Chuck Schumer Sends Letter to Rupert Murdoch Insisting Fox News Stop ‘Reckless’ Pushing of Replacement Theory
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to Fox News executives urging them to stop amplifying the Great Replacement conspiracy theory in the aftermath of the Buffalo shooting.
Schumer addressed the letter to Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch, Murdoch’s son and Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch, Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, and Fox News Media President Jay Wallace. Schumer also copied the email to Fox host Tucker Carlson as he wrote to the network and implored them to “immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory on your network’s broadcasts.”
“Proponents of this white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theory believe that a complicit or cooperative class of elites are advancing a plot designed to undermine the political power and culture of white Americans. For years, these types of beliefs have existed at the fringes of American life. However, this pernicious theory, which has no basis in fact, has been injected into the mainstream thanks in large part to a dangerous level of amplification by your network and its anchors…
I urge you to take into consideration the very real impacts of the dangerous rhetoric being broadcast on your network on a nightly basis.
Schumer letter to the Murdochs and Fox execs: “I write to urge you to immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement theory’ on your network’s broadcasts” pic.twitter.com/ykeIa8Be3o
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 17, 2022
Schumer’s letter follows his Senate floor remarks on the deadly shooting which left 10 people dead at a grocery store in Buffalo. Police have said that the shooting was racially-motivated, and the 18 year old suspect allegedly posted a racist, anti-semitic diatribe online which embraced the concept that the political power of America’s white population is being diluted by immigration and asymmetric birthrates.
In the days after the shooting, Carlson has come under major public scrutiny for repeatedly giving credence to the replacement theory. In his letter, Schumer referred to The New York Times’ recent investigation into Carlson’s charged rhetoric, and he continued to suggest Fox News’ amplification of this “dangerous rhetoric” has fueled other past instances of racially-motivated attacks.
These incidents alone, to say nothing of the many more which have occurred in recent years, have led to dozens of lives being lost and countless others irreversibly impacted. The devastation and despair that families and communities feel in the wake of these incidents cannot be overstated. For instance, my constituents in east Buffalo who will be forced to relive this tragic event every single time they visit the supermarket for a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. It is on their behalf, and on behalf of the residents of communities in Pittsburgh, El Paso, and cities around the country who bear the consequences of this hateful ideology that I write you.
Schumer concluded by thanking The Wall Street Journal editorial board for acknowledging the continued existence of a “racist subculture” in America
“I implore you to immediately cease all dissemination of false white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theories on your network,” Schumer finished.
Carlson responded to the critiques against him in his Monday night show, ripping on the media and “professional Democrats” for politicizing their reactions to the violence. He also claimed that the blowback to his replacement theory promotion represents a threat to free speech.
On the subject of the replacement theory, Carlson ignored that to also attack President Joe Biden while calling the shooter’s diatribe “a rambling pastiche of slogans and internet meme, some of which flatly contradict one another. The document is not recognizably left-wing or right-wing, it’s not really political at all. The document is crazy. It’s the product of a diseased and inorganized mind.”
