Last night, Tucker Carlson got together with fake COVID expert Dr. Scott Atlas to whine about the “near destruction of objective journalism” that has “censored” him – while Fox’s own news division mostly shuns him.

As I wrote earlier this month:

Dr. Scott Atlas, the unqualified radiologist who wants to let COVID spread throughout the population, and whom Trump hired as a pandemic adviser based on his Fox News appearances, has been deemed not credible enough for most of Fox's “hard news” shows. But he’s still a fave on Fox prime time.

Atlas has no background in infectious diseases or epidemiology. But he has espoused on Fox just the kind of pandemic “prescription” Trump wants to hear: Let ‘em die, while putting on a show of protecting some people.

…

The Daily Beast notes that in addition to promoting herd immunity on Fox, Atlas has “often downplayed the effectiveness of lockdowns, and has brushed off the “hysteria” about school reopenings, arguing that many children and teachers are at low risk to get and transmit the disease.”

[NOTE: when I described Atlas as an "unqualified radiologist," I meant he is unqualified as a COVID-19 expert.]

So after Carlson played the victim over Facebook tagging his interview promoting a debunked conspiracy theory about the pandemic, with debunked virologist Li-Meng Yan, Carlson trotted out Atlas to promote more “scientific open-mindedness” with another unqualified doctor. Only this time, Carlson was flouting the judgment of his own news network while hiding that from his viewers.

CARLSON: Doctor, thanks so much for coming on. Let me ask you a broad question to start. What does it do to the practice of science, when certain areas of inquiry are off limits or censored?

ATLAS: Yes, well, thanks for having me, Tucker. It's a disaster. I mean, we've already seen the near destruction of objective journalism. When you start censoring science, you're removing, you know, facts. You're really removing the basic way we decide what is truth and what's not, and you know, this has been done, I think, historically, in various countries.

But, you know, we're sort of teetering on the edge of what is done in third world countries here. The countries we used to be proudly distinguished from.

We need to have a reliable news media. We need to have scientists who are able to question -- I mean, in the beginning, as I sort of pointed out in one of my tweets, people used to think that the Earth was the center of the solar system. Okay, the Earth was flat.

Oh, the irony!

If you haven’t already thrown up over Carlson playing a Science Guy while what he’s really up to is subverting it, get a load of him pretending to be some noble supporter of “free inquiry.”

CARLSON: Where are the brave scientists and physicians and researchers? Where are the people who are going to uphold the essential principle of free inquiry that we need to function as a country? Why aren't people flipping out about this? Why isn't the head of Memorial Sloan Kettering, you know, staging a hunger strike until this garbage stops? A sincere question.

ATLAS: Yes. Well, I mean, I have to say that, you know, despite what people think, there's a big backlash going on.

[…]

CARLSON: Yes, we need mass resistance to this. We need brave people to stand up. And you're, of course one of them and we're grateful you were on tonight. Thank you, Dr. Scott Atlas.

If Carlson really cared about “free inquiry,” he’d have a respectful conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci or some other real expert on infectious diseases about these different points of views. Instead Carlson, ever the overgrown fratboy, smeared Fauci as “a hypocritical buffoon.”

By the way, Tucker, if you’re such a believer in Atlas’ prescriptions, why don’t you start practicing herd immunity with your own family, instead of hiding in your remote studio and promoting practices that risk the rest of us getting sick and dying?

You can watch Carlson promote his pro-death agenda as “free inquiry” below, from the September 16, 2020 Tucker Carlson Tonight.