Fox News’ Carlson Hits American Society Hard

From Move On:

On April 26, 2021, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson told his millions of viewers to confront and harass people whom they see wearing masks in public by demanding that they remove their mask. He then further encouraged his viewers to call the police on parents whose children are seen wearing masks in public, calling it “child abuse.”¹

Carlson continues to prove that he has become the tip of the spear of the powerful right-wing media machine, the de facto leader of the racist, conspiracy-loving, pro-Donald Trump far right—and we need to act.

Five nights a week, an average of more than 3 million people tune in to watch Tucker Carlson on Fox News.² It’s the largest audience of any show on cable news. In April alone, those millions of viewers heard Carlson claim that COVID-19 vaccines don’t work, that having children wear masks to protect them from the virus is child abuse, that convicted murderer Derek Chauvin did nothing wrong, and that Democrats want to replace white voters with immigrants—a decades-old racist and antisemitic argument known as the “replacement theory.”^3,4,5,6

Sources:

1.”Fox News host Tucker Carlson claims making children wear masks is ‘abuse’,” The Guardian, April 27, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153678?t=9&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

2.”Tucker Carlson Leads Fox News To Big Win In April Prime Time Ratings,” Forbes, April 27, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153259?t=11&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

3. “Tucker Carlson speculates Pfizer dose of COVID-19 vaccine ‘doesn’t work,'” Media Matters for America, April 15, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153210?t=13&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

4. “Tucker Carlson tells viewers to call Child Protective Services if they see a child wearing a mask outside,” Media Matters for America, April 26, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153211?t=15&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

5. “Tucker Carlson says Derek Chauvin was found guilty of murder because jurors were scared of Black Lives Matter,” Media Matters for America, April 20, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153212?t=17&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

6. “Tucker Carlson again invokes the white supremacist ‘replacement theory,'” Media Matters for America, April 21, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153213?t=19&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

7. “On Facebook, Tucker Carlson’s clips promoting anti-vaccine and racist talking points are being wildly shared,” Media Matters for America, April 20, 2021
https://act.moveon.org/go/153214?t=21&akid=298457%2E21711795%2Er-Hwck

It’s hard to know what to add here, other than to express outrage that Carlson as an individual and Fox News as an organization are permitted to inflict such extreme damage on our American society.

The First Amendement to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right of free speech, but that right is not without limits. In particular, it doesn’t protect obscenity, fighting words, defamation, perjury, blackmail, true threats. Also unprotected is incitement to lawless action, which is quite clearly the case here. It’s hard to imagine why we permit this to continue.

Canada doesn’t have the same constitution, obviously, and they don’t permit Fox News at all, on the basis that the Canadian government doesn’t tolerate lies being foisted off as news. A show called “Fox Viewpoints” or some such would probably pass muster, but not if those viewpoints actively encouraged the commission of a series of crimes against their society and its health.

The whole phenomenon is sickening.