Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s just asking questions about Russia’s latest conspiracy theory — bioweapon labs in Ukraine — that’s found a home in U.S. right-wing circles. But he doesn’t seem to like the answers he’s getting from people who actually know things.
After Fox News defense reporter Jennifer Griffin debunked the Kremlin’s lab claims on air Wednesday night and Thursday, Carlson popped off during his show later on Thursday, slamming the “Pentagon talking points you saw reported as fact on television today and last night” and journalists who “didn’t bother to do any reporting whatsoever.”
“They got a text from some Biden administration flack and they just read it on the air like it was true,” the Fox News host fumed. “You shouldn’t be surprised, because that’s what they do.”
“And it’s possible they’re afraid not to do that,” he added. “They know if they stray from the script the White House has written for them, they’ll be denounced from the briefing room as tools of Putin.”
A few minutes later, Carlson ranted again about reporters who “scold anyone for asking legitimate questions” and “attack” them as tools of Russia.
Though Carlson never identified these allegedly crooked reporters by name, his tirade came the day after Griffin appeared on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show and debunked with a Pentagon fact sheet the biolabs conspiracy theory that Carlson had been “just asking questions”-ing before her appearance that night.
Thursday night wasn’t the first time Carlson seemingly lashed out at Griffin.
On Tuesday last week, the Fox News host had Ret. Col. Douglas MacGregor on his show, which was several days after Griffin slammed MacGregor’s Putin-friendly “distortions” of Russia’s war on Ukraine during his appearance on Fox. MacGregor sounded like an “apologist” for Putin, Griffin said.
An indignant Carlson defended MacGregor several days later with an apparent swipe at Griffin.
“Unlike so many of the TV generals you see all day long, MacGregor is not angling for a board seat at Raytheon,” Carlson snarked as he introduced his guest. “Unlike many of the so-called reporters you see on television, he is not acting secretly as a flack for Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon.”
Griffin has emerged as Fox’s top fact-checker on the Ukraine crisis who’s been bluntly refuting her colleagues’ incorrect claims about Russia, notably pushing back against hosts like Steve Doocy and Harris Faulkner on air.
