The Murdochs and Tucker Carlson are bound together

Appealing to the conscience of the Murdoch family over Carlson’s bigotry has not worked, which is why pressure groups are targeting their pocket, writes Richard Hall

Fox News host Tucker Carlson gives off a strange high-pitched laugh as he discusses the guilty verdict of Derek Chauvin. (Fox News)

Tucker Carlson appears to be having the time of his life. Twice this week he has burst into fits of laughter during his nightly Fox News show — once during a discussion about the murder of George Floyd, and again while promoting a white supremacist theory of racial replacement.

A normal person might struggle to find the humour in either of those topics, but very little about Carlson’s show has been normal as of late. Even for a man who is frequently the target of advertiser boycotts and often accused of dog whistle racism, the last few weeks have been unusual.

Carlson started the month with a monologue that was almost indistinguishable from a common white supremacist talking point known as “replacement theory.” To the uninitiated, that is the idea that the white race is being replaced by non-white immigrants who will dilute the power and culture of the “native” population.

“It’s a voting-rights question. In a democracy, one person equals one vote. If you change the population, you dilute the political power of the people who live there,” Carlson said, referring to efforts by the Democrats to implement immigration reform.

“I know that the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter become literally hysterical if you use the term ‘replacement,’ if you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate — the voters now casting ballots — with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World. But they become hysterical because that’s what’s happening, actually.”

Carlson’s rant mirrored the theory beloved by neo-Nazis so closely that it prompted the Anti-Defamation League to call on the owners of Fox News to fire him from the network — the first time they had felt compelled to do so.

In a letter to Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott, the head of the ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt, said Carlson’s “rhetoric was not just a dog whistle to racists — it was a bullhorn.” The letter called the theory a “classic white supremacist trope,” and noted that it has been referenced by mass shooters in the US and New Zealand, and by far-right protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.

It prompted a rare response from Fox Corporation chief executive Lachlan Murdoch — son of Rupert Murdoch, the network’s founder — who told Greenblatt that he “respectfully” disagreed with the characterisation of Carlson’s views.

"A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory. As Mr Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: ‘White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question,’" he wrote in response.

Barely was the ink dry on Murdoch’s defence when Carlson doubled-down on his comments, insisting without evidence that “demographic change is the key to the Democratic party’s political ambitions” and that “Democrats plan to change the population of the country” in order to win elections.”

Undeterred, Carlson returned to the subject again this week, deconstructing a tweet from Democratic House member Ted Lieu in which he told a fellow congressman to “take your racist replacement theory and shove it.”

"In other words, you’re being replaced, and there’s nothing you can do about it! So shut up!" added Carlson, followed by an abrupt laugh.

Lachlan Murdoch did not feel the need to comment any further on Carlson’s latest monologue, and despite provoking almost daily outrage from anti-hate groups, it appears that Fox has no plans to remove him from the air. And besides, Carlson’s show is one of the most popular cable news shows on television.

If anything, the last couple of weeks has shown that there is very little Carlson could say that would cause the Murdoch family (that is, Lachlan and Rupert, who are the driving force behind the network) to put distance between them and their star host. 

They have stood by him through countless controversies and racist dog whistle scandals. When Carlson faced a firestorm for saying that mass immigration “makes our country poorer, and dirtier, and more divided,” Lachlan Murdoch reportedly texted his support to the host.  

They have stood by him even as more and more advertisers have boycotted over the past year — the Walt Disney Company, Papa John’s and T-Mobile, to name a few. Today, Carlson has no major advertisers left.

Perhaps one explanation for their strong support of Carlson is that the Murdochs don’t see anything wrong with what he says. Another is that Fox’s business model is remarkably resilient against such boycotts. According to Bloomberg, only 30 per cent of its revenue comes from advertising. It makes a substantial sum of money from affiliate deals with paid-tv providers, which often sign multi-year deals and include Fox as part of a standard package. 

That is why campaign groups like Sleeping Giants, which has previously targeted companies that advertise on Carlson’s show, are turning their attention to cable companies. 

“Who will be the first cable company to say it has had enough with Tucker Carlson’s white supremacy? Which one will at least give their customers the option of not paying for it with their basic package? They can be assured they will be absolutely showered with new customers,” the group tweeted on Wednesday.

These efforts have failed in the past, but it comes at a time when large companies have shown themselves to be more willing to take an active role in politics. They have taken stands on issues of racial justice and more recently on the Republican Party’s attack on voting rights.

And though it may seem unlikely it will hurt the Murdoch family’s finances enough for them to reconsider their allegiance to Carlson, history has shown that appealing to their conscience is even more futile.