Lachlan Murdoch, the CEO of the Fox Corporation, has made clear to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that Fox News will not be firing host Tucker Carlson for endorsing “replacement theory,” JTA reported Monday.
The ADL had called for Carlson to be fired after he endorsed the idea that there is a coordinated campaign to replace the population of the United States with immigrants from the “third world” in a segment which aired on the network.
In explaining his response, Murdoch cited Carlson’s statement, later in the segment, that he wasn’t referring to race but to a question of voting rights.
“A full review of the guest interview indicates that Mr. Carlson decried and rejected replacement theory,” Murdoch wrote in a letter on Sunday to ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, quoted by JTA. “As Mr. Carlson himself stated during the guest interview: ‘White replacement theory? No, no, this is a voting rights question.'”
Murdoch also clarified to Greenblatt that “Fox Corporation shares your values and abhors anti-Semitism, white supremacy and racism of any kind.”
Greenblatt penned a response letter on Monday, in which he wrote that citing voting rights “does not give [Carlson] free license to invoke a white supremacist trope."
“In fact, it’s worse, because he’s using a straw man – voting rights – to give an underhanded endorsement of white supremacist beliefs while ironically suggesting it’s not really white supremacism,” Greenblatt wrote. “Carlson did not accidentally echo these talking points; he knowingly escalated this well-worn racist rhetoric.”
Meanwhile on Monday, former New York State Assemblyman and founder of Americans Against Anti-Semitism, Dov Hikind, published a video in which he fired back at the ADL.
“Yes, there’s a White Supremacist conspiracy theory called ‘The Great Replacement’ but that is about minority races replacing the white race. Tucker Carlson spoke of non-citizens being brought in large numbers to dilute the voting power of all citizens, regardless of color,” he said.
“Greenblatt’s attack on Carlson is nothing but a politicized witch hunt meant to neutralize another prominent Conservative,” continued Hikind. “When the alleged racism or anti-Semitism comes from someone on the left, or a minority, the ADL calls them to get educated.”
“One can disagree with [Carlson’s] position, but he can’t be made into a racist because of it. At this point, the ADL should just officially fold into the Democratic Party because they seem to be doing their exclusive bidding,” said Hikind.