Right-wing news is fueling violence

The recent mass shooting of Black shoppers in Buffalo, NY. The murder of 23 mostly Hispanic people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas. The killing of nine Black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., and the massacre of 11 worshipers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA. What’s motivating so many angry young white men to commit such extreme acts?

Look no further than rightwing news channels and social media, and not just the extreme alt-right outlets such as 4chan or Newsmax. Just like each of the mass killers mentioned above, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham of Fox News are proponents of the “Great Replacement” theory, the notion that liberals, Jews and “elites” want to replace and disenfranchise white Americans through such means as immigrants (“invaders”), equal opportunity (“reverse discrimination”), and diversity (“CRT/ wokeness”). A New York Times investigation found that Carlson has referenced the theory in over 400 episodes.

A former Fox producer even confirmed that staffers mined racist websites for stories which would elicit “pure outrage” from viewers.

As the head of the Anti-Defamation League said, “White nationalism isn’t new, but what we need to recognize is that (recent mass shootings) aren’t outliers on a scatter plot,” they “are data points on a trend line … that indicates clearly and unambiguously that white supremacy is a global threat.”

Shame on Fox, and its viewers.

— Scott Paulo, Chico