On The ReidOut Monday, MSNBC’s Joy Reid joined the chorus of people calling out Fox News, specifically opinion host Tucker Carlson, following a mass shooting in a Black area of Buffalo, New York, over the weekend that left 10 people dead. In a lengthy screed, the alleged shooter repeatedly cited the “great replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy that claims that white people in the U.S. are being replaced by people of color. Congressional Republicans and right-wing pundits regularly go on Fox and claim that Democrats are purposely bringing people of color into the country, changing the demographic makeup for political gain, and no one has pushed this line of thought more than Carlson. So much so that former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke, has praised Carlson for pushing the conspiracy.
“No singular voice in right-wing media has done more to elevate this racist conspiracy theory than Tucker,” Reid said, “who even with a new head writer spends night after primetime night injecting the rot from the dregs of the Internet directly into the veins of Republican voters.”
Reid referenced Carlson’s new head writer because the old one resigned after racist and sexist online activity came to light. She went on to play a mashup of clips in which Carlson pushes the conspiracy before adding, “The reality is, Tucker’s not some deep thinker. He’s clearly just channeling the gross stuff his viewers could easily find online, then feeding it to Republican voters and Republican politicians as infotainment. And that feedback loop has terrifying reach.”
They will stop the moment Rupert Murdoch tells them to stop.Lawrence O'Donnell
Reid then highlighted an excerpt from the alleged shooter’s manifesto, in which, he used very similar language to what Carlson has used in the past regarding diversity.
“In his racist manifesto, which reads like a bad term paper by the way,” Reid said, “the Buffalo shooter asked, ‘Why is diversity said to be our greatest strength? Does anyone bother to ask why?’ Okay, remember that now? Now listen to this from a 2018 Tucker Carlson segment. Just asking questions.” She then played a clip of Carlson saying, “How precisely is diversity our strength? Since you’ve made this our new national motto, please be specific as you explain it.”
On The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell later in the night, O’Donnell took it a step further and put the blame squarely on Fox founder Rupert Murdoch.
“They will stop the moment Rupert Murdoch tells them to stop. It’s as simple as that,” O’Donnell said. “Every minute spent talking about the TV hosts on Fox, is a minute that hides the true villain of the piece. Rupert Murdoch is the billionaire puppeteer. In 1995, when Rupert Murdoch was planning to create a cable news channel, he had never heard of any of the people who are now his most prominent hosts. But Rupert Murdoch knew what he wanted Fox to do from day one, and Fox has always done and said exactly what Rupert Murdoch wants.”
The “replacement theory” conspiracy has been cited in multiple mass shootings in recent years, leading O’Donnell to levy a hefty accusation at Murdoch.
“White supremacists, mass murderers in this country who take encouragement from Fox want to, among other things, stop immigration to this country, as does Fox,” O’Donnell said, “a company owned and operated by an immigrant who has done more damage to this country in the 21st century than any immigrant in the world has done to any other country in the 21st century.”
The ReidOut airs weeknights at 7 p.m. on MSNBC.
The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell airs weeknights at 10 p.m. on MSNBC.
BLAMING 'MENTAL ILLNESS' NOT GUNS
William Vaillancourt
Mon, May 16, 2022
Fox News
Two days after a white supremacist in Buffalo shot and killed 10 people and wounded three, most of whom were Black, Fox News host Tucker Carlson declared that “All lives matter.”
In his Monday night monologue, Carlson dared not mention the Great Replacement Theory, though he has spoken about it several times before—and the Buffalo shooter’s screed indicates he was inspired by it. (The conspiracy theory asserts that liberal politicians are trying to replace white Americans with immigrants because they’re more likely to vote for them.) Instead, Carlson used the tragedy to complain about what he called the “ruthlessness and dishonesty of our political leadership” and how those in power want to silence people like himself.
Payton Gendron, who was taking into custody after the shooting, “was the heir to Donald Trump, they told us. And for that reason, it follows logically, we must suspend the First Amendment. That’s hardly an exaggeration of what they are saying,” Carlson said, exaggerating as usual.
