Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s upcoming “documentary” series that suggests the Jan. 6 insurrection was a “false flag” operation drew escalating bipartisan criticism on Thursday evening. In a letter to Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt “strongly” urged Fox to “reconsider airing this program,” which is set to premiere next week on Fox Nation, Fox News’ online subscription streaming service.
Noting that Carlson’s three-part Patriot Purge series features a “laundry list of disinformation artists” who argue the Capitol riot was an “inside job with the intention of rounding up and imprisoning conservatives,” Greenblatt said the premise is an “indisputable lie” and “blatant attempt to rewrite history.”
“Where is the line for you and Fox?” Greenblatt wrote. “How many more people need to die or how many individuals must subscribe to groundless conspiracies before you say enough is enough? Inflammatory rhetoric of this sort is neither legitimate political discourse nor spirited debate. It is dangerous rhetoric that could catalyze violence, whether directed at the Jewish community or other minority groups.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Greenblatt, who has already said “Tucker must go” over his embrace of the white supremacist “Great Replacement” theory, added that the network had “no obligation to validate [Carlson’s] views with airtime on your platform and, I would argue, a moral responsibility not to do so.” Murdoch, for what it’s worth, waved off Greenblatt’s previous demand that Fox fire Carlson.
Besides the ADL, Carlson has also been on the receiving end of backlash from Republican members of the Jan. 6 congressional committee and even his own colleague Geraldo Rivera.
