All Tuckered Out

Every once in a while things come along that I truly don’t understand why they were done – though that list is getting shorter.  And another of those occurred on Monday when Tucker Carlson made his first presentation on Fox “News” since being given by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy 41,000+ hours of exclusive U.S. Capitol security footage – and he used it to, inexplicably, try to claim that the January 6 Insurrection riot where five people died and many more injured and close to 700 people have either been convicted or pled guilty…was just a peaceful gathering.

To be clear, I fully understand why Tucker Carlson being Tucker Carlson said this.  Because he’s a little fascist provocateur, and it’s what he must do to breathe and feel good about himself.

What I don’t understand though are two other things –

Why would Fox executives, knowing that they’re in the middle about a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit by Dominion for lying and knowing that private emails and other documents have been admitted into evidence showing that Fox “News” was 100% aware that they were lying to viewers about the election, would allow one of its hosts to go on the add and pour more evidence on the Dominion bonfire to show the network’s total and knowing disregard for the truth?

And why would Tucker Carlson, who knows he was given 41,000+ hours of exclusive U.S. Capitol security footage and has a wide-open platform to edit is in any deceitful way he wants for airing over months in order to prove a non-existent point and knows five people died, over 1,000 people have been arrested, almost 700 people have been convicted or plead guilty and knows he himself saw footage of the violent break-in and fighting, and knows his private email lies have recently been exposed to destroy his credibility, use his very first airing of that video material in a way that was so insanely ludicrous and so easily disproved that his broadcast undermines all future broadcasts of that treasure trove of video material?

Tucker Carlson showed footage of Insurrectionists calmly wandering around the U.S. Capitol (which, to be clear, is already illegal, since the building was closed to the public that day) and left it at that, showing none of the massive violence.  It reminded me of perhaps my favorite passage from the old Mary Tyler Moore sitcom –

News director Lou Grant found out that his incompetent nephew had a video camera and was at the site of a major fire. Excited that the station has a huge scoop over everyone else, he finds out that when the film is developed, the only thing his nephew filmed was a bug crawling along the sidewalk.  Utterly bewildered, Lou asks why in the world he filmed that.  The nephew answers that he wanted to show the irony that while a big fire was happening, just a few feet away, life goes on.  Lou tries, but can’t contain himself and explodes – “Did it ever occur to you to shoot footage to show that while life was going on…only a few feet away THERE WAS A MASSIVE FIRE!!!!!!!”

That was Tucker Carlson on Monday.  Showing that a few feet away from people wandering around the U.S. Capitol – THERE WAS AN INSURRECTION!!  Which most everyone in the world watching television at the time saw.

One of Carlson’s big “scoops” was using footage to show that when Insurrectionist Josh Hawley (R-MO) was running away in fear down the Capitol halls, he wasn’t the only one doing so.  This is one of those rare times when “Well, duh” is the only proper response.  I not only suspect next to no one ever thought Hawley was the only person running for his life – indeed, there was other footage of people in Congress running – but the point of the media relentlessly showing Josh Hawley running was because earlier in the day he was on camera egging the Insurrectionists on.  I would add, as well, that if the lying point you’re trying to make is that January 6 was peaceful, then showing many people inside the Capitol running for their lives is not a good way to make your lying point.

(Most amusingly problematic for Carlson -- though his ardent supporters will find a way to overlook it or perhaps never even hear of it, since they pay no attention to actual news outside the Fox bubble -- is when he wrote in private emails about Trump that "I passionately hate him.")

What I loved, too, was Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-AR) – who only last week complained that people kept calling her stupid – saying that, based on the footage Carlson showed, the “QAnon Shaman” should get a new trial.  What this mental giant of Einsteinian proportion misses is that the “QAnon Shaman” pled guilty -- and that when he was shown the evidence prosecutors had, freely admitted to all the facts he was charged with!!!

How bad was Tucker Carlson’s presentation?

Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Minority Leader, said to reporters – “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."  And in regards to a  memo sent by Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger which called the Carlson's depiction “offensive” and misleading,” McConnell also added, “With regard to the presentation on Fox News last night, I want to associate myself entirely with the opinion of the Chief of the Capitol Police about what happened on January 6.”

And Minority Leader McConnell wasn’t alone.  I don’t mean among all elected officials – since you only have to imagine what Democrats said, and you be right – I mean among Republicans

“I was here. It was not peaceful. It was an abomination,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA).   “You’re entitled to believe what you want in America, but you can’t resort to violence to try to convince others of your point of view.”

Republican Senator Tom Tillis (R-NC) was asked about Carlson calling January 6 “peaceful” and replied that “I think it’s bullsh*t.”  He also told reporters, “I was here. I was down there” and spoke about “when you see police barricades breached, when you see police officers assaulted, all of that…” and called Tucker Carlson’s description “inexcusable.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND told reporters “I think that breaking through glass windows and doors to get into the United States Capitol against the borders of police is a crime. I think particularly when you come into the chambers, when you start opening the members' desks, when you stand up in their balcony — to somehow put that in the same category as, you know, permitted peaceful protest is just a lie.”

And then there’s Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) who said that the Insurrection on January 6 was a violent attack and that Carlson trying to “normalize that behavior is dangerous and disgusting.”

Adding that “The American people saw what happened on January 6, they’ve seen the people that got injured, they saw the damage to the building. You can’t hide the truth by selectively picking a few minutes out of tapes and saying this is what went on. It’s so absurd, it’s nonsense.”

And again, that’s just from Republicans.  Not all Republicans, to be sure.  Many enabled the Insurrection so they’re likely all-in on Tucker Carlson calling the Insurrection to overthrow the government and democracy just “peaceful.”  But when you get that many Republican officials – including the Senate Minority Leader – ripping Tucker Carlson in such blunt, often guttural language, you know it’s not good.

The thing is, what’s important to make clear, and not let all hell rain down on Tucker Carlson and Fox “News,” is that the foundational criticism of shame here must be directed to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).  Because it was McCarthy alone who – without even checking with Capitol Police about security concerns – gave all that 41,000+ hours of security footage exclusively to Tucker Carlson.

Still, for all the harsh criticism from both sides of the aisle, I suspect that the Dominion Voting Systems company is overjoyed by Carlson’s broadcast.  After all the private emails from Fox – including from Tucker Carlson himself -- admitting they knew they were lying about election fraud and Dominion machines, there was Carlson on Monday putting a cherry on the sundae, and calling what he knew was a violent Insurrection where five people died, over 1,000 people have been arrested, almost 700 people have been convicted or plead guilty something that was just a ”peaceful” outing by “tourists.”

And to a degree, even the public should be pleased, as well.  That's because the now known-liar Tucker Carlson has pretty much discredited the remaining 41,000+ hours that he was hoping to manipulate ahead.  And so, by egregiously, inexplicably, blatantly lying, he became a real-life Chicken Little trying to convince us that the sky is falling.

In the end, it was only just a nut that fell.