“What is hate speech? Speech that our leaders hate,” Carlson said earnestly after playing a clip of commentators pointing out the limits of First Amendment rights. “Because one mentally ill teenager murdered strangers, you cannot be allowed to express your political views out loud. That is what they are telling you. That is what they wanted to tell you for a long time, but Saturday’s massacre gives the pretext and justification.”
Carlson acknowledged that the suspect’s motivations were “definitely racist,” but rather than explore the issue, the Fox host essentially suggested that Americans should stop talking about race so much. As an example, Carlson cited how after the Rwandan genocide in the 1990s, that country’s government did not include ethnic classifications its 2003 constitution.
The result, Carlson said: “There have been no more genocides in Rwanda.”
“That could easily be the path forward for this country too,” Carlson claimed. “There is only one answer to rising racial tension, and that is to de-escalate and do what we have done and what we’ve tried to do for hundreds of years, which is work toward color-blind meritocracy and treat people as human beings created by God rather than as faceless members of interest groups that might benefit some political party,” Carlson said.
“We have a moral duty to do this,” he continued, “because all people have equal moral value, no matter what they look like. All lives matter, period.” Then, for good measure, Carlson referenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous quotation about the content of one’s character.
President Joe Biden, on the other hand, is engaging in “race politics,” Carlson said.
Carlson quoted from a Politico report stating that Biden doesn’t recognize the GOP, which he now sees as “an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.” Carlson then told viewers, “This threat that Biden is referring to is you.” When Biden visits Buffalo on Tuesday, Carlson predicted, he “is likely to use racial wounds in order to make his point.” Doing so would be so bad, Carlson claimed, that actually “there is no behavior worse.”
“Race politics always makes us hate each other, and always in a very predictable way,” he said. “How could you be surprised when [identity politics] leads to white identity politics? You could not be surprised. You did it and it was always going to happen. And then what happens next? Nothing good. Race politics is a sin. Race politics always leads to violence and death.”
Graig Graziosi
Mon, May 16, 2022
A white supremacist mass shooter in Buffalo killed 10 people and wounded another three — 11 of whom were Black — and left behind a manifesto that clearly indicated he had been inspired to commit his crime by the "Great Replacement Theory”.
The accused Buffalo shooter's manifesto echoes ideas that are becoming fairly standard in conservative ideology, thanks in no small part to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
Mr Carlson, who helms the most-watched political opinion programme in the country, has frequently pushed the Great Replacement Theory during his shows. A compilation of him touting the ideas recently went viral on social media.
Adherents to the Great Replacement Theory believe that there is a concentrated effort by liberals to replace white Americans as the dominant cultural force in the country by importing people of colour and immigrants, who Mr Carlson says are "obedient" and will vote for Democrats.
"So I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term 'replacement', if you suggest the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the third world," Mr Carlson said. "But they become hysterical because that's that's what's happening actually. Let's just say it. That's true."
The Independent has reached out to Mr Carlson for comment.
Despite the fact that immigrants and people of colour do not vote in monolithic blocks, some conservatives have accepted the conspiracy theory as true, and it has fuelled some of the worst modern mass shootings.
Both the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, and a 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh were motivated in part by complaints that white people were being replaced.
Mr Carlson said that "demographic change is key to the Democratic party's political ambitions" in another segment.
"In other words you're being replaced and there's nothing you can do about it so shut up!" he said before letting out a maniacal laugh.
In another episode he was less veiled in this feelings on the issue, claiming that "our country is being invaded by the rest of the world”.
"I'm going to state unequivocally the country is being stolen from American citizens as we watch." he said in another segment.
Last September he even used the name of the theory, saying the "policy is called the 'Great Replacement,'" which he said was the "replacement of legacy Americans with more obedient people from faraway countries."
By "legacy Americans," he means white.
Those are only a sample of the times Mr Carlson has pushed the ideology; a New York Times report found 400 instances of the pundit suggesting that Democrats are trying to force a demographic change to improve their election chances.
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