Geraldo Rivera criticizes his Fox News colleague
Tucker Carlson.
By Michael
M. Grynbaum
Published
Oct. 28, 2021
Updated
Oct. 29, 2021, 12:10 a.m. ET
Tucker Carlson, the top-rated Fox News host, faced
criticism on Thursday — including from a prominent colleague at his own network
— after he announced plans for a documentary series featuring debunked
conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 riot at the United States Capitol.
The
three-part series, “Patriot Purge,” is set to be broadcast next month on Fox
News’s streaming service, Fox Nation. An 84-second trailer that aired on Fox
News on Wednesday included the baseless suggestion that the riot was a
so-called “false flag” operation created to demonize the political right.
As tense
music plays on the soundtrack, Mr. Carlson says in ominous tones that “the
helicopters have left Afghanistan and now they’ve landed here at home.” Various
speakers convey the false idea that Democrats want to persecute and imprison
conservatives.
The trailer
evoked a dismayed public response from Geraldo Rivera, the veteran Fox News
correspondent, who used a profane term in a Twitter post to dismiss the claim
that the Capitol riot was a “false flag” operation. That theory has repeatedly
been debunked.
“Tucker’s
wonderful, he’s provocative, he’s original, but — man oh man,” Mr. Rivera said
in a phone interview. “There are some things that you say that are more
inflammatory and outrageous and uncorroborated. And I worry that — and I’m
probably going to get in trouble for this — but I’m wondering how much is done
to provoke, rather than illuminate.”
“Messing
around with Jan. 6 stuff … ” Mr. Rivera added, pausing briefly. “The record to
me is pretty damn clear, that there was a riot that was incited and encouraged
and unleashed by Donald Trump.”
Asked if he
would urge his Fox News bosses to reconsider airing Mr. Carlson’s special, Mr.
Rivera demurred, saying, “I don’t want to go there, that’s not my job.”
But he
added of Mr. Carlson: “He’s my colleague. He’s my family. Sometimes you have to
speak out about your family.”
Fox News
did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr.
Carlson’s prime-time provocations have helped propel him to the highest ratings
in cable news, even as he has used rhetoric sometimes used by white
nationalists. He has frequently questioned the coverage of the Jan. 6 attack,
asserting that government agents were involved in the events and portraying the
rioters as mostly peaceful.
“The vast
majority of people inside the Capitol on Jan. 6 were peaceful,” he told viewers
on Sept. 23. “They were not insurrectionists, they shouldn’t have been there.
They weren’t trying to overthrow the government. That’s a total crock.”
The trailer
for “Patriot Purge” includes an interview with Darren Beattie, a former
speechwriter in the Trump White House who was fired in 2018 after it was
revealed that he had attended a gathering with white nationalists. Ali Alexander,
a far-right activist and one of the most prominent advocates of the falsehood
that President Biden stole the 2020 election, also appears in the trailer.
Among Mr.
Carlson’s critics on Thursday was Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming
Republican. In a Twitter post, she accused Fox News of giving Mr. Carlson “a
platform to spread the same type of lies that provoked violence on January 6.”
Mr. Rivera,
who is scheduled to appear on Thursday’s episode of the Fox News afternoon
program “The Five,” recently renewed his contract with the network in a
multiyear deal. In an announcement last month, Suzanne Scott, the chief
executive of Fox News Media, described Mr. Rivera as “an important voice on Fox
News Channel over the last two decades,” adding, “We are thrilled to have him
continue to be a part of the Fox family.”
Fox News
was not the only arm of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire facing scrutiny this
week. The Wall Street Journal was criticized on Wednesday for publishing a
lengthy letter to the editor from former President Donald J. Trump that
contained numerous falsehoods about the integrity of the 2020 election.
Davey Alba
contributed reporting.
Michael M.
Grynbaum is a media correspondent covering the intersection of business,
culture and politics. @grynbaum
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