for his comments about Trump supporters and immigration. He also went after him for his seemingly anti-Second Amendment stance on guns, and his views on law and order.

In a clip shared by Carlson, Luntz told Newsmax that: “They [Trump voters] believe in immigrants and immigration. They are pro-immigration and honestly, I was a little surprised because of what I see reported in the media. Trump supporters support the DREAM Act. They support the ability of these people, who were brought here through no fault of their own, [having] the ability to earn the path to citizenship … We need these people, we actually have an economy that’s expanding, that’s growing.”

Luntz further stated on gun control, speaking with CBS in another clip: “The public wants guns out of the schools, not in the schools. And they’re not asking for a security official or someone else. I don’t think the NRA is listening, I don’t think that they understand. Most Americans would protect [their] Second Amendment rights and yet agree with the idea not every human being should own a gun. Not every gun should be available at any time, anywhere for anyone.”

“Who does that sound like? It sounds a lot like Joe Biden, a man Frank Luntz has been friends with for a long time,” Carlson pointed out.

And on law and order, Luntz was heard saying: “Well I was critical that he [Trump] used the words law and order. He’s assuming that we have the same politics as 1968 … Donald Trump doesn’t realize that you can govern in a strong, stable, successful way and still use language that is warm and kind and empathetic.”

Carlson then slammed Luntz over his shilling for Big Business, claiming he has been “toadying for big corporations” such as Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin which has been blamed for furthering the opioid epidemic.

“For decades, Frank Luntz has told elected Republicans what to say and precisely how to say it. Luntz massages language for politicians,” Carlson intoned.

“He does it now. Just this week, the National Republican Congressional Committee, the NRCC, invited Luntz to Florida for its so-called ‘policy summit,’ where he was asked to weigh in on the ‘hot topics.’ Luntz’s job was to tell Republicans – officeholders, people with power – how to think about the most important issues of the day. We didn’t hear the presentation, but there’s no doubt it was compelling,” the Fox News host quipped.

“Frank Luntz is a smooth salesman,” he added. “That why he’s been around for a while. The problem with Frank Luntz is that his views, his personal views, are very different from those of your average Republican voter.”

“Frank Luntz is a conventional liberal. His main clients are left-wing corporations like Google. When Frank Luntz gives advice to congressional Republicans, he’s got Google’s perspective in mind. That’s a huge problem,” Carlson posited.

“This is the guy Republican leaders went to just this week for, quote, ‘messaging guidance on hot topics.’ And you wonder why you no longer recognize the party that you vote for,” he concluded.

Luntz snarked back in a now-deleted tweet, saying, “That explains all the angry, misspelled messages in my inbox tonight.”

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SEE UMBERTO ECO DEF OF FASCISM ON SCHIZO ENEMY:

https://www.mediamatters.org/facebook/facebook-ads-tucker-carlsons-hungary-vs-soros-documentary-have-been-viewed-millions-times

NO LNX PIX TWT

Facebook ads promoting Hungary vs. Soros: The Fight for Civilization -- the season finale of Tucker Carlson’s Fox Nation “documentary” series -- have garnered more than 5.2 million impressions.

A new Media Matters analysis has found that Fox Nation -- the streaming service for Fox News “superfans” -- has run at least 56 ads since January 27 promoting the episode, which relies on antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories to attack George Soros, the Hungarian-born billionaire philanthropist and Holocaust survivor. The ad data is not available through the Facebook Ad Library because Fox Nation isn’t running these promotions as political ads, which is the only type Facebook’s Ad Library archives or provides data for. However, external data from Pathmatics reveals that Fox Nation spent more than $48,000 on the ads, earning more than 5.2 million impressions.

Hungary vs. Soros is the latest installment in the “Tucker Carlson Originals” series, which has a shameful record of using shock and awe tactics to push antidemocratic propaganda. Despite Tucker Carlson’s white nationalist brand, the streaming service has heavily relied on the prime-time host to promote and grow the platform.

