Tucker Carlson news – Fox host defends QAnon Shaman and calls Zelensky a ‘despot’

CNN’s Anderson Cooper laid into Fox News‘ Tucker Carlson during a recent segment, suggesting the TV personality would have been “wetting his pants” if he had been at the Capitol riot.

Cooper spoke with former DC Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fannone, who was assaulted during the riot. The pair discussed Carlson’s recent insistence that the rioters who attacked the Capitol and its police on 6 January 2021 in attempt to keep Donald Trump in power were simply “sightseers.”

Graig Graziosi reports on Cooper’s takedown of Carlson.

Top personalities, executives and producers at Fox News privately condemned “reckless” claims from election fraud conspiracy theorists they dismissed as “crazy” and “insane”.

But they were repeatedly invited on air on some of the most-watched cable news programmes in the country, where they amplified bogus statements about the 2020 presidential election and a voting machine company that has accused the network of defamation in a $1.6bn lawsuit.

A 192-page, partially redacted filing in Dominion Voting Systems’s lawsuit against Fox News reveals behind-the-scenes irritation with false claims made by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, based on text messages, emails and depositions from programme hosts, producers and executives, including owner Rupert Murdoch.

Alex Woodward explains all.

Fox News reportedly rejected a television advert from a progressive advocacy group and political action committee that highlighted recently uncovered reactions from the network’s top stars and executives to Donald Trump’s bogus election fraud claims and conspiracy theories surrounding a voting machine company that is suing the network for defamation.

The ad from MoveOn addresses viewers directly while quoting from text messages and emails uncovered in the lawsuit, which revealed how network personalities and Rupert Murdoch shared their behind-the-scenes irritation with false claims while the network continued to amplify them.

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US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has defended giving about 40,000 hours of surveillance footage from the insurrection on January 6 2021 to Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

The California Republican told reporters that the footage is set to be released more widely and that the speaker’s office is taking steps to address worries about security risks.

“It almost seems like the press is jealous,” the speaker told The Washington Post. “And that’s interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things. People like exclusives, and Tucker is someone that’s been asking for it.”

Gustaf Kilander has the story.

Senator Chuck Schumer has called out House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s reaction to Tucker Carlson’s depiction of the Capitol riot as “peaceful” on Fox News, calling him a “January 6th denier”.

“Those of us who were here on January 6th know the attack was a violent insurrection—including Speaker McCarthy,” Mr Schumer tweeted. “Every leader on Capitol Hill has done the right thing calling out Fox News’s lies—except for Speaker McCarthy.”

He added: “The Speaker is outing himself as a January 6th denier.”

Donald Trump has used the January 6 insurrection surveillance footage released to Fox News host Tucker Carlson to call for Capitol riot prisoners to “go free”.

The decision by Speaker Kevin McCarthy to release around 40,000 hours of security footage from the attack on the Capitol has been blasted by critics.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said on Tuesday that Monday night’s broadcast by Mr Carlson was “one of the most shameful hours of television”.

Gustaf Kilander reports.

Ahmed Baba writes:

There is no better indication of the deep divides within the Republican Party than their reaction to Tucker Carlson’s depiction of January 6 on Fox News. After Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) handed the Fox host over 40,000 hours of Capitol footage, Carlson aired some of the footage seeking to depict the insurrection as peaceful. This caused a firestorm not only from pro-democracy liberals but from within the GOP itself. Ultimately, this is resulting in an internal debate of whether or not the party will continue to embrace the Big Lie and Donald Trump.

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Speaking of a looming civil war in the GOP...

Tucker Carlson blasted his bipartisan critics in Congress as “sociopaths” during a broadcast on Wednesday and accused attorney general Merrick Garland of lying about the number of police officers killed during the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.

Josh Marcus reports.

Reporters at Fox News are frustrated by recent court documents highlighting the hypocrisy and bias of their colleagues in the network’s prime-time opinion programming, according to a recent report.

Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation suit against Fox News has provided an unfiltered look into the private communications and decisions of the conservative news network’s top names in the wake of the 2020 election. Those exchanges have left current journalists at the network reportedly feeling embarrassed over their association.

Several current reporters at Fox News spoke to The Daily Beast on the condition of anonymity to share their frustrations.

Graig Graziosi reports.