On MSNBC, Matt Gertz explains Tucker Carlson's connection to the “great replacement” theory
Gertz: “Tucker Carlson is doing exactly what his bosses want”
Published
Citation From the May 15, 2022, edition of MSNBC's American Voices with Alicia Menendez
ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): In the meantime, the FBI is working to confirm the authenticity of a racist manifesto that detailed the gunman's plot. The manifesto outlined a racist ideology known as the “great replacement” theory, rooted in the belief that white Americans are being replaced by nonwhite people through immigration and interracial marriage. The great replacement theory was also cited as a motive in other mass shootings. The targeting of Latinos, specifically Mexicans and Mexican Americans, at an El Paso Walmart, shooting at synagogues in Pennsylvania and California. Great replacement theory also picking up steam among the American right. A new poll from The Associated Press finds one in three Americans thinks there is an ongoing effort to replace Americans with immigrants for electoral gain. So how does this debunked belief break out into a conservative mainstream? Look no further than Fox News. What they tell you is simply just not true. But this rhetoric can lead to deadly results.
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MENENDEZ: Matt, this month, New York Times reported on the racist rhetoric on Tucker Carlson's Fox show. It reads, quote, “At a moment when white backlash is the jet fuel of a Republican party striving to return to power in Washington, Carlson has become the preeminent champion of Americans who feel most threatened by the rising power of Black and brown citizens. To channel their fear into ratings, Mr. Carlson has adopted the rhetorical tropes and exotic fixations of white nationalists, who have watched, gleefully, from the fringes of public life, as he popularizes their ideas.” Talk to me, Matt, about how Fox News amplifies these extreme views that you used to only find in the dark corners of the internet.
MATT GERTZ (MEDIA MATTERS SENIOR FELLOW): You don't need to read this guy's manifesto, you can just turn on Fox News at 8 p.m. on any given weekday and you will see the same things – the same idea that American diversity is destroying the country, the same fear of an invasion of migrants across the southern border, and the same great replacement conspiracy theory. [Carlson] is doing it all, and because he is so influential at Fox and within the conservative movement, what he decides to popularize spreads throughout both of them. Tucker Carlson is doing exactly what his bosses want, they want his blood-soaked conspiracy theories. If they didn't, they would have stopped it by now, but they have decided not to.