Why TV host Tucker Carlson is under fire for his show on the Jan 6 US Capitol riots

Tucker Carlson is one of the United States’ most-watched TV show hosts, known for his controversial takes and populist rhetoric.

What happened on January 6, 2021?

The events of January 6, 2021, revealed fundamental fissures in US politics and society. On that day, supporters of Donald Trump illegally occupied the US Capitol as Congress was certifying the outcome of the 2020 elections, which Trump lost. They were egged on by multiple members of the Republican Party, including Donald Trump.

Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the riot and more than 140 police officers were injured, Reuters reported. Furthermore, members of Congress and staff ran for their lives amid the chaos.

While the events drew widespread condemnation, including from within sections of the Republican Party, politics has taken over discourse around them. While the Democratic Party continues to attack Republicans’ ‘anti-democratic’ leanings, many in the Republican Party have focussed on “moving on”, vary of the baggage that the riots carry.

However, some members have repeatedly attempted to downplay both the Party’s role in the events as well as the magnitude of the transgressions, hence keeping the issue alive.

Carlson and his ‘selective truths’

Tucker Carlson is one of America’s most-watched TV show hosts, known for his controversial takes and populist rhetoric. His Monday night show contained footage obtained from House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy recently leaked exclusive access to January 6 security footage to Carlson and Fox News, “in the interests of transparency”, he said.

Democrats and some Republicans criticised the leak over concerns about the US Capitol’s security, as well as the potential consequences of a partisan telling of the events.

Carlson is known for his partisan framing of issues and events. His latest show on January 6 is no different. While couched in the language of “being transparent” and bringing out the “actual truth”, the coverage carefully pieces together snippets from thousands of hours of security footage to create a narrative.

In an effort to portray the January 6 riots as benign, the show mostly showed protesters walking through the Capitol, though there are multiple documented instances of violence from the day. Carlson argues that the Democrats’ claims about the events “were a lie”, comparing it to other supposed Democrat-backed events that he says “were more deadly”.

He also accused the House select committee, which investigated the riots, had lied and concealed videos.

The reactions

Carlson has defended his coverage. “We felt it was a public service to bring what we could to you. There was no justification for keeping the secret any longer and a powerful argument to be made that sunlight is always and everywhere the best disinfectant and in fact, because it was video evidence, it is to some extent self-explanatory,” Carlson wrote in an opinion piece on Fox News’ website on Tuesday.

However, Carlson’s January 6 portrayal has also drawn criticism from the Republican Party itself. “It’s bullsh**”, Republican Senator Thom Tillis told reporters, criticising the framing as just “peaceful chaos”, NBC reported.

“It was a mistake, in my view, for Fox News to depict this in a way that’s completely at variance with what our chief law enforcement official here in the Capitol thinks,” Senate Republican chief Mitch McConnell said, referring to a memo from US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger that criticised McCarthy’s original leak, Reuters reported.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer in a speech called Carlson’s show “a dangerous, unforgivable attempt to destabilize our democracy and rewrite the history of the worst attack on our Constitution since the Civil War”, Reuters reported. “To say January 6 was not violent, is a lie, a lie, pure and simple”, Schumer said.

Tucker Carlson, Fox News and America’s hyper-partisan media

Fox News has been at the centre of recent controversy following executive chairman Rupert Murdoch’s startling revelations, that anchors from his network endorsed claims of Biden stealing 2020 polls – the veracity of which he himself doubted. This was in response to a $1.6 billion lawsuit filed by voting-tech company Dominion, accusing Fox News of airing baseless allegations of election fraud to lure back viewers it was losing to more hard-right channels. While the outcome of the case is yet to be seen, the seeming admission from Murdoch regarding falsehoods propagated by its anchors is revealing.

Tucker Carlson’s immense popularity with the Republican base lies in his ability to colour his content with overt populist messaging – he claims to be a man of the people, airing their discontent. He speaks about “bi-partisan” political corruption, “wokeism” and a plethora of other culture war topics, in language which claims to represent “the silent majority”.

He is known to platform fringe far-right politicians, give credence to conspiracy theorists, including many who dismissed the seriousness of Covid-19, platforming white supremacists, etc. Despite Carlson being criticised for this kind of reporting, he remains a darling of his core audience. In many ways, Carlson is the ultimate symbol of the US’s hyper-partisan media space where cults of personality remain strong.