The latest Fox News effort to sow chaos, disruption and discord in the U.S., not to mention economic harm, is the network’s effort to inspire American truckers to wreak the same kind of anti-vax protests as have caused a state of emergency in Canada.
Media Matters crunched the numbers and found that the network has devoted close to nine hours to promoting its new heroes - while the Fox hosts continue to work without protest under the vaccine mandate at their own network.
Since January 29, a group of truckers and their allies has effectively crippled downtown Ottawa by using vehicles to block traffic, leading the city’s mayor to declare a state of emergency. Similar protests have occurred in cities across the country, and on Monday truckers blocked a major international crossing. This so-called “Freedom Convoy” originally assembled to oppose a newly implemented rule requiring them to either be vaccinated or quarantine after returning from trips across the U.S. border, but organizers now say they will continue their demonstrations until the national and provincial governments “end all mandates.”
The demonstrators are not representative of Canadian truckers or the populace at large. The Canadian Trucking Alliance, which represents the industry, has disavowed them, arguing that “a great number of these protestors have no connection to the trucking industry” and pointing out that nearly 90% of the nation’s truckers are vaccinated. Their actions are also unpopular with their fellow Canadians – a recent poll found nearly two-thirds of respondents there oppose the Ottawa protest.
But on the other side of the border, Fox hosts are extremely excited about the protests, even as they quietly labor under the network’s own stringent vaccine requirements. The network devoted 8 hours and 43 minutes to the story from the first mention of the convoy we found on January 18 through February 9. Prime-time stars Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are among the convoy’s biggest fans at the network, giving it 54 minutes and 51 minutes, respectively. And Fox’s coverage is escalating, with more than 4 and a half hours of trucker coverage coming on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week combined.
The trucker-protesters are doing real harm. ABC News reports they have caused shutdowns and stoppages at auto plants in both Canada and the U.S. But Fox News doesn’t care because it fits into the anti-Biden anarchy seditionists like Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity long for and savor.
For example, tonight, Tucker Carlson – who doesn’t have to worry about any damage to his fatcat paycheck or higher costs for autos or auto parts – delighted in the economic costs to others - while he postured as a friend to the "working class man." He even worked in a little celebratory race baiting while he was at it:
CARLSON: So, this protest is less than a week old and already is causing deep pain to at least one global industry. It's hard to overstate the historical significance of what we're watching right here. The Canadian trucker convoy is the single most successful human rights protest in a generation. If nothing else, it has been a very useful reminder to our entitled ruling class, the working class man can be pushed, but only so far. When they push back, it hurts. It turns out that truck drivers are more important to a country's future than say, diversity consultants or even MSNBC contributors. Who knew?
Last night, Sean Hannity had contributor Sara Carter join the chaos party in Ottawa. He once again falsely identified Carter as an “investigative reporter” when she is really a contributor who has been rejected by the news division. Hannity has been telling this lie since at least 2019 yet Fox keeps giving him a pass. In the video below, Carter did not correct the falsehood.
Hannity told Carter to tell the Ottawa truckers that American working people “stand in solidarity with what they're doing and for the freedom movement that they're leading.” The producers got in on the action, too, with lower-third banners such as, “’FREEDOM CONVOY’ CAPTIVATES THE WORLD.”
Let’s not forget that Tucker Carlson claimed to hate protest-caused chaos and used that supposed abhorrence to justify his support for Killer Kyle Rittenhouse’s vigilantism. But neither consistency nor even provocative thought is Carlson’s goal: anarchy and destruction is. As I wrote last night, in my post about how Russia loves him, night after night after night, Carlson broadcasts his hate for this country and sows division – with Lachlan Murdoch’s admiring support.
