Tucker Carlson must be beside himself over Trump’s second impeachment trial happening. The entire production seems to be straight out of Michael Bay’s mind (that’s Trevor Noah’s take) after Trump’s newest bumbling lawyer, Bruce Castor, caused quite a reaction (even from Ice-T) with his opening remarks, which made Rudy Giuliani look like the pro of all pros. Sean Hannity used his air time to gently suggest that Trump replace Castor, but Tucker Carlson claims that he wasn’t paying attention.
Yes, Tucker hilariously declared that he “didn’t watch any” of the impeachment proceedings so far. Instead, he is very, very worried about the COVID vaccines and decided to sow some doubt and spread more information. Tucker already did this in mid-December — and did so days after Fox News head honcho Rupert Murdoch received his vaccine — and it didn’t go over well then, and it’s not going over well now.
Tucker’s position is that the impeachment trial is being used as a distraction, and what does Tucker feel is much more important? He’s all about calling out a mysterious “they,” who he believes is lying about vaccine safety, and he believes that Americans should distrust the two vaccines because they are rolling out, “But life did not return to normal. Life got worse.” Tucker does not appear to realize that only a small fraction of Americans have been vaccinated thus far. And Tucker believes that no one is allowed to verbalize concerns about the vaccines (which is not true, look all over Twitter).
Tucker Carlson says “they” are lying about the safety of the COVID vaccine and you know for certain that they’re lying bc they said you shouldn’t criticize it pic.twitter.com/YA1dgDQT9N
— Andrew Lawrence (@ndrew_lawrence) February 10, 2021
“Well there’s nothing QAnon about questions like that. They’re not conspiracy theories,” Tucker inaccurately complained. “They’re the most basic questions. In a democracy, every citizen has a right to know the answer, but we got fluff and propaganda. The media rollout for the vaccine came off like a Diet Pepsi commercial at the Super Bowl: tons of celebrity endorsements, not a lot of science.”
Tucker is, as Twitter is pointing out, laundering his own propaganda while accusing those who support COVID vaccines as the propagandists. It’s all very circular, but that’s how Tucker rolls. He is, not incidentally, on quite a roll lately, even referring to ex-Fox News colleague Shep Smith as “overheated news guy” while sarcastically slamming Shep’s coverage of a Florida grocery store where hardly anyone wore masks.
People aren’t pleased with Tucker and are flat-out calling his stance “disgusting,” not to mention dangerous and “disingenuous.”
This is disgusting stuff from @TuckerCarlson. It’s the standard laundering of disinformation by “just asking questions.”
Most notable for me is saying the rollout was “without a lot of science.”
Dude were you not paying attention or are you just disingenuous as fuck? https://t.co/YXu3mx5jSb
— David Barrett (@davebarrett) February 10, 2021
Been saying for like two months @TuckerCarlson is going to turn hard against the vaccine. He knows how safe it is, but he cares more about whipping his mob into a frenzy, lives be damned, if it gets him for viewers https://t.co/NhOmNssBAx
— John Iadarola (@johniadarola) February 10, 2021
Also, there’s the whole matter of Tucker’s boss, Rupert Murdoch, getting vaccinated while Tucker runs wild with misinformation.
Tucker’s boss took the vaccine but he wants his audience to live in fear over it as long as they keep tuning in. https://t.co/Qn0JfW7U7X
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 10, 2021
Meanwhile the Murdoch family is sprinting to get their shots of the vaccine. https://t.co/D0Sa6cjaQd
— Kombiz Lavasany (@kombiz) February 10, 2021
Rupert Murdoch got vaccinated in the UK weeks ago.
But this is the dangerous propaganda he allows his beloved ‘news’ channel to put out on air. https://t.co/N2SvDfb3Mm
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 10, 2021
Meanwhile, liberal social media activism organization Sleeping Giants isn’t buying what Tucker is selling (in a few ways), so they are offering $1000 in merch dollars to anyone who can prove that Tucker’s been vaccinated.
We will offer $1000 in merchandise money to the first person with unequivocal proof that Tucker Carlson has already had his COVID vaccine.
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) February 10, 2021
Rupert Murdoch, who owns this network, was one of the first people to get this vaccine.
This is infuriating.
How can any advertiser continue to do business with a network trying to sow doubt about a vaccine in the middle of a pandemic? Especially @pfizer, who MADE the vaccine!! https://t.co/wT1reJtLUh
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) February 10, 2021
Truly the most irresponsible cable network in the country.
This is the kind of crap that (kind of) gets removed from Facebook, but here it is getting blasted out to millions nightly. pic.twitter.com/pSXMIloqm9
— Sleeping Giants (@slpng_giants) February 10, 2021