Former Fox News employee claims network execs encourage white nationalism

In a New York Times deep dive into the growing popularity of Fox News personality Tucker Carlson as his primetime show becomes the go-to cable show for white nationalists, one staffer at the conservative network claimed his fiery rhetoric is not only tolerated but encouraged.

According to the report, decision-makers at the network survey "minute by minute" data indicating viewers' reactions to stories and use that to dictate what should be covered to increase viewership.

According to one former employee interviewed by the Times, "They're all obsessed with the minute-by-minutes. Every second that goes on that network now gets scrutinized."

Another former staffer who worked on Carlson's show added, "He is going to double down on the white nationalism because the minute-by-minutes show that the audience eats it up."

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According to the Times' Nicholas Confessore, "Mr. Carlson’s darkening arc foreshadowed a transformation beginning to sweep through Fox itself. As Mr. Trump fought to build a border wall and keep Muslims out of the United States, Fox’s journalists and right-wing commentators would clash repeatedly over what many longtime staff members saw as a creeping invasion of the news divisions by allies and functionaries of the higher-rated, pro-Trump prime-time hosts," adding, "Mr. Carlson would be both instigator and beneficiary of Fox’s civil war."

A current staffer told the Times that Fox News execs have turned network into the hub of "grievance," clarifying, "the grievance, the stuff that would get people boiled up."

The employee added the execs see selling fear as the road to ratings, giving the example of "They're coming for you, the Blacks are coming for you, the Mexicans are coming for you," to get the point across.

According to the Times report, "From the beginning, Mr. Carlson’s on-air provocations have been part of a painstaking, data-driven campaign to build and hold Fox’s audience, according to former Fox executives and employees — an experiment that has succeeded wildly in bolstering Mr. Murdoch’s profit machine against the long-term decline in cable news subscriptions."

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