To the Editor:
In order to nail down the House speakership, it’s not surprising that Kevin McCarthy would provide footage of Jan. 6th to Tucker Carlson as part of his concessions to the far-right “Freedom Caucus.”
And despite that under oath Rupert Murdoch confessed his anchors lied non-stop to their viewers, Fox “News” still determined it was utterly fitting to allow Tucker Carlson’s program to pull very selective images from that footage to depict a narrative he wanted to spoon-feed to the Fox News fanbase that still wants to believe the election was stolen; that somehow they are fighting for right in this nation by their devotion to former president Donald Trump and the far right. So, Carlson’s staff deliberately edited footage to depict Jan. 6th as a “mostly peaceful” event.
To what purpose? In the spirit of giving Fox viewers the benefit of the doubt, one wonders if possibly it’s because Carlson and Fox need to make their viewers feel less crappy about the fact that they got played by people who took their viewers’ sincere concern and good intentions for this nation and misdirected them.
Like it or not and despite the questionable candidate they backed, it cannot be denied that Fox viewers do care for this nation. And some feel genuine remorse for the horror that took place on Jan. 6th and certainly had no desire to see a nation they love attacked. Many are troubled that people died that day because of the faith they placed in Trump, their elected officials, Fox News and Tucker Carlson.
But Tucker Carlson — who is now known to have a passionate hatred of Trump — continues to insult his viewers by denying them the truth and reality of that day. Carlson hates Trump, and that begs the question of how much he secretly looks down on Trump’s supporters and Fox viewers. Rather than crediting them with having the intelligence and emotional maturity to accept reality, he continues to try to use their feelings and twist it to his and the Freedom Caucus.
Certainly, by now if Trump, Carlson, and Fox still appeal to some supporters and still instill faith and trust then clearly, they’re content with being misled. But for those who might feel betrayed by Fox News and Tucker Carlson perhaps the rest of us should resist sniggering. They put their faith in elected officials to do right by this nation based largely on a false narrative that Trump, Fox, and Carlson pummeled into them for personal wealth and power. That they were emotionally manipulated, misdirected, lied to and used by those elected officials and Fox News is not on them, but on those that did so.
Maybe the takeaway here for all is, in a world where absolute power corrupts absolutely, blind devotion to any one information source is a truly dangerous thing.
Lisa Voiles
Whiteland
