2 Fox News commentators resign over Tucker Carlson series on the Jan. 6 siege
- November 22, 2021
Two longtime conservative Fox News commentators have resigned in protest of what they call a pattern of incendiary and fabricated claims by the network's opinion hosts in support of former President Donald Trump.
In separate interviews with NPR, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg pointed to a breaking point this month: network star Tucker Carlson's three-part series on the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol, which relied on fabrications and conspiracy theories to exonerate the Trump supporters who participated in the attack.
"It's basically saying that the Biden regime is coming after half the country and this is the War on Terror 2.0," Goldberg tells NPR. "It traffics in all manner of innuendo and conspiracy theories that I think legitimately could lead to violence. That for me, and for Steve, was the last straw."
- According to five people with direct knowledge, the resignations reflect larger tumult within Fox News over Carlson's series Patriot Purge and his increasingly strident stances, and over the network's willingness to let its opinion stars make false, paranoid claims against President Biden, his administration and his supporters.
Goldberg says that he had been assured by Fox's news leaders that, as Trump left Washington, D.C., following his election defeat, the network would tamp down on incendiary commentary and claims.
It's a narrative that's contradicted by certainly the vast collection of legal documents charging those who participated in January 6th, the broad reporting by a wide variety of news outlets on what happened on January 6th then and in the time since, and contradicted in part by Fox News' own news site and the reporting that people on the news side have done," he said.
https://www.npr.org/2021/11/21/10528...tucker-carlson patriot-purge-documentary
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1) Both Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg already had well-established conservative "credentials" prior to joining FOX, where they have been commentators associated with Bret Baier's "Special Report" since 2009!
2) Both were appalled by Tucker Carlson's "PATRIOT PURGE," a 3 part series shifting the blame for the January 6th assault on the US Capital - based on fabricated facts and conspiracy theories!- Carlson's "alternative" narrative not only contradicts the documented evidence gathered by mainstream media outlets, but doesn't even reflect the reports/opinions expressed on FOXNEWS!
3) Apparently the resignations of both Hayes and Goldberg in protest, having spent 12 years as commentators for FOXNEWS appears to be just "the tip of the iceberg" of internal discontent - concerning Tucker Carlson providing a national platform for false claims and conspiracy theories!
4) Senior political anchors Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and other prominent FOXNEWS personalities, have expressed their objections concerning Carleson all the way up "the corporate ladder" - including Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, President of FOXNEWS, Jay Wallace and the Chairman and CEO of FOX CORP, Lachlan Murdoch, the Network's Parent Company!
"They've begun to fight a new enemy in a new war on terror," Carlson warned his viewers in the first episode. "Not, you should understand, a metaphorical war, but an actual war, soldiers and paramilitary agencies hunting down American citizens."
5) Within FOX, Carleson's "Patriot Wars" was considered a right-wing "CALL TO ARMS" - portraying both their liberal opponents and the federal government as "ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE" as the justification for open insurrection!
6) THE GOOD NEWS: From a financial perspective, FOX has a vested interest in encouraging Tucker Carlson's widespread appeal among the conservative "faithful!"
THE BAD NEWS: Carlson's ratings are based on a "SLIPPERY SLOPE" of providing increasingly provocative assertions to satisfy the "insatiable" demands to feed Trump's "grievance" agenda!
7) Carlson' s popularity is being counterbalanced by the steady exodus of network sponsors who no longer willing to be associated with his disturbing message - a financial drain on the FOX's "bottom line!"
8) The $2 billion "defamation" lawsuit brought by voting technology companies should at the very least force FOX executives to re-examine their "business model" - can they afford not to "reign-in" Carleson!
9) Unlike Carlson's controversial acquittal in 2020 where FOX's lawyers successfully argued that "no responsible viewer of average intelligence" would take his claims seriously, these corporations possess the financial resources to go "head-to-head" - all the way to the Supreme Court if necessary!
10) FOX and Carlson are literally "PLAYING WITH FIRE" - should the current "PATRIOT PURGE" mini-series result in domestic violence, the current $2 billion lawsuit will seem like "CHICKEN FEED" compared to the future lawsuits it could trigger!