Fox News opinion host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson was the subject of a scathing Max Boot op-ed published Friday, in which Boot accused Carlson of “promoting conspiracy theories.”
Former President Donald Trump was the “most dangerous threat to American democracy” while in office, according to Boot, but now that Trump is out of the White House, The Washington Post opinion columnist says the title may go to Carlson. The op-ed comes after Carlson did a segment on his show this week highlighting calls from the left to de-platform Fox News, which Boot admits to supporting.
In office, Trump was the greatest threat to U.S. democracy. Now it may be Tucker Carlson, writes @MaxBoot https://t.co/BnMlsnepSO
— Washington Post Opinions (@PostOpinions) February 12, 2021
“Carlson has a long history of pushing vaccine conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives,” Boot wrote, referencing a segment in which Carlson claimed Americans weren’t being allowed to ask straightforward questions about COVID-19 vaccines. “Why are Americans being discouraged from asking simple, straightforward questions about it? Questions like how effective are these drugs? Are they safe” Carlson asked in the monologue. (RELATED: Instagram Bans Robert F. Kennedy Jr For Anti-Vaccine Views)
Boot then accused Carlson of lying about the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that occurred in summer 2020 and the death of George Floyd. Carlson recently said in a monologue that Floyd died of a fentanyl overdose and was not murdered by police officer Derek Chauvin. “There was no physical evidence that George Floyd was murdered by a cop. The autopsy showed that George Floyd almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl,” Carlson said.
Carlson opened his show Thursday by addressing calls from some on the left and in corporate media for Fox News to no longer be carried by cable providers. “[Jeff] Bezos has sent forth his personal scribes from The Washington Post to make us go away. On command, they’ve written a number of columns suggesting that Fox News must be silenced and gone on television to demand the same,” Carlson said.
Boot took issue with this, saying Carlson employed “his trademark combination of hyperbole, paranoia and ignorance.” In the previous paragraph, Boot wrote the following: “I… have called for Fox News to exercise greater restraint — and, if it doesn’t, for the cable systems that carry it to drop its programming.” (RELATED: New York Post Receives Leak, Reveals NYT Columnist’s Scathing Article Against His Own Paper)
Boot closed by accusing Carlson of “peddling lunatic conspiracy theories that endanger people’s lives and shred our social fabric.”
In recent weeks, a number of media figures have floated the idea of de-platforming Fox News. In addition to Boot, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has advocated for such a move, as has CNN’s Oliver Darcy. Another New York Times writer, Kevin Roose, recently wrote about experts who suggested the Biden administration appoint a “reality czar” to combat misinformation, and in January, Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Congress must “rein in” media.