Why is Tucker Carlson still on the air?
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/7/17/2040402/-Why-is-Tucker-Carlson-still-on-the-airWhy is Tucker Carlson still on the air?
Mark Sumner
Daily Kos Staff
Saturday July 17, 2021 · 11:37 AM EDT
Honestly, a better question might be “Why is Tucker Carlson not in jail?”
On Friday night, Carlson was back on Fox News to welcome COVID-19-”truther” Alex Barenson to his program. Together, the two said that “masks are useless” and nothing more than a symbol that someone is obedient to the government, and claimed that mask mandates have no intention other than to make people scared, and are doing “psychological damage.” They then moved on to say that the vaccines are "declining in effectiveness very quickly," and that the truth about vaccines was being blocked by “tremendous financial pressure.”
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In May 2021 alone, over 18,000 Americans died of COVID-19. Of those who died, only about 150 were people who had been vaccinated. In the same month, more than 107,000 Americans were hospitalized for severe illness attributed to COVID-19. Only 1% of those people had been vaccinated.
It may be too much to charge Tucker Carlson directly with 18,000 counts of manslaughter for his actions over the course of that month, but there is one thing certain: What Carlson is doing is much closer to the actions of Branham or Carter than it is to the teens laughing over the Tide Pod challenge. The frozen food heir is fully aware of the consequences of his actions, He is fully aware of the falseness of his claims. He is fully culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans.
This is not a case of a broadcaster repeating a mistaken claim, or someone rushing forward with information that is incomplete. Carlson is deliberately, frequently, and constantly providing disinformation to the public that generates real and lasting harm—including death on a massive scale.
There may be no prosecutor in the country willing to charge Carlson for his involvements in these days—though honestly, there should be. But if that’s too much to expect, then certainly it should be a bare minimum that Carlson be treated with the kind of seriousness that was given to a disorganized group of kids that generated 0.1% as many deaths over eight years as Carlson and his ilk produced in a single month, a month that was the least deadly month of the entire pandemic.
Every single platform should feel an obligation to not just disown Carlson, but to prominently feature material correcting his false claims. Every single news program should feel obligated to call out this threat regularly, until it no longer exists. And every single sponsor who puts up a dime for his program should be considered a co-conspirator in his acts.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It's not us, and it will never be us. But that doesn't matter.
Remember Bill O'Reilly who got fired 4 or 5 years ago from Fox? It was the boycott of advertisers that got him fired, he lost all of his sponsors and then he was out. Maybe I sound like "cancel culture" but that's the only effective way to get rid of these guys.
when a CNN reporter asked him, he responded by asking about her STD test status and sexual history.
He won't say yes or no to if he's vaccinated because his stupid supporters don't realize he's a hypocrite. Then Fox News representatives claimed they are only pandering to their supporters and asking questions rather than convincing anyone to not be vaccinated. And that's a bit of a stretch. They probably think they'll be held liable some day if people die from their misinformation.
I read the OP as it regards to marketplace/viewer-size intimations and/or violations of standing statutes rather than a cart-blanche (blanket) statement of the government's de-facto (in effect) removal of a news organization.
Seems single-minded (at best) to infer one and only one possibility (as well as being a reductio ad absurdum fallacy)
It's always five o'clock somewhere in the world. Gesondheid!
Part II, Return of the Banal Smilies.
