Tucker Carlson’s Fantasy Version of January 6 Compounds Fox’s Credibility Problems - Horowitz
Tuesday, March 14, 2023
For those at Fox News committed to fixing the huge credibility hit they have taken as a result of the continuing revelations generated by the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit, last week was terrible timing for Tucker Carlson to reprise his shameful and unpersuasive fantasy version of January 6. The higher-ups at Fox either failed to embrace the old, but still sage advice, “when you are in a hole, stop digging” or were simply too craven to give the top-rated prime time host a hard no.
Aided by misleading and highly selective editing of the more than 40,000 hours of security footage handed to him exclusively by Speaker McCarthy, the authoritarian-friendly host attempted to re-define insurrectionists as “sightseers” in several segments last week. This was not Mr. Carlson’s first stab at airbrushing and minimizing the events of that day. His November 2021 Fox Nation Live streaming series, Patriot Purge, veered so far from reality, that Fox’s top news anchor, Bret Baier fought for the network not to stream it. It was also the last straw for Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, two long-time conservative Fox News contributors, who resigned from the network in its wake.
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In last week’s unpersuasive performance, Carlson essentially asks the audience to ignore the violent attack we all witnessed with our own eyes on national television, including on his network. He also fails to mention the more than 140 police officers that were injured on January 6 and the more than 1,000 people charged with crimes, a substantial chunk of whom were charged with assaulting police officers, as well as the more than 500 who have either plead guilty or been found guilty. Rather, by pointing to footage where people weren’t being violent, which as some observers pointed out you could also find in a war zone, he attempts to fool his audience into embracing his “alternative reality,” continuing to assert that this is all much ado about nothing.
Mr. Carlson’s new propaganda effort was predictably heralded by the extreme MAGA champions in the House and by Mr. Trump himself, but it nearly certainly did not result in new converts. In fact, it earned him and Fox News some sharp criticism from a number of Republican elected officials and leaders—people who are usually loath to take them on in public.
Holding up a memo from the chief of the Capitol Police, Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters in a planned press availability, “It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that's completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here at the Capitol thinks." Chief Tom Manger blasted Carlson in the memo to which Mr. McConnell called attention. “Last night an opinion program aired commentary that was filled with offensive and misleading conclusions about the January 6 attack,” wrote the chief, who went on to point out that Mr. Carlson “cherry-picked footage,” cast evidence free doubt that the death of officer Brian Sicknick, who died the next day, was related to the violent assault he experienced at the hands of Carlson’s so-called “sightseers”, and that the show failed to contact the capitol police in order “to provide accurate context.”
A number of other Republican senators backed up their leader. These included Senators Kevin Kramer (R-ND), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Mike Rounds(R-SD), and Tom Tillis (R-NC)—elected officials who are not Trump opponents and nearly always duck to avoid getting crosswise with Tucker Carlson.
And Mike Pence weighed in at the Gridiron Dinner on Saturday night. “Make no mistake about it, what happened that day was a disgrace. And it mocks decency to portray it any other way,” declared the former vice-president.
From the ratings-obsessed Tucker Carlson’s vantage point, you can see why he decided to proceed with this farce, even given how ill-timed it was for the credibility of the network overall. In a series of text messages that have surfaced as a result of the Dominion suit, Mr. Carlson texted that “he hates Trump passionately;” and that “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait;” and that “He’s a demonic force, a destroyer. But he’s not going to destroy us. I’ve been thinking about this every day for four years,” among other choice remarks. He was telling his audience a very different story on the air. But as opposed to owning his harsh criticism of Trump’s actions, he has clearly decided the best way to weather the storm and prevent the loss of viewers is to blow by them and double-down on the downplaying of January 6, continuing to raise doubts about the 2020 election in order to tell his audience exactly what they want to hear.
Because the interests of individual opinion hosts sometimes diverge from the interests of a network as a whole --as they do in this case-- you need strong leadership at the top of Fox to enforce at least some minimal standards. That is the strong hand that the savvy Roger Ailes used to provide. When Glenn Beck was the highest-rated host on Fox, for example, Ailes still fired him because he realized that his “out there where the buses don’t run” conspiracy theories were damaging the brand.
To regain, its shattered credibility, Fox News needs to hire an experienced and respected news executive from the outside and arm them with the power to keep Carlson, Hannity and Ingraham, among others, in line even at the risk of one of their primetime stars leaving the network. Fox’s basic formula over the years of right-veering, but credible news and pointed and entertaining conservative opinion is still a winning one. But the full embrace of Trump generated disinformation—disinformation that we now know that many of the hosts who championed it to their viewers regularly did not even believe—has put the brand at risk.
In today’s partisan niche media structure, an established conservative news network is a ratings winner and can add value to the public square. Fox News, however, since Trump entered the White House and continuing in his post-presidency, has too often crossed the line, saturating its viewers with propaganda that departs from any standards of accuracy or truth. Tucker Carlson’s January 6th segments are the most recent case in point.
There is still time, however, for Fox News to right the ship. But, I for one, am not holding my breath.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits, businesses, and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island.
