Two Fox News contributors relinquished their lucrative contracts with the cable channel in protest of Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge,” a three-part documentary which PolitiFact says is full of “falsehoods” and “conspiracy theories” about the January 6th riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes had both been contributors to Fox News since 2009. In a blog post for The Dispatch – which they co-founded – they explain why they consider “Patriot Purge” so offensive:
The special—which ran on Fox’s subscription streaming service earlier this month and was promoted on Fox News—is presented in the style of an exposé, a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism. In reality, it is a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions. And its message is clear: The U.S. government is targeting patriotic Americans in the same manner —and with the same tools—that it used to target al Qaeda.
In a voiceover in “Patriot Purge,” Carlson warns that the government has initiated a “new war on terror” aimed at Trump supporters. “Not, you should understand, a metaphorical war,” Carlson says, “but an actual war, soldiers and paramilitary agencies hunting down American citizens.”
“This is not happening,” Goldberg and Hayes write in their blog post. “And we think it’s dangerous to pretend it is. If a person with such a platform shares such misinformation loud enough and long enough, there are Americans who will believe—and act upon—it.”
“This isn’t theoretical. This is what actually happened on January 6, 2021,” they add.
“Whether it’s ‘Patriot Purge’ or anti-vax stuff, I don’t want it in my name, and I want to call it out and criticize it,” Goldberg told The New York Times. “I don’t want to feel like I am betraying a trust that I had by being a Fox News contributor. And I also don’t want to be accused of not really pulling the punches. And then this was just an untenable tension for me.”
NPR reports:
According to five people with direct knowledge, the resignations reflect larger tumult within Fox News over Carlson’s series “Patriot Purge” and his increasingly strident stances, and over the network’s willingness to let its opinion stars make false, paranoid claims against President Biden, his administration and his supporters.
Veteran figures on Fox’s news side, including political anchors Bret Baier and Chris Wallace, shared their objections with Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and its president of news, Jay Wallace. Those objections rose to Lachlan Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of the network’s parent company, Fox Corporation. Through a senior spokeswoman, Scott and Wallace declined comment. Murdoch did not return a request for comment through a spokesman.
The Times adds:
Geraldo Rivera, a Fox News correspondent since 2001, captured the difficulty of internal dissent at the network when he voiced cautious criticism of Mr. Carlson and “Patriot Purge” to my colleague Michael Grynbaum. “I worry that — and I’m probably going to get in trouble for this — but I’m wondering how much is done to provoke, rather than illuminate,” he said.
On air, two programs with smaller audiences than Mr. Carlson’s scrambled after his special to rebut the false theories presented in “Patriot Purge.” “Special Report” called in a former C.I.A. officer on Oct. 29 to debunk “false flag” theories. And on “Fox News Sunday,” Chris Wallace turned the same question over to one of Mr. Trump’s few foes in the Republican congressional delegation, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
In their blog post, Goldberg and Hayes defend Fox News’ non-opinion journalists, but maintain that “the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible”:
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.
Carlson told The Times that the resignations are “great news.”
“Our viewers will be grateful,” he added.
