Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) on Tuesday called on the leadership of Fox News to stop promoting the racist “Great Replacement” theory, citing an outbreak in a predominantly black neighborhood of Buffalo this weekend. Was given the charge of killing people in the grocery store. New York.
“I urge you to immediately stop the reckless amplification of the so-called ‘Great Replacement’ doctrine on your network’s broadcasts,” Schumer wrote in an open letter addressed to News Corp. President Rupert Murdoch.
Fox News has spent much time promoting the “great replacement” theory, the idea that elites are trying to replace white Americans with non-white people. Fox News host Tucker Carlson took note of this: He promoted the conspiracy theory in over 400 episodes, According to a recent New York Times analysis,
It has also gone mainstream with some GOP politicians often winking at the theory in undocumented anti-immigrant comments.
As Schumer noted in his letter, the conspiracy theory has had fatal consequences.
In 2018, a mass shooter who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue blamed Jews for allowing “invaders” into the US; the following year, a man who complained about a “Hispanic invasion of Texas” killed 23 people at the El Paso Walmart. ,
And over the weekend a white man shot 13 people in Buffalo. Accused shooter Peyton Gendron is believed to have posted a 180-page racist punchline, citing replacement theory.
Schumer wrote in his letter to Fox News, “In a manifesto posted online, the person responsible for this heinous murder wrote that the buyers there come from a culture that ‘racialises my own people’. demands to be changed from ‘.
In its first episode since shooting in Buffalo, Carlson denied any guilty To spread the doctrine of casteism. “The document is clearly not left-wing or right-wing,” Carlson said on Monday. “It’s not really political at all.”
In response to a question about Schumer’s letter, a Fox spokesperson cited Carlson’s comments on their broadcast to HuffPost.
“There is only one answer to rising racial tensions and that is to reduce and do what we have done and have tried to do for hundreds of years, work towards meritocracy of color, and make people God. does not regard humans as created by faceless members of interest groups that may benefit a political party or others,” Carlson said.
There is not much question that the idea of a migrant invasion engineered by the shadowy elite to marginalize white people has emerged as a Republican talking point in recent years. On Monday, Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), House called GOP leaders In an apparent reference to replacement-themed rhetoric from lawmakers such as Representative Alice Stefnik (RN.Y.) to enable “white nationalism” at the Republican convention.
Schumer blasted Fox News in a Senate floor speech on Monday, saying the “great replacement” theory was previously limited to “neurotic minded” and fringe Internet chat rooms, but it increasingly appears on cable news.
Schumer said, “Looking at audiences and ratings, organizations like Fox News have spent years perfecting the craft of addressing cultural grievance and political outrage, in a way that clearly reflects the messages found in the replacement theory. “
Schumer’s sweep against Fox represents a strategy shift, as in previous years Democrats have generally responded to the scourge of gun violence by mass shootings and advocated for expanded background checks for gun buyers. .
Later on Tuesday, Schumer tweeted that Carlson invited her to his show to discuss the letter. Schumer said no.
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