Before Carlson’s sedition hit Fox News prime time, there was Hannity’s. Let's also not forget that Hannity openly promoted armed insurrection against the U.S. government as far back as 2014 – and Fox News let him. Nor should anyone ever forget that Hannity smeared a young murder victim named Seth Rich in order to scapegoat him as the leaker of DNC emails to the Russians. Fox paid Rich’s family what is likely a generous settlement in 2020. Hannity, on the other hand, has failed to publicly apologize either to viewers or the Rich family, even though the conspiracy theory was completely debunked by the Mueller Report. Even Trump's attorney general, Bill Barr acknowledged that the Russians did it.
Now, Fox is urging Americans to copy the Canadians:
"United States is sort of the original freedom-loving population but we're not leading the way right now when it comes to resisting top-down elite mandates. Right now, we're being led by Canadian truckers." pic.twitter.com/XyCsHSQuXB
— Matthew Gertz (@MattGertz) February 9, 2022
And the effort has succeeded. In an article posted today, Media Matters writes:
As Canada’s capital Ottawa declares a state of emergency in the second week of disruptive protests by trucker drivers opposing the country's vaccine requirements, American truckers — with the assistance of right-wing media and far-right figures — are planning a similar protests for Washington, D.C. to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Organizers of the convoy are promoting it across social media, including Facebook groups, Telegram channels, and TikTok accounts, and some have appeared on Fox News and Newsmax to promote “the People’s Convoy.”
Media Matters counted four appearances of the American organizers on Fox – so far.
The point here is not just Fox’s trucker-convoy malice but the malicious lengths it will go to for the sake of political power. Before the trucker convoys, Fox was cheerleading Tea Party chaos and Dr. Ben Carson’s public disrespect to President Obama at the National Prayer Breakfast. It’s still cheerleading people who dangerously disrupt school board meetings. And, of course, it whitewashes and excuses the January 6th insurrection. I’m sure there will be other, newer attempts to undermine and sabotage the fabric of American society before long, too.
And let’s never, ever forget that Rupert Murdoch and son Lachlan Murdoch are bankrolling every bit of this sabotage.
You can watch some of the latest examples below. First, from the February 10, 2022 Tucker Carlson Tonight and underneath, from the February 9, 2022 Hannity.
What they are actually talking about is not government per se, but civilisation itself. As contradictory as it sounds, the people who are hellbent on regulating what women do with their own bodies, what children care allowed to read and who can and cannot engage in sex with others (or even themselves!) are the ‘freedom-loving sovereign citizens’ who refuse to be bound by laws and regulations put in place to ensure people and their environments are allowed to function in safety and fairness.
“I think it’s more than just money, though the dough is a big part. I think Tuckums, Seanie-Pooh and at least Lachlan Murdoch want anarchy and to destroy the fabric of this country, just like Steve Bannon does.”
And yes, they’re doing it through demonization and bullying.
I had a friend who once opined that the ultimate goal is to go back to a system like the feudal system, in which all the power goes to property owners. That seems more and more plausible now.
In the current era starting with the crucifixion of Christ, groups of people have blamed the Jews for His death. It was never the ‘Jews’. It was rich powerful men who happened to be Jewish, men of authority who gained their power, wealth and authority from other men of authority in Rome who deigned to bestow it upon them as long as they toed the line. These men were fearful of having their grip on the people and their thoughts, obedience, loyalty and money slipping away from them because of this rabble rouser. He had to go.
Anyone who’s ever dared to upset the applecart has been demonized. Pick a religion, any religion, atheists, any indigenous peoples, women, gays, free thinkers, the list goes on. If the rich and powerful are threatened, their lackeys, some of which is Newshound’s focus, are given their orders and the propaganda begins.
I’m reading a very good book, I think, at the moment: The Dawn Of Everything, by Davids Graeber and Wengrow. Maybe it’s my persona or just current circumstances, but when I give myself over to thinking too much of what I read and think of what humanity could of been, I do suffer melancholia. So, then I pop in my DVD of The ‘Burbs, with Tom Hanks and ’verrrry interesting’ Artie Johnson (anyone remember Laugh In?) and have some out loud laughs and then I can sleep again.