Despite Fox's personnel changes, it still provides a safe space for the radical, anti-choice propaganda and lies we're accustomed to as evidenced by Tucker Carlson's warm embrace of a radical anti-choice brother and sister act. While Carlson didn't actually articulate support for these two "persecuted" Christians, his lack of hard questioning provided them with all the validation that they needed!
Carlson sarcastically reported, on his Monday show, that "pro-life teenagers" had "an amazing encounter with the forces of tolerance." He informed us that Connor and Lauren Haines' protest against abortion, outside the Downington, Pennsylvania STEM Academy high school, outraged the assistant principal who "went completely insane." Carlson noted that the protesters were "perfectly within their rights" to protest.
He then played video of the exchange between Zachary Ruff and the protesters, during which the protesters called abortion a "holocaust" - a message that is highly offensive to the Jewish community. This was followed by Ruff's agitated commentary and Connor's response that Ruff should "turn to Jesus Christ."
Carlson noted that Ruff, "who, apparently, is an actual person" (?!) has been placed on leave. Carlson didn't mention that students are circulating a petition in support of Ruff which, as of May 1st, had 20,000 signatures.
The lower-third banner read "School Administrator Shouts Down Teen Demonstrators" as Connor explained that he and his sister don't attend that school because they are home schooled. He noted that, on the day of the incident, he and his sister stopped at STEM while on their way to protest at another school which was holding a Holocaust symposium. Connor added that their presence at that school would have been "a perfect opportunity to talk about abortion which we consider the Holocaust of our day."
Rather than react to the incendiary nature of the protest, Carlson asked if the video accurately represented what happened.
Lauren responded that God guided them to Ruff's school because it would be a perfect opportunity to bring God into his life. (According to a local website, "They saw that STEM was dismissing and they decided to go there for a few minutes.")
After Carlson asked the protesters if their actions were aggressive or offensive, Lauren played the persecuted-Christian card with her comment, "The gospel of Jesus Christ does offend people."
What Carlson didn't say was that the siblings carried grotesque posters of supposedly aborted fetuses - signs that, while protected by the First Amendment, are offensive to some.
Connor continued to discuss their goal of "engag[ing] with students about the gospel of Jesus Christ" which is needed because so many of them are "involved in fornication."
Carlson continued to stress freedom of speech and asked the very leading question of whether Ruff "intimidated" the duo.
"As Christians, we're promised, practically, that we will be persecuted," Lauren replied.
Connor described how his group, "Abolish Human Abortion" seeks not to regulate abortion but "to call it murder and what it is and to completely abolish it...and bringing the gospel into the conflict with child sacrifice."
Carlson gave him a metaphorical pat on the back: "That's a pretty counter-cultural message and you have an absolute right to express it."
The virulently anti-choice Tucker Carlson (who also thinks single moms are irresponsible sluts) scrupulously avoided any discussion of the radical nature of the Haines' anti-abortion group which equates birth control with abortion, compares Planned Parenthood with the KKK, and believes that women who have abortions should be tried for murder. Obviously, Ruff was a bit out of line, but the "teens" weren't the innocents that Carlson portrayed them as. Rather, it was just another patented Fox narrative about persecuted "pro-life" Christians. (Remind me who the real "snowflakes" are?!)
Watch Tucker's sweet affirmation from Monday, May 1, 2017.