The “documentary” calls upon antisemitic stereotypes to demonize Soros and puff up the far-right nationalist government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has embraced authoritarian tactics and faces reelection in April. Carlson simultaneously pushes many of the same talking points about Soros that Orbán used in his 2018 election campaign. As my Media Matters colleague Nikki McCann Ramirez noted, Carlson portrays Soros in the series “as an insidious, unseen political kingmaker who seeks to destroy the national sovereignty of Hungary and transform its culture by leveraging his money and control of the media" against a backdrop of menacing synth chords and black and white images of Soros.

Facebook is allowing Fox Nation to run ads promoting Hungary vs. Soros despite its authoritarian and antisemitic undertones. In fact, Fox Nation has run at least 56 ads related to the episode, with at least 44 still active at the time of publication. (The other 12 ads are no longer shown in Facebook’s ad library.)

The ads, which have been seen millions of times by Facebook users, include one of four texts that attack Soros for “unchecked political power” and/or praise Orbán for being Soros’ “newest foe.” Additionally, all the ads link to Fox Nation’s website, where users can subscribe to watch it.

Fox Nation_Hungary vs. Soros_ads_2

Fox Nation_Hungary vs. Soros_ads_1

Some of the ads also include a promotional 15-second video of the episode.

CitationFrom the February 11, 2022, Facebook ad from Fox Nation

Before Fox Nation started running paid advertisements for Hungary vs. Soros, several Fox Facebook pages shared posts promoting it, including pages associated with The Five, Tucker Carlson Tonight, and Fox Nation.

It was also repeatedly promoted on Fox News itself, not only on Carlson’s show, but also during his interviews on The Five and Fox & Friends. The Fox News website featured an ad for it on its homepage and published an article on the piece. Fox Nation also sent out a promotional email that said, “George Soros is waging cultural and political warfare on the West, but he’s met his match in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.”

The right-wing fixation on Soros is a problem across the Fox brand. According to a transcript analysis from Kinetiq video database, Fox News mentioned “Soros” a total of 435 times between January 1, 2021, and February 8, 2022, with the coverage ramping up starting in November. With Facebook’s long history of profiting from the spread of harmful content, it is unsurprising that the platform is enabling the promotion of this production to millions.

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/free-base-pipe/

no lnx vid twt?

Right-wing website made up viral fake claim Republicans like Marco Rubio are now pushing: report

[Marco Rubio embarrasses himself again by doubling down on false attack of defense secretary]

David Badash and The New Civil Rights Movement February 10, 2022

This week Republican lawmakers and voters have had a great time pushing a false claim that the Biden administration is spending tens of millions of dollars to pay for "free crack pipes" for drug abusers. The claim came from a report by the right-wing website Washington Free Beacon, including a quote falsely attributed to an HHS spokesperson, according to The Daily Beast.

It's no surprise The Daily Beast is calling "a lie" made its way to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives and a U.S. Senator's Twitter account.

"The Washington Free Beacon seemed to take a big leap to assert that free crack pipes would be part of a harm reduction package," The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberg reports, calling it "a lie rocketed around conservative media."

The report, published Monday and titled “Biden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance ‘Racial Equity,’” cited an HHS spokesperson as confirming that a sweeping harm reduction package “will provide pipes” to smoke, quote, “any illicit substance.”

The Free Beacon's article reads: “A spokesman for the agency told the Washington Free Beacon that these kits will provide pipes for users to smoke crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and ‘any illicit substance.’”

The Daily Beast reviewed the email chain between the Washington Free Beacon and HHS. It's unclear how the Free Beacon made the "any illicit substance" claim, given the HHS email specifically states no federal laws would be broken.

In fact, The Daily Beast reports the HHS spokesperson says the Free Beacon “omitted the information shared with him about the grantees needing to comply with federal, state, and local laws—the very language that would prohibit crack pipes.”

The damage has already been done. The "free crack pipes" claim is now one more myth in conservatives' false reality.

