Vice News misrepresents Tucker Carlson’s audience as QAnon followers
May 19, 2021
The mainstream media’s obsession with and defamation of Fox News host Tucker Carlson and his viewers proceed apace.
In one of its latest articles, Vice News claims multiple times – without proof – that QAnon followers watch “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the highest-rated program in U.S. cable news history. In other words, the article claims that a hyper-mainstream talk show’s audience is further right than mainstream conservatives.
“In a brief clip flagging an upcoming segment about the recent revelations [about Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein], Carlson appeared to speak directly to his QAnon audience,” the article says.
And if Carlson’s viewers aren’t already QAnon adherents, “Carlson’s comment [about Epstein and Gates’ relationship] will help radicalize his audience into QAnon.”
The author provides no information on the current or projected number of Q supporters among Carlson’s audience.
The article even botches the facts of Gates’ relationship with Epstein.
It says, “There has…been no suggestion that Gates was involved with the underage girls Epstein trafficked to his island in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”
That’s not entirely true. Gates reportedly met with Epstein multiple times from 2011 to 2013 in the latter’s New York mansion and at least once on his private jet, the “Lolita Express.” That’s the same plane alleged to have transported underage girls to his private island in the Virgin Islands.
The Vice article also falsely claims that Carlson has endorsed QAnon while unjustifiably linking him to the Capitol riot of Jan. 6. He is on record as being against the riot, saying that former President Donald Trump “recklessly encouraged” those involved in the “political protest” that “got out of hand.”
Carlson has defended freedom of thought, not necessarily Q acolytes.
He’s said they’re “kind of confused with the wrong ideas” in the same breath that he described them as “kind of gentle people now waving American flags” who “like this country.” Vice News, of course, included the “gentle people” quote but not the “kind of confused” quote.
Like with its attacks on Carlson, Vice News’ misrepresentation of mainstream conservatives as QAnon supporters is not uncommon in mainstream media.
BuzzFeed News has lumped in mainstream conservatives with Q followers for sharing an opposition to child sex trafficking. Similarly, Vice News lumps in Carlson and his audience with QAnon for the mere crime of recognizing a connection between Epstein and Gates that Q may or may not have recognized first.