For years, Tucker Carlson was a safe bet for the conservative news channel Fox News: three million viewers night after night, a million more than the nearest host on the other channels. The cable air thug, however, had the audacity to push the effrontery a little too far.
Friday of the previous week, the 53-year-old host concluded his popular show Tucker Carlson Tonight, eating pizza and laughing. On Monday, he had been dismissed; the executives of Fox News, the news channel that has enraged Democrats and other progressives since its debut in 1996, have had enough after seven years of paranoia and storytelling.
The immense voice given to him by Fox News had enabled Tucker Carlson to develop a stifling influence on conservative voters and Republican elected officials in the United States. No one in his camp dared to denounce remarks that constantly exceeded the standards and got bogged down in conspiratorial, racist or homophobic ramblings.
The United States he portrayed in his very last show was paralyzed by violence and chaos, particularly because of Joe Biden. Beware, “more black people are going to sell marijuana in American cities”! Democrats invite immigrants to cross the border “to help them win the election”. Social housing – naturally occupied by blacks and other minorities – will be “imposed on the peaceful white suburbs” of the country.
A BILLION $ OF FABULATIONS
Tucker Carlson’s firing came less than a week after Fox News reached a US$787.5 million – C$1 billion deal! – with Dominion Voting Systems, an electronic voting machine company.
Dominion was suing Fox News for defamation, because the network and its hosts had wallowed in outlandish allegations that its machines had translated votes for Trump into votes for Biden.
Tucker Carlson having generously relayed these falsehoods, it was quickly concluded that the leaders of Fox News had preferred to get rid of their cumbersome presenter. In recent days, however, the American media have revealed new reasons justifying this dismissal: intimidation within his work team, misogyny, racism.
Obviously more serious for Rupert Murdoch, the channel’s owner, Carlson allegedly showed an avowed lack of respect for Fox News executives, including CEO Suzanne Scott. In particular, he would have described her, in text messages, using one of the most vulgar insults in English against women, an insult that I will not repeat here.
Carlson took a few days to respond. Finally, in a short message on Wednesday evening, without hinting at his layoff, he intermingled the insults – “…most of the exchanges you see on television are incredibly stupid and his usual bouts of paranoia. He lets it be known that he has not said his last word. Difficult to see where he will find a platform as generous as Fox News. »
SOME ALLEGATIONS BY TUCKER CARLSON, DENIED OVER THE YEARS
“Between late December 2020 and February 2021, 3,362 people died after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. The actual number is almost certainly higher. »
The CDC – public health officials in the United States – analyzed reports of deaths that some believe were caused by COVID-19 vaccines, analyzes that did not establish a link between these deaths. and vaccines.
“The FBI orchestrated the attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021.”
There is no credible evidence for this conspiracy theory and Carlson never presented any. In a three-part documentary series, Patriot Purgehe chained unverified anecdotal accounts and circumstantial speculation.
“Not a single person in the crowd on January 6 was carrying a gun. Not one. »
Court documents, video footage and news reports show that several people in the Capitol that day had guns, knives, baseball bats and other weapons.
“The Potomac River – which runs through the city of Washington – has become dirtier and dirtier. This waste is left almost exclusively by immigrants. »
There is no evidence that immigrants are particularly responsible for the waste around the river. Separately, the Potomac has long been considered too polluted for swimming, but a 2018 report from the Potomac Conservancy found that the health of the Potomac has improved dramatically over the past decade. Hedrick Belin, its chairman, called Carlson’s remarks “factually incorrect” and “racist”.
Source: PolitiFact, The Poynter Institute