When he’s not promoting anti-vaccine disinformation and fear-mongering about the life-saving coronavirus shot Fox News’ premier personality Tucker Carlson is often promoting white supremacist rhetoric, according to numerous sources, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which called for his firing back in April.
Racists never think they’re racist, as the saying goes, so it should surprise no one that Fox News’ resident white nationalist (as some say,) or white supremacist, (as others say,) actually told TIME magazine’s Charlotte Alter in a just-published interview, “I’ve never met a white supremacist in my entire life.”
TIME’s Alter says Carlson “may be the most powerful conservative in America.”
Which has allowed him to get away with this:
“Carlson has referenced the white-supremacist ‘replacement’ conspiracy theory—which claims elites are planning to replace white Christian voters with nonwhite immigrants—by name on his show, making him a hero to many white nationalists,” she reports. “He suggested that American ‘antiwhite mania’ could lead to a situation comparable to the Rwandan genocide. He repeatedly argued—contrary to official findings—that George Floyd died of a drug overdose, then questioned Derek Chauvin’s conviction for Floyd’s murder.”
Of course, there’s more.
“After he name-checked the ‘replacement’ conspiracy theory on his show, the anti-immigration website VDare called it ‘one of the best things Fox News has ever aired,'” TIME says. (It’s important to note that, although TIME does not mention it, the Southern Poverty Law Center lists VDare as a white nationalist hate group.) “Andrew Anglin, founder of the neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer, has called Carlson ‘literally our greatest ally.'”
Alter writes, “I asked Carlson if it bothered him that white supremacists seemed to love him so much.” That’s when de declared, “I’ve never met a white supremacist in my entire life.”
“According to Joe Biden they’re everywhere,” Carlson “joked.” “Maybe I’m surrounded by them and don’t know about it.”
Maybe.
On social media Alter adds:
TIME’s Vera Bergengruen adds:
Tucker Carlson may claim to not know any white supremacists, and who knows, maybe that’s true, but these headlines offer a bit of a different take:
Tucker Carlson Is A White Supremacist. And He’s Giving Fox Viewers Exactly What They Want.
The Daily Show Demonstrates How Tucker Carlson Uses the Language of White Supremacist Murderers
White supremacist Tucker Carlson got something right — and that’s literally terrifying
Tucker Carlson’s latest white supremacist tirade might be his most dangerous yet
Tucker Carlson is repeatedly using his platform to downplay white supremacist violence, critics say
The issue isn’t really whether or not Tucker Carlson knows any white supremacists, the issue is why does the country’s most-watched cable news channel allow a person credibly accused of being one to be the face of their network?