Tucker Carlson seemingly enjoys free rein at Fox News, or at least, that’s the logical assumption that one can make by his anti-vaxxer rhetoric (and plentiful disinformation) in the face of Fox News’ own vaccine mandate. Naturally, Tucker spent his weekend hopping all over an interview with Kyle Rittenhouse (in the wake of his shocking not-guilty verdict), but behind the scenes, turmoil has been swirling at Fox News.
To that end, two longtime Fox News contributors announced that they’re throwing in the towel at the conservative news network. There’s doing so out of protest for Tucker’s batsh*t new documentary series, Patriot Purge, which falsely claims that the failed MAGA coup was a “false flag” operation executed by the U.S. government (the so-called “Deep State”) or something. Well, Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg have had enough of this dangerous disinformation, so they walked. And then (via Deadline), they wrote about their choice — essentially explaining that Patriot Purge is the culmination of five years of amped-up toxicity — on their site, The Dispatch:
“Over the past five years, some of Fox’s top opinion hosts amplified the false claims and bizarre narratives of Donald Trump or offered up their own in his service. In this sense, the release of Patriot Purge wasn’t an isolated incident, it was merely the most egregious example of a longstanding trend. Patriot Purge creates an alternative history of January 6, contradicted not just by common sense, not just by the testimony and on-the-record statements of many participants, but by the reporting of the news division of Fox News itself.”
Between Hayes and Goldberg, that’s over 20 years of combined time at Fox News down the tubes, which says a lot, along with their lamentation about the “real reporting” at Fox News losing traction because “the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible.” Further, they’re disgusted by Patriot Purge holding itself out as real investigative journalism but actually being “a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions.” As they sum up, Tucker wants his audience to believe that the Deep State is attempting to take down “patriots” like they are “al Qaeda.” NPR further reports that Hayes and Goldberg did raise their concerns to Fox News leadership, a move that obviously did not change their minds about resignation.
(Via The Dispatch, Deadline & NPR)