Arizona far-right Republican U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Lesko made the false claim on the floor of the House of Representatives:

Florida Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, linking to an article literally titled: "Biden administration denies funding programs that hand out crack pipes to prevent infection and promote 'racial equity'" says in a video posted to his Twitter account, "The Biden administration is going to be sending crack pipes and meth pipes, targeting minority communities," a claim he knows is a lie.

Fox News entertainers Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity both made the most of the claim, with The Daily Mail reporting: "Tucker Carlson slams policy to hand out free crack pipes and needles warning it 'will result in addicts shooting up on the streets.'"

The genie is out of the bottle, and no one on the right has any intention or desire to put it back.

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an 222

no lnx

The Trumpified GOP has a whole new generation of power brokers and 'kingmakers': report

Alex Henderson February 04, 2022

The fact that so many well-known right-wing Republicans endorsed Joe Biden during the United States’ 2020 presidential race —from former Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona to former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina to Sen. John McCain’s widow Cindy McCain — speaks volumes about how dramatically former President Donald Trump remade the GOP in his image, and how alienated they fell from the party. The GOP landscape is radically different from what it was during the Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama years, and journalists Jonathan Swan and Lachlan Markay describe that landscape in an article published by Axios on February 4.

“Paths to power and winning elections inside the GOP are changing rapidly and radically, spawning a new generation of kingmakers while diminishing the clout of many who lorded over the party for years,” Swan and Markay explain. “Why it matters: 14 of the Republican Party's top consultants and operatives across the country spoke in detail with Axios about how profoundly primary races have changed since 2014 — the last pre-Donald Trump midterm election and the last midterms in which a Democrat occupied the White House.”

The reporters continue, “What we found: Those sources — whose clients range from as Trumpy as they come to establishment Republicans — described a clear shift in the party's power brokers. They spoke of changes to the ecosystem across four categories: institutional upheaval, endorsements, conservative media and donors.”

Swan and Markay go on to list Republicans who “had the power” in the past — a group that includes the National Review, the National Rifle Association, the Drudge Report, Heritage Action and the “Koch network,” among others.

But their “who has the power now” list is much more MAGA. That list includes Trump and his “family and former aides” as well as Breitbart News, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro’s the Daily Wire, former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon and the Susan B. Anthony List.

Swan and Markay also mention “online influencers, including Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino, Joe Rogan, Jack Posobiec, Charlie Kirk and Marjorie Taylor-Greene.”

“Most of these changes weren't gradual,” the Axios journalists note. “They were triggered by the shockwave of 2016. Much of the institutional GOP worked against Trump in 2016. Much of the heft they believed their endorsements carried evaporated as voters saw in real-time how Trump had little need for them and ultimately obliterated them.”

A Republican consultant, interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Axios, “You wouldn't know that these groups were paper tigers — unless you ever ran against one of them."

In 2020, Never Trump conservatives hoped that if Trump were voted out of office, the Republican Party would return to a pre-MAGA brand of conservatism. But a year into Joe Biden’s presidency, that obviously isn’t going to happen.

“Many movement conservative brands are shadows of what they used to be,” Swan and Markay emphasize. “Many of the major conservative think tanks supported policy positions — such as reforming Social Security or free trade — that Trump obliterated and proved elderly GOP voters didn’t actually support.”

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an 222

Carlson donated to Marjorie Taylor Greene in gun giveaway promo to 'blow away Democrats’ socialist agenda'

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

Fox News host Tucker Carlson made a campaign donation to U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene last September as part of a gun giveaway for an assault-style rifle reportedly “loved...

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https://www.alternet.org/2022/01/tucker-carlson-and-george-soros/

an 1 22

Earlier this week, fans of the highest-rated host in U.S. cable news were told that one of the most recognizable and demonized Jews in public life is waging a "political, social and demographic war on the West." Hungary, they were told, is this monstrous figure's "main hunting area," but all of North America and Europe are in his sights, and only through the widespread embrace of aggressive conservative nationalism can he be defeated.

