Washington Post media critic blows up Tucker Carlson's egregious lies about white nationalism

Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan on Wednesday tore apart Fox News host Tucker Carlson after he declared that there is no problem with white supremacy in the United States and that any claims otherwise are part of a "hoax."

In fact, Sullivan writes that she didn't have to look very far to find examples of white supremacist ideology being broadcast to a mass audience, as she only had to watch Carlson's show.

"Carlson’s nightly show does a great deal to portray nonwhites as the dangerous 'other,' a force to be beaten back to save America," she argues. "His denials and rhetoric must be called out for the lies that they are."

She then goes on to document the way Carlson uses his platform to attack nonwhites on a regular basis.

"Consider his and his Fox colleagues’ insistence on using the word 'invasion' to describe migrants coming to America — generally people of color from countries south of the border," she explains. "Carlson himself spoke of the United States being invaded nine times, including 'This is an invasion, and it’s terrifying.' Carlson’s colleague Brian Kilmeade argued: 'If you use the term "an invasion," that’s not anti-Hispanic. It’s a fact.' No, it’s racist propaganda."

While Sullivan admits she doesn't know whether Carlson believes in the propaganda he's peddling or if he just does it because it gets good ratings, she believes the end effect is the same.

"The Fox-Trump feedback loop constantly reinforces the notion that black and brown people are to be feared and despised — whether they are in 'rat-infested' cities like Baltimore, as Trump would have it, or at the Mexico-Texas border," she concludes. "Tucker Carlson has become one of the most high-profile perpetrators of this appalling and divisive message, one constantly amplified by the president."

Read the whole column here.