By way of a brief recap:
Recently, Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch gave a deposition as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit filed against the network by Dominion Voting Systems. Documents from the depositions were released Monday. The New York Times reports that Murdoch acknowledged that Fox hosts pushed falsehoods about the 2020 election. Now, Fox will probably end up paying some money. Murdoch is simply trying to see if he can minimize his losses. This is a network that, as I write this, is reporting on gymnast Olivia Dunne, Randi Weingarten’s tantrum outside of the Supreme Court yesterday, more Lightfoot news, and, of course, a story about Prince Harry. I have, on occasion, surfed over to Fox when a story of national or semi-national importance was breaking, only to see that it was covering human interest stories, rehashing headlines from a week ago, or milking an old story for more details. So the extent to which Fox is a threat is debatable at times.
Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark wrote a piece about the issue and included part of a conversation he had last week with former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Ryan also sits on the board of Fox News. He quizzed Ryan on his duties as a board member. Ryan said that the board does not control content. He stated:
I think it’s really important in society, that we have strong cultural, private institutions that can stand up toward what I would call it sort of a woke conformity. I think it’s really important for the sake of pluralism that you have alternative voices that are readily accessible and are strong enough to stand up for for pluralism then get sort of pushed down. So, if only for that reason alone, I think it’s very important to have an institution like that. Do I disagree with Tucker on this stuff? Of course, I absolutely disagree with him. Different kinds of conservatives — I don’t agree with that part.
Sykes mentioned an open letter to Ryan published in Politico that took the former speaker to task for not steering Fox in a different direction. Here is an excerpt:
Unlike the Trump tweets that you pretended not to read, you know what Tucker Carlson has been saying lately.
For months (years?) Carlson has been dancing on the edge of white nationalism.
He has suggested that immigrants make America “dirtier.” He has defended the QAnon conspiracy theory. Last year, he lashed out at two Democratic members of Congress, Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois. Citing their immigrant backgrounds, Carlson mused, “Maybe we are importing people from places whose values are simply antithetical to ours.”
And then, a few days ago, he made the racism explicit when he used his Fox news platform to embrace the so-called “replacement theory.” As the Anti-Defamation League’s Jonathan Greenblatt pointed out, the replacement theory “is a white supremacist tenet that the white race is in danger by a rising tide of non-whites.”
“It is anti-Semitic, racist and toxic,” Greenblatt explained. “It has informed the ideology of mass shooters in El Paso, Christchurch and Pittsburgh.”
Carlson’s on-air comments made it clear that he knew precisely what lines he was crossing.
The piece accuses Carlson of racism and nativism and pushing the Great Replacement theory. The full letter is available here.
Related: Insider Emails PROVE Efforts to Censor Tucker Carlson Came From the White House
During the conversation, Sykes continued to press Ryan on the issue, stating:
I said, look, at this particular moment, with Tucker Carlson spreading the Great Replacement theory about race, you know, some of the rawest racism we have in American culture. We had disinformation about the pandemic, we had an ongoing revision of January 6, actually undermining democracy. And I guess the point was, okay, I understand the need to have another point of view, but if you are on the board of directors of a company that is pumping toxic sludge, racism, disinformation, and attacks on democracy, if you don’t stand up now, then when?
Ryan said that he had a duty to offer his opinion, and that he wants to see conservatism “get through this moment.” He said that the conservative movement is going through “a lot of churn and a lot of turmoil and I don’t like where it is right now.”
The excerpt of the conversation between Ryan and Sykes concluded with this statement from Ryan:
So, I want to make sure that we get through this moment and I think — this screed you just made on Fox — I think that was probably just Tucker. I can go four times as long about other stuff that I think are really good that are on there that are being advanced, and voices that are being heard on Fox News that are giving voice to what I would call proper conservatism properly understood. So it’s a long process, a big institution, but I do want to make sure that we get the conservative movement in a good place in America again.
So, did Ryan throw Carlson overboard? Ryan seems to be trying to thread the needle and keep Fox News afloat. And he seems to be implying that the problem is Carlson.
The issue here is that anything the Left does not like or that counters the sanctioned narrative is deemed to be untrue, or the product of some “ism” or “phobia.” And anyone who says anything contrary to the sanctioned narrative is subject to being pilloried, given a scarlet letter, and possibly presented with the threat of litigation. And if the claim is exaggerated or a comment taken out of context, all the better to inflame the headlines.
Conversely, those on the Left are given free rein to claim anything they want and accuse anyone of anything with zero accountability. It isn’t that conservatives have never said anything objectionable or, on some occasions, thoughtless. But the Left is inflammatory and accusatory every day and never called on. Their facts are never called into question. Their narratives are never examined. Those things are simply presented and we are expected to swallow them. Consider that at the start of the pandemic, the idea that COVID-19 was the product of anything but exotic culinary choices was considered racist, xenophobic, and dangerous. Now evidence has emerged that, in fact, a lab leak was involved. I don’t think we’ll be hearing any retractions any time soon.
Truth cuts both ways. The accepted narrative only cuts one way. Putting Carlson on the sacrificial altar isn’t going to change that. And it won’t protect Fox in the future.
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