In fairness, not all of that is made clear at first. For the first quarter of Fox News host Tucker Carlson's new documentary short, "Hungary vs Soros: The Fight for Civilization," it's hard to tell why it was made. Yes, over the last several years Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's proudly "illiberal" Hungary has become the centerpiece of American conservative vision-boarding. Yes, many on the U.S. right would love to emulate Hungary's pronatalist policies to encourage early marriage and large families; its crackdowns on press and academic freedom, including the defunding of university gender studies; its effective ban on Muslim immigration, and its actual bans on same-sex marriage, adoption and LGBTQ content for minors. It's no secret that Soros remains one of the right's foremost villains, blamed for everything from protests against Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court confirmation to Donald Trump's election loss to migrants seeking entry to America.

But all that aside, the latest "Tucker Carlson Original" looks and feels, at least at first, like old news: a tighter, better produced, chalkboard-free remake of Glenn Beck's three-hour 2010 anti-Soros series, "The Puppet Master," which was widely condemned as antisemitic and is sometimes credited for helping drive Beck's departure from Fox the following year.

Carlson's reboot, which wasn't aired on Fox News proper but its seedier online streaming service, Fox Nation, includes many of the same ingredients as the original. There's the same sort of ominous soundtrack and grayed-out coloring when Soros appears on screen, and the same fixation on Soros as a "globalist" who is allegedly erecting a new world order through his sprawling web of influence and his control of media "storylines."

There's a familiar framing, early in the film, of Soros as being amoral in some difficult-to-specify way. In Beck's version, an opening quote from Soros noted that his mother, in pre-Holocaust Hungary, had been "ashamed of being Jewish." In Carlson's, within the first minute or so we see a clip of Soros telling an interviewer he doesn't believe in God. While Carlson doesidn't repeat Beck's use of ghoulish medieval puppet props, he deploys the same metaphor, accusing Soros of using his money and NGO network "to oust democratically elected leaders and install ideologically-aligned puppets into positions of power." And, like Beck, Carlson cites as evidence Soros's support for various Eastern European "color revolutions," without acknowledging to his audience that those revolutions were almost entirely peaceful protests against communist or post-communist dictatorships.

There are some notable differences in Carlson's update. In establishing Hungary under Orbán as the last bulwark against Soros's allegedly creeping empire, Carlson turns into something of a Budapest tour guide, marveling at airport advertisements encouraging people to have more children, the city's architecture and anti-Soros street signs. ("Will George Soros attack our country again?")

He works in some combat reporter-style helicopter footage as he tours the Hungarian border fence, and lingers long on the faces of two hapless teenage-looking refugees who were caught trying to enter the country, and who Carlson darkly suggests probably aren't Syrian, as they claim. He even stops to appreciate Budapest's "mostly conservative" graffiti, like a wall spray-painted with "Fuck Liberals" (in English) and a symbol that looks a lot like the white supremacist rendering of the Celtic cross.

But the big reveal begins about a quarter of the way through, when Carlson first mentions "nationalism." Orbán was once the beneficiary of Soros's philanthropy, Carlson says, but now understands him as a threat after becoming "a Hungarian nationalist." This is likely to fly under the radar for most viewers, but that is effectively the documentary's guiding theme: Orbán is "the sort of man, the sort of political leader, who has taken these populist nationalist instincts and turned them into effective policy." Furthermore, "Soros opposes Orbán because Soros opposes nation states" and the upcoming Hungarian elections "will be the defining battle in the war between George Soros and Viktor Orbán, in the battle between globalism and nationalism."

None of that rhetoric is anything new when it comes to Orbán, who's made Hungarian national sovereignty the defining issue of his political identity. But it definitely says a lot about Carlson, and how he's helping to mainstream one of the most contentious and troubling ideologies of the contemporary right.

Last November, hundreds of right-wing academics and thinkers gathered in Orlando for the highbrow National Conservatism conference. Much of the three-day gathering focused on trying to develop a new conservative coalition along post-liberal lines. As I wrote in The New Republic earlier this month, the National Conservatives see classical liberalism — meaning old-fashioned, small-L liberalism, which prioritizes individual rights and private property, and is embraced by many staunch conservatives as well — as the root of modern society's problems.

