“Given his long track record of racing, we think it’s time for Carlson to leave,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL.
Carlson, the highest-rated presenter on Fox News, was convicted for his comments about “replacement” on another Fox show Thursday night.
In the ADL’s subsequent letter on Friday, first obtained by CNN Business, Greenblatt accused Carlson of “open endorsement of white supremacist ideology.”
Carlson appeared with his friend Mark Steyn, who came in at 7 p.m. ET, invoking the “white replacement theory,” a racist conspiracy theory that assumes that white people are deliberately replaced by immigrants.
“No, no, no,” Carlson said, insisting that he wasn’t pursuing the theory.
But then he said, “This is a voting question. I have less political power because they are importing a brand new electorate. Why should I sit back and take that? The power that I am guaranteed as an American at birth is one man, one vote. , and they water it down. No, they can’t. Why are we taking this? “
His comments came in the context of a conversation about how the government deals with migrants crossing the southern border – one of the most common topics on Fox.
Moments earlier, Carlson seemed to predict that he would cause outrage: “Now,” he said, “I know the left and all the little gatekeepers on Twitter are literally going to be hysterical when you use the term ‘replacement’, when you suggest the Democratic Party. the current electorate is trying to replace the voters who are now voting with new people, more obedient Third World voters, but they’re getting hysterical because that’s what actually happens Let’s just say, that’s true. ‘
Nobody is “replaced”. Existing voters are not exchanged for the “more obedient” migrants Carlson envisions.
But Carlson has repeatedly brought this idea to the fore in his own program at 8 p.m. In Friday’s letter to Fox, Greenblatt said, “At ADL we believe in dialogue and give people a chance to save themselves, but Carlson’s full embrace of white supremacist replacement theory on yesterday’s show and his repeated allusions to racist themes in earlier segments are a bridge too far. “
The letter pointed out that “replacement theory” is the foundation of “the modern white supremacist movement in America.”
The theory was aired on American TV screens when men marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, saying, “Jews won’t replace us” and “you won’t replace us.”
And the theory has been cited by racist mass murderers, including the man who attacked a Walmart in El Paso, Texas in 2019.
“This is not a legitimate political discourse,” Greenblatt wrote to Scott.
A Scott spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment on the ADL’s call.
Jonathan Chait, writing for New York Magazine, said Carlson has been addressing racists for years “with wink-and-nod messages that tie in with their paranoid themes” and “last night, his embrace of white supremacy crossed an important and dangerous new threshold. “
But if history is a guide, Fox won’t take any action. Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch have ignored earlier criticisms of Carlson. And they’ve tripled Carlson’s commentary, including with a recent expansion of Carlson content to the Fox Nation streaming service.