Tucker Carlson, currently his headline star, claims without evidence that “the NSA, the National Security Agency, is monitoring our electronic communications and planning to leak them to take this show off the air.” But the network’s executives didn’t stand behind Carlson to his reported anger – the network’s news department is not treating the allegations as news, and the network has not issued a statement condemning the NSA’s alleged abuses. “Tensions are sky high,” a source told CNN Business. Carlson is “extra pissed,” said another.
Then there’s Donald Trump’s big lie that his election was stolen. After the 2020 election, Fox News joined in with Trump’s allegations of electoral irregularities and even promoted conspiracy theories about voting machines rigging the election against Trump only to withdraw under threat of lawsuits from voting machine companies. The network repeatedly aired debunking conspiracy theories in December and continues to attempt to protect itself against possible legal action. It aired Trump’s CPAC speech over the weekend, but a disclaimer in a chyron that said, “The electoral system companies have dismissed the various allegations made by President Trump and his lawyer regarding the 2020 election, “the minute Trump seemed ready to engage in specific lies about” the election was stolen. “
Fox News is also on a balance beam when it comes to vaccines. The network has created a PSA to promote vaccination. Several of her personalities have spoken on the air and on social media about getting themselves vaccinated. Rupert Murdoch, the founder of the network, got vaccinated. But Fox has also been a constant source of disinformation about vaccines. Carlson said that young people “ shouldn’t get the shot “because, he falsely claimed, it’s more dangerous than COVID-19, and his on-air guest said college vaccination regulations are” almost this apartheid-style hostage situation in the open air like, “Oh ‘You can get your freedom back if you get the sting.’ ”Carlson and Laura Ingraham tried to stir up audience anger over the Biden government’s efforts to get more people vaccinated.
Fox News has never been shy with the misrepresentation and racist dog whistles and lies. But Trump has pushed the right wing so far towards falsehood and conspiracy theory that the network is in a real bind and has to play those things for an audience drunk on Trumpism but its plausible denial as A. does not want to lose all of the source of journalism and under no circumstances want to be sued by a deep-pocketed voting machine manufacturer. The bottom line at this point seems to be that Carlson, Ingraham, and a couple of other hosts are pounding Trump, while the network’s official position – in court – is that no sane person could believe what Carlson is saying. Carlson claims the NSA is spying on him while the network is silent, or Carlson lies about the safety of the vaccination while the network has a PSA for it.
Make no mistake, however: Fox News makes a decision to let Carlson peddle his dangerous lies. Plausible legal deniability doesn’t stop network managers from making claims that undermine confidence in our elections and put the US at a peak risk of COVID-19 that could be averted if more people were vaccinated. Carlson is now the face of Fox News.
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