A society ordered around unfettered personal and market freedom, they argue, makes it too difficult to raise families according to "traditional" values. A widespread commitment to multicultural pluralism, in their view, has led to an oppressive cultural imperialism where individual countries are prohibited from protecting their borders or upholding their historical cultures. They'd like to see newly empowered national governments that embrace official or public religion, use state power to coerce people into leading virtuous lives (according to their standards) and reassert the sort of proud, unapologetic nationalism that reigned before the horrors of World War II.

Besides academics and writers, the National Conservatism movement has recently been adopted by former American Enterprise Institute president Christopher DeMuth, and is influential enough that the November conference drew a number of leading Republican politicians and contenders, including sitting senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio, and wannabe-senator J.D. Vance.

Many of the intellectuals heading up the postliberal/National Conservatism movement are Roman Catholic "integralists," who ultimately want to see the country governed according to a conservative Catholic vision of the "common good" (with most details about what that means left strategically vague). Other leaders are avowed nationalists, seeking to reclaim the term from what they see as its unfair association with the likes of Nazi Germany. A number of them have made that case prominently in books published in the last four years, including First Things editor R.R. Reno's "Return of the Strong Gods," National Review editor Rich Lowry's "The Case for Nationalism," and National Conservatism conference organizer Yoram Hazony's "The Virtue of Nationalism."

In both of those camps within right-wing intellectual circles, Hungary has emerged as the most practical model they can aspire to: It's the sort of nationalist "Christian democracy," as Orbán calls it, that they believe stands the best chance of replication in the U.S. (at least until there's enough support for the right-wing Catholic utopia sometimes described, jokingly or not, as the Empire of Guadalupe). As abundant media coverage has noted, the U.S. right has cheered on most of Orbán's most controversial policies. His government has assiduously courted their support, including through private institutions' offer of visiting fellowships and scholarships to numerous conservative academics and thinkers and Orbán's personal invitation to figures like American Conservative writer Rod Dreher that they consider Hungary their "intellectual home."

Those overtures have reaped undeniable benefits. Fulsome statements of support have flowed in from the likes of Dreher (who plays a starring role in the Fox Nation documentary) and Carlson, who broadcast his top-rated prime-time show from Budapest for a week last August. Orbán's reelection bid has drawn the endorsement of Donald Trump and many of his acolytes, all the way down to, just this week, the New York Young Republicans Club. In tangling with critics about the endorsement on Twitter this Thursday, the club's vice president taunted his foes by writing, "We're literally unifying the international right. …I'm not here to argue. I'm here to win.")

Orbán's regime also had a major presence at the National Conservatism conference in Orlando. There was a promotional table offering free conservative Hungarian books and magazines; a panel on "international nationalism" featuring Orbán's political director, Balázs Orbán (no relation), who enjoys a sizable American following; and a plenary address from Dreher on "What Conservatives Must Learn from Orbán's Hungary." (They must learn to unashamedly embrace "state power" in defense of conservative values and build a "conservative deep state" to ensure that entrenched right-wing policies can survive the unfortunate results of electoral defeat.)

Most of Carlson's viewers are unlikely to know much about all the ideological furniture in the background, or to care about it. But he's doing his best to bring them the Cliff Notes version, breaking the ideas discussed by Ivy-educated right-wing elites in Orlando into digestible bite-sized chunks, and delivering them, airplane-style, into mainstream conservative discourse.

One of those chunks is the rehabilitation of nationalism as a conservative virtue. Another is the idea that it's not just acceptable but commendable to use family policy as a means of engineering a country's racial makeup.

For years, Hungary had one of the lowest fertility rates in Europe. Combined with high emigration— mostly to other European Union nations — it was losing 32,000 people from its population annually. Orbán's government sought to address this by unveiling an aggressive suite of pronatalist policies in 2019, including interest-free loans to families that are forgiven with the birth of a third child, subsidies for minivans, and a lifetime exemption from income tax for mothers who have four or more kids.

