Fox News's Tucker Carlson hit a nerve with his latest docuseries on the January 6 Capitol riot, a special that hit streaming service Fox Nation this week.
The announcement last week about the three-part series sent mainstream media personalities into a tailspin.
Grabien Media caught reactions from some of the biggest names at CNN and MSNBC, pointing out that at the time of their "disparaging remarks," none of them had seen the series in full.
Media personalities weren't the only ones triggered by the series, though. YouTube slapped a warning label on the trailer for "Patriot Purge" that reads: "The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as inappropriate or offensive to some audiences. Viewer discretion is advised."
“Tucker Carlson has created a terrorist recruitment video.”
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 1, 2021
“Why does Rupert Murdoch want to destroy America?”
“The Murdochs and Tucker Carlson, their primetime pyromaniac, appear to be hell-bent on dragging this country into a Civil War. Jefferson Davis would be proud.” https://t.co/eKIQGhSSSz
Media figures extensively discuss, passionately analyze, and angrily condemn a documentary none of them has seen. WATCH: https://t.co/zDlStV3v8E
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 1, 2021
Jim Acosta led the charge railing against Carlson during a seven minute segment devoted to the topic. He began, “It might be Tucker Carlson’s most dangerous moment yet. Fox News’s right-wing host is taking his assault on democracy to terrifying new heights.” Acosta went on, “Tucker is peddling some deeply dangerous propaganda.” He concluded the segment referring to Carlson as Fox’s “primetime pyromaniac” and saying that Carlson and the Murdoch’s “appear to be hell-bent on dragging this country into a Civil War” for which “Jefferson Davis would be proud.”
Acosta’s fellow sanctimonious colleague at CNN, Don Lemon, accused Carlson of “hitting a new low,” stating, “What Tucker Carlson is doing is going against the American people.”
Other CNN personalities including John Berman, Brianna Keilar, Poppy Harlow, Alysin Camerota, and Brian Stelter also spoke on the topic. They uniformly reacted in a negative manner to Carlson’s yet to be released film.
Perhaps the most vile comment made in response to ‘Patriot Purge’ came from Dr. Rashad Richey of TYT. When referencing the film, Richey said, “Tucker Carlson has created a terrorist recruitment video.”
During an appearance on MSNBC’s ‘The ReidOut,’ Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) gave commentary in the same vein as Richey with Swalwell claiming that Carlson’s film was “a tribute video for the terrorists.”
Of course Joy Reid provided color commentary of her own saying that the documentary contained “shameless lying and conspiracy mongering.”
A pair of former Republican members of Congress also took shots at Carlson and ‘Patriot Purge.’ Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R.-Fla) said, “What Carlson is doing is unforgivable and really just horrible. I want to say criminal, but technically that is not true, although maybe it should be.”
Another former Republican Congressman, Joe Walsh (R-Ill.), declared that, “Tucker Carlson is inciting violence.” (Grabien Media)
Carlson has addressed the media outrage over the series, claiming that The Washington Post put dozens of reporters on a rebuttal story.
"Which means that somewhere orbiting above Earth, Jeff Bezos, their boss, called in and said control the narrative," he said. "So it really tells you everything they are hysterical in the face of facts being added to this storyline. Why is it so important for them to control how we understand what happened that day?"
Sally Buzbee, WaPo's executive editor, challenged that assertion, telling readers that their investigative piece started in the spring.
