Fox Corp. stands behind Tucker Carlson after the Anti-Defamation League called up last week the company to fire the opinion host for his on-air defense of the white supremacy “great replacement” theory.
In a letter sent to the civil rights organization on Sunday and shared with The Associated Press, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch said that Carlson “disapproved and rejected the replacement theory” when he said during the Thursday night segment, “White replacement theory? No, no, this is. a voting right question. “
The ADL argued in a response sent to Murdoch on Monday that Carlson was using white supremacist language even when he claimed he didn’t.
“Mr. Carlson’s attempt to reject this theory at first, while endorsing it in the next breath under cover of ‘a voting rights question,’ does not give him a free license to invoke a white supremacist trope,” wrote ADL- CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.
Replacement conspiracy theory holds that people of color are replacing white people in the West, powered by Jews and progressive politicians.
In a guest appearance Thursday on “Fox News Primetime,” Carlson embraced “a fundamental theory of white supremacy,” the ADL said.
On the show, Carlson said, “The Left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter are literally going to be hysterical when you use the term ‘replacement’, when you suggest that the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate of voters who are now voting with new people., More obedient Third World voters. ”He added that he“ had less political power because they are importing a brand new electorate ”.
The ADL also cited numerous instances where Carlson has used anti-immigrant language in the past, including accusing immigration of making the US “poorer, dirtier and more divided,” and questioned whether white supremacy was real.
Murdoch noted in his letter that the ADL had once honored his father, Rupert Murdoch, with a leadership award. The ADL’s Greenblatt replied that the accolade was awarded more than a decade ago, but let me be clear that we wouldn’t do that today, and it doesn’t relieve you, him, the network, or his board of the moral failure of failure taking action against Mr. Carlson. “
A Fox spokesperson declined to comment on the ADL’s letter on Monday.