Policies like these have enjoyed support from some conservative quarters for years. In 2007, the international right-wing coalition World Congress of Families called for similar measures while warning about what it called "demographic winter." This was the idea that European countries were producing too few children, leading to both "the graying of the continent" and the creation of dangerous population vacuums that would be filled with immigrants too difficult to assimilate. At the time, as I reported in The Nation, most of the racial hand-wringing was couched in euphemistic terms. But these days that subtext has become text, and sometimes the flashing headline, with the proliferation of conspiracist narratives about "white genocide" and the "Great Replacement," or Trump-era activists calling for a "white baby challenge."

In this new context, Orbán has been embraced by some on the right for framing his pronatalist policies as an intentional barricade against Muslim immigration, saying that while other countries were buoyed by immigration, Hungary didn't merely "need numbers" but rather "Hungarian children," or that Hungary didn't "want our colour, traditions and national culture to be mixed with those of others." Katalin Novák, the stylish and combative former family minister who became the face of Hungary's pronatalist campaign, warned that countries that abandon tradition will find themselves "condemned to [demographic] death." Conservatives on this side of the Atlantic swooned, with Breitbart dedicating regular coverage to Hungarian pronatalism, the National Review cheering that Orbán was "redefining the possibilities for modern social conservatism," and Carlson praising the plan as a model of family values during a 2019 interview with Hungary's foreign minister.

Orbán is not quite that blunt in Carlson's new special — the second half of which focuses on Hungary's pronatalist initiatives as part of the country's battle against Soros — but unlike other countries that choose to, in Carlson's words, "import new citizens from the rest of the world," the prime minister says Hungarians "would not like to leave this country to the migrants, we would like to leave it to our grandchildren." Carlson nods along with this, visiting a series of large Hungarian families as they beam at each other on playgrounds or buy new cars with government subsidies, before cutting to a black-and-white clip of a grim-faced Soros, saying that he's very concerned about the direction Hungary is headed. The unsubtle takeaway is that these amorphous questions of shifting populations and changing family structures is actually deliberate "demographic war," with Soros as general of the opposing army.

That's not an original idea either. It's the encapsulated narrative within or beneath the Great Replacement or white-genocide conspiracy theories, which hold that liberals — and specifically Jewish liberals — want to bring large numbers of immigrants and refugees into the U.S. or Europe to "replace" the white population there. That narrative has been the direct inspiration for numerous mass murder events, including the El Paso Walmart shooting, the mosque murders in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the assault on worshippers at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue, where the killer blamed a Jewish group for aiding refugees.

In September Carlson finally introduced the term "the great replacement" to his audience — after hinting or gesturing at it for months — calling it a "policy" to "change the racial mix of the country" through "the replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from far-away countries."

In the documentary released this week, Carlson illustrates this premise with a series of images intended to land more powerfully than words: a back-and-forth contrast between scenes of white people strolling amid the old-world beauty of Budapest streets or boating on the Danube, and scenes of Black and brown people, almost exclusively in situations of violent chaos, surging against fences, fighting with cops or, at their most benign, crying on the street. Toward the end of the documentary, the video cuts rapidly and repeatedly between second-long shots of white couples on park benches and footage of a crowd of shirtless Black men, shouting in a foreign language and lunging at the camera.

The next shot is meant to come as a relief: Orbán, back at the interview table, saying that he hopes his administration's work will "be enough to convince the people that it's a reasonable decision to support us, and not give the country to George Soros."

Carlson's larger point appears to be that a similar decision, one with apocalyptic or civilization-scale consequences, faces Americans as well.

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{{VAXXER:

https://www.mediamatters.org/tucker-carlson/fox-guest-demands-covid-vaccines-be-immediately-pulled-market-calls-them-dangerous

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https://www.mediamatters.org/one-america-news-network/oan-guest-claims-coronavirus-vaccines-are-effective-if-you-want-kill

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https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-hosts-rally-behind-ron-desantis-push-provide-covid-drugs-dont-work

cf trms govt stopped shipping 2 do not work omicron (3rd hard to get?)

