‘Off the rails’: New Tucker Carlson project for Fox embraces

Where Tucker Carlson goes, Fox News and its viewers follow.

The network’s top host is now leading them to an examination of the violent January 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol in a three-part series called “Patriot Purge,” which released this week on the network’s right-wing streaming service Fox Nation.

In the series, Carlson strongly suggests that the insurrection was not orchestrated by Trump’s fans but by his foes, including the violent leftist group Antifa and even in the FBI and other national security divisions. He plants the idea that the siege was a “false flag” operation to discredit Trump supporters.

Carlson is promoting the series on his own prime-time show on Fox News — which is the top-rated program in all of cable news — and on the popular Fox & Friends morning show.

“These kinds of conspiracy theories about January 6 used to be relegated to weird blogs and known conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones,” says Jared Holt, who monitors extremism on social media for the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Holt argues Carlson is seeking to discredit news reports and court decisions about the siege.

“In a way, you don’t need conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones to even exist if Tucker Carlson is going to do the job of conspiracy theorists for them,” he says. Holt was among researchers who flagged concerning levels of heated rhetoric ahead of the protests that led to the siege.

Fox News is in a “precarious spot”

Paradoxically, Fox News finds itself at a perilous moment, despite being the nation’s dominant cable news channel. Trump loyalists make up its core audience and many viewers swore they wouldn’t watch again after Fox became the first network to call Arizona for Joe Biden on Election Night 2020.

Some leading Fox hosts have wooed them back through a tight embrace of Trump’s supporters and their causes like anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.

Yet embracing Trump’s lies have also landed the network in court. Two election tech companies sued Fox, among other news outlets, for defamation in multi-billion dollar claims. They arise from Fox hosts amplifying the lies of Trump and his allies that the 2020 elections were rigged against him.

Fox is vigorously disputing the allegations and defending itself against the suits. So the network is attempting to demonstrate its journalistic care and professionalism while also seeking to hold onto millions of viewers who have little interest in either.

“Fox is in a very precarious spot,” says University of Delaware professor Dannagal Young, who studies political communications and extremism. “They have created a monster.”

Fox News’ CEOSuzanne Scott and its top publicity executive did not respond to NPR’s written questions about the series. The network had requested questions be submitted by email but has so far not responded.

The series relies on conspiracy theorists

In the series, Carlson relies on several conspiracy theorists to make his case.

Among those interviewed on camera is the editor of a site…