Tucker Carlson’s hold on the GOP and role in the disinformation business isn’t going anywhere
Tucker #Tucker
WASHINGTON — Wielding a prime-time slot on Fox News, perhaps the loudest megaphone in media, Tucker Carlson told his viewers that thousands of people were dying of COVID vaccines when they were not.
He echoed baseless questions about fraud in the 2020 election and suggested in a conspiracy-theory-soaked TV special that the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection was a “false flag” operation by left-wing provocateurs.
Time and time again, he accused Democrats of trying to “replace” the electorate with immigrants who support them, stoking xenophobic fears with rhetoric that experts long saw as dangerously similar to fringe theories embraced by white supremacists.
And whatever he said, his followers — from Republican lawmakers in the House to voters at home — were usually quick to repeat it.
Monday’s announcement that Carlson lost his perch at Fox — a surprise development unfolding in the shadow of the network’s $787 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems and a potentially explosive discrimination lawsuit filed by one of his former producers — brought his dominance at the network to a sudden and unceremonious halt.
But experts, advocates, and political strategists said in interviews that even as Carlson leaves his biggest stage, his particular cocktail of grievance and disinformation has left a deep imprint on American politics, public health, and civic life. That power is unlikely to fully disappear despite the loss of his time slot.
“Tucker Carlson played an inordinately huge role in spreading mis- and disinformation over the past five years,” said Emily Dreyfuss, coauthor of the book “Meme Wars: The Untold Stories of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America.” Carlson brought ideas, she said, from the extremist fringe and made them part of the mainstream.
“The things that he’s already amplified — all he needed to do is get it out there, and then it takes on a life of its own,” Dreyfuss said.
Carlson came to prominence as a conservative voice on MSNBC, CNN, and PBS before he began hosting his nightly show on FOX in 2016. He became a staunch ally of former president Donald Trump, pushing hard-line immigration policies and encouraging viewers to distrust the so-called deep state — and shaping the Republican Party in the process.
“There’s no question he’s the most influential conservative on cable news today,” said Ryan Williams, a political strategist who has worked with Republicans like Mitt Romney.
His ability to influence his party’s thinking has been obvious even after Trump left office, as he cast doubt on vaccines and fueled anti-transgender fearmongering.
“Tucker has really contributed to the current in the Republican party where half-truths and sometimes full lies get embraced, and they shape the reality of the Republican party, especially House Republicans who are more sensitive to these kinds of television shows,” said former representative Carlos Curbelo, a moderate Florida Republican who lost his seat in 2018 and who hopes Carlson’s exit from Fox will reduce his clout.
“The fact that some of these dangerous conspiracy theories will not be promoted on prime-time TV every night is something that could be positive for the Republican Party,” Curbelo added.
Fox’s role in spreading misinformation about the election has ramped up scrutiny of the network — including hosts like Carlson — in recent months. Dominion sued Fox for amplifying outlandish claims that its voting machines were part of scheme to rig the election against Trump.
Text messages released in the course of the proceedings showed that Carlson did not trust the lawyers associated with those claims, repeatedly suggesting that one of them was lying, even as he aired unfounded questions about the integrity of the election on his show.
“Our viewers are good people and they believe it,” he texted to another Fox host.
Carlson’s departure was immediately celebrated by advocates who have long derided his rhetoric as dangerous. Oren Segal, vice president at the Center on Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, said Carlson had used his show to promote ideas with parallels to the racist concepts that flourish in shadowy online spaces visited by white supremacists.
“There’s the spate of mass casualty attacks from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, El Paso, Christchurch, motivated by the concept of the great replacement theory. And at the same time you have somebody who is reaching 5 million viewers or whatever it is, who is using similar language,” Segal said, calling Carlson’s rhetoric “an abuse of that sort of position that he had.”
“Tucker Carlson has been a key player in normalizing xenophobia and hateful narratives in this country,” Segal added. “The idea that there will be one less space where he can promote those ideas . . . is an an important step.”
As the news of his departure spread Monday, some Republicans immediately sought to raise money off of it, underscoring his power over the Republican base. “TUCKER stood up for American patriots when NO ONE ELSE DID,” read a fund-raising e-mail from Representative Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, who defeated the anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney in a primary last summer.
And in a tweet, the unsuccessful far-right candidate for Arizona governor, Kari Lake, congratulated Carlson.
“The best decision I ever made was leaving Fox,” tweeted Lake, who left her job as a local Fox anchor in Phoenix before she ran for governor. “Good for you, Tucker Carlson! You’re free and uncensored.”
Dreyfuss said other media figures could emerge who will amplify conspiracy theories and hard-line rhetoric just as Carlson did.
“Anyone else can become that person, just the same way that the Trump culture, and MAGA belief system, doesn’t really need Donald Trump,” she said.
Williams suggested Carlson could still remain a major presence in American media and politics. There are massive right-wing social networks like Rumble and Telegram. Some right-wing personalities who have left perches within media institutions, like Glenn Beck, have gone on to create their own platforms. Carlson himself co-founded a conservative website, the Daily Caller, although he sold his stake in 2020.
“It remains to be seen if he’s absent in 2024. I don’t necessarily think he’s going away; it may just be a shift in how voices like Tucker Carlson get their message out,” Williams said.
One right-wing television network, One America News, was quick to offer Carlson a job.
“One America News founder and CEO Robert Herring would like to extend an invitation to Carlson to meet for negotiation to become a part of the OAN team,” a story on that network’s website said.
His departure could spur speculation that Carlson will consider spreading his message by going into politics himself, something he has batted down in the past.
“I’m not running,” he said last July in an interview with Semafor News. “I’m a talk show host! And I enjoy my job, by the way.”