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https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/see-right-wing-diatribes-falsely-comparing-vaccine-mandates-nazis

See the right-wing diatribes falsely comparing vaccine mandates to the Nazis

In fact, the Nazis withheld vaccines from conquered populations — and spread propaganda that vaccines were bad

WRITTEN BY ERIC KLEEFELD & JOHN KERR

PUBLISHED 01/28/22 no lnx vid

Right-wing media personalities have relentlessly pushed a disgusting set of talking points comparing present-day vaccine requirements to the atrocities of Nazi Germany — a comparison that is not only wrong in ethical terms, but also contrary to the actual history of Nazi policies on vaccines.

The commentators spreading this message have included Fox News prime-time host Tucker Carlson, Infowars’ Alex Jones; podcast host Joe Rogan; religious right broadcaster David Brody; YouTuber Steven Crowder and his co-hosts; One America News Network host Dan Ball; and others. (And just to top it off, Fox host Will Cain has compared vaccine requirements to life under East Germany’s post-war communist regime.)

In fact, Nazi Germany overturned the mandatory vaccination laws it had inherited from the earlier Weimar Republic. The regime also deliberately withheld vaccines from conquered peoples, with Adolf Hitler explaining that providing such benefits would “would result only in an enormous increase in local populations.” Furthermore, Hitler told his chief of staff to propagandize against vaccines for this very reason: “No inoculations and other preventative measures for the natives! We must even try to stifle any desire for such things by persuading them that vaccination and the like are really most dangerous.”

Oddly enough, Fox News’ Carlson has pursued a dual-pronged approach: On the one hand, he has fearmongered against “eugenics” and warned that “whites would go last” in line for the vaccines. But at the same time, he has compared universal vaccine requirements to “what the Imperial Japanese Army and the Nazis did in their medical experiments.” And, of course, Fox News is waging a propaganda campaign telling its own viewers that the vaccines are dangerous, while the company also practices a strict vaccine and testing regimen for itself.

And in a truly outrageous comparison, multiple right-wing hosts including Jones and Brody have invoked the Nuremberg Code, a set of medical ethics adopted in the wake of Nazi war crimes including medical experimentation on concentration camp inmates. These claims about vaccines have circulated online since mid-2020, before the COVID-19 vaccines had even become widely available.

In fact, the codes do not declare that medical care such as vaccines “could never be imposed on anyone,” as Carlson claimed — if that were true, it would prohibit all the other vaccine requirements that already exist for schoolchildren. Instead, the Nuremburg Code was formed in response to the gruesome and evil medical experiments the Nazi regime forcibly conducted on concentration camp prisoners, who were often murdered immediately afterward if the experiment itself did not kill them.

As a result, the Nuremberg Code’s text governs the circumstances of any medical experiments on human subjects, and says they must involve only subjects who have consented and be conducted under circumstances that would “avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.” The COVID-19 vaccines are no longer experimental, precisely because they went through vigorous testing on volunteer subjects as required by medical ethics.

And just to make it clear how outrageous this comparison really is — and how people like Carlson, Jones, and Brody are trafficking in sheer historical ignorance — consider exactly the sort of conduct the Nazis committed, to which the Nuremberg Code was written in response:

For the benefit of the German Army, whose frontline soldiers suffered greatly from gas gangrene, a type of progressive gangrene, doctors at the Ravensbruck concentration camp performed studies to test the effectiveness of sulfanilamide and other drugs in curbing such infections. They inflicted battlefield-like wounds in victims, then infected the wounds with bacteria such as streptococcus, tetanus, and gas gangrene. The doctors aggravated the resulting infection by rubbing ground glass and wood shavings into the wound, and they tied off blood vessels on either side of the injury to simulate what would happen to an actual war wound. Victims suffered intense agony and serious injury, and some of them died as a result.

In short, to compare a vaccination campaign providing the public with lifesaving drugs to the genuine war crimes against captive subjects that gave birth to the Nuremberg Code is simply a moral abomination.

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