Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch has told Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to go pound sand after the Senate Majority leader tried to blame a recent shooting on Tucker Carlson.
Schumer accused Carlson of promoting a “far-right conspiracy theory” and demanded that his show is pulled from Fox News.
However, Murdoch is refusing to cave to the Democrats’ demands.
“I think when you’re in the news business, and you’re number one you get a lot of heat and it just comes with the territory,” Murdoch said.
“I think the world is more divided and on edge than it has been, you know, for a very long time.
“I think on the noise around it, so much of it is politicized.
“And so, you’ve got to be tough about it,” he asserted,
“Unfortunately, it comes with the territory.
“You’ve got to kind of realize what it is and how some of it is very organized kind of attacks — very coordinated — but it is what it is.”
Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch responds to criticism that Fox News is polarizing:
"I think when you're in the news business, and you're number one … you get a lot of heat and it just comes with the territory." https://t.co/KiNBI5qOi4
— Axios (@axios) May 24, 2022
Schumer wrote a letter to Fox News demanding ownership and executives stop what he says is the “reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory.”
Schumer said:
“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.
“This should come as no surprise given the central role these themes have played in your network’s programming in recent years,” he wrote.
“Politicians and media figures have an obligation to condemn such conspiratorial notions as white replacement theory.
“To this end, I implore you to immediately cease all dissemination of false white nationalist, far-right conspiracy theories on your network.”
In a letter to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Fox CEO Suzanne Scott, and Fox president Jay Wallace, Chuck Schumer says he urges Fox News to “immediately cease the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ theory…” pic.twitter.com/9FbUYrMtBi
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 17, 2022
From Axios:
Last week, protesters lined up in front of Fox Corporation’s New York City headquarters to protest Fox News primetime hosts in the wake of a Buffalo, New York, shooting.
A broad array of Democratic officials and progressive groups have criticized Fox News, saying its hosts have referenced the “great replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy theory that reportedly inspired the Buffalo shooter.
Murdoch pushed back against those attacks, noting that the shooter’s manifesto also targeted Fox Corp owner Rupert Murdoch for his support of Israel.
