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Tucker Carlson with Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch

Molly Butler / Media Matters

The Murdochs share the blame as Tucker Carlson pushes Alex Jones-esque January 6 “false flag” series

As the WSJ editorial page publishes a letter of Trump election lies, Carlson announces sob story about the people who attacked the Capitol building on January 6

Written by John Whitehouse

Published 10/28/21 9:20 AM EDT

On the October 27 edition of his Fox News show, Tucker Carlson previewed a “three-part series” on Fox Nation called “Patriot Purge.” It appears to be an Alex Jones-flavored sob story about the people who attacked the Capitol building on January 6.

Video file

Citation

From the October 27, 2021, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

The trailer features:

  • What can only be described as a sympathetic interview with “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander.
  • An interview with Darren Beattie, who was fired from the Trump White House after reporting emerged he had attended a white nationalist conference.
  • Another person claiming that “the left is hunting” conservative Americans.
  • A warning that “false flags have happened in this country” as footage on-screen shows then-President Donald Trump speaking on January 6 before cutting to file footage of Osama Bin Laden.

At this point, it’s clear that Carlson himself is well into his “going door-to-door trying to shock people” stage of being a cable news host.

But it’s not just Carlson. The Wall Street Journal editorial page on October 27 also published a screed of Trump lies about the election in which he claimed it was rigged. Even worse, there was no explanation for why it was published or a response of any kind.

At least one Journal reporter spoke out.

So the question is who enables this kind of total bullshit. And it’s a pretty simple list:

  • Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch. 
  • The rest of the Fox Corp. board of directors like Paul Ryan, Fox Corp executives such as Viet Dinh, and Fox News executives like Suzanne Scott, Joe Dorrego, and Jay Wallace.
  • Robert Thomson and the News Corp. leadership team and board of directors.
  • Cable companies that charge exorbitant fees to subscribers for Fox News even if people never watch the channel.
  • Advertisers that team up with Fox News.
  • Tucker's well-paid Fox colleagues who don't speak up.
  • YouTube, which declared Fox News an “authoritative” source on the election despite repeated lies; The platform announced days ago that it has again teamed up with Fox, this time to broadcast all Fox Nation content as an add-on – meaning that this series will be available to air on YouTube. (YouTube removed Alex Jones from the service after he pushed false flag conspiracy theories about 9/11, Sandy Hook, and more.)
  • The massive right-wing infrastructure funded to create lies like these: Tucker Carlson couldn't do it alone. Right-wing billionaires fund their production on an industrial scale for people like Carlson to pluck from.

We’re not even a year removed from the 2020 election. We’ve seen continued lies on a massive scale, attacks on multiple Capitol buildings, coup memos, threats of violence, actual violence, and right-wing media teaming up with Republicans across the country to undermine elections, including draconian rollbacks of voting rights and fake “audits.” With the anniversary of the election night around the corner, the most important thing to remember is that we are not “through” the assault on democracy in any way. It is still happening and almost certainly will get worse. And there are very rich, very powerful people who are just fine with that.

This post has been updated for clarity.

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In This Article

  • Tucker Carlson

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  • January 6 Insurrection

    jan 6
  • The Wall Street Journal

    Wall Street Journal
  • Donald Trump

    Donald-Trump-MMFA-Tag.png
  • Google

    Google-MMFA-Tag.png
  • Lachlan Murdoch

    Lachlan-Murdoch-MMFA-Tag.png
  • Rupert Murdoch

    Rupert Murdoch

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