* Carlson: ‘It’s actually not a real problem in America’ * El Paso massacre suspect posted anti-immigrant screedTucker Carlson said of white supremacy: ‘Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.’ Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesTucker Carlson, the Fox News host who regularly echoes Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric, has described white supremacy in America as a “hoax” and a “conspiracy theory”.Coming just days after a Texas man allegedly killed 22 people in El Paso after posting a manifesto complaining of a “Hispanic invasion”, the prime-time news star defended the president from criticisms of his rhetoric by disputing that Trump ever “endorsed white supremacy or came close to endorsing white supremacy”.“If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, problems this country has, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia probably. It’s actually not a real problem in America,” Carlson told his audience on Tuesday night.Claiming that the white supremacy issue was being used by Democrats as a political tool, Carlson continued: “This is a hoax. Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”Carlson also claimed all the white supremacists in America could fit inside a football stadium before repeating his belief that white supremacy in the US is a non-existent problem. He went on to insist that he’s “never met anybody – not one person – who ascribes to white supremacy”.The host’s comments were made even as the FBI stated last month that it considers a majority of the growing number of domestic terrorism cases as versions of white supremacist violence.The suspect in the Walmart shooting on Saturday that left 22 people dead and injured dozens more posted an anti-immigrant manifesto minutes before the rampage highlighting his support for a gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 people at two mosques in March.According to FBI data, since 2011 suspects with ties to white extremism have carried out at least 17 “active-shooter” attacks, or attacks defined by the agency as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area”.After the mass shooting at a food festival in Gilroy, California, last month, the FBI confirmed it considered that attack to be a potential case of domestic terrorism.The gunman in that incident, 19-year-old Santino Legan, had been exploring violent ideologies and had drawn up a list of potential religious and political targets.A study by the New York Times published this week indicated the growing international ideological connections between attackers as well as repeated referencing by later gunman to previous incidents.In keeping with the attackers in Christchurch and El Paso, the gunmen in Poway, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania, posted white nationalist views online before launching their assaults. Both the El Paso and Poway gunmen praised the Christchurch shooter in manifestos posted online.While the extent to which online message boards such as 8chan are used as a conduit for violent ideologies, the role of the mainstream media remains clouded.Carlson is not alone at his channel in attempting to minimize the role of white supremacy ideology in the current wave of attacks. The media publication Media Matters this week accused Fox News of attempting to “mainstream” the white supremacist conspiracy theory of “replacement”.“Adding to its pattern of mainstreaming toxic extremism, Fox News regularly echoes and sanitizes the dangerous white supremacist conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants represent the threat of ‘replacement’ to white populations,” the publication wrote.“This racist talking point has already inspired massacres and hate crimes around the world.”
The body of a British astrophysicist who went missing on a Greek island was found at the bottom of a ravine on Wednesday. Dr Natalie Christopher, 35, disappeared on Monday on the Aegean island of Ikaria, with her boyfriend saying she had gone for a run. Her body was found by a volunteer firefighter in a 65ft-deep ravine about a mile from the hotel where she and her partner had been staying. Asked whether the body had fallen into the ravine or been pushed, Theodoros Chronopoulos, a Greek police spokesman, said it was too early to tell. Dr Christopher is […]
* Carlson: ‘It’s actually not a real problem in America’ * El Paso massacre suspect posted anti-immigrant screedTucker Carlson said of white supremacy: ‘Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.’ Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesTucker Carlson, the Fox News host who regularly echoes Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant “invasion” rhetoric, has described white supremacy in America as a “hoax” and a “conspiracy theory”.Coming just days after a Texas man allegedly killed 22 people in El Paso after posting a manifesto complaining of a “Hispanic invasion”, the prime-time news star defended the president from criticisms of his rhetoric by disputing that Trump ever “endorsed white supremacy or came close to endorsing white supremacy”.“If you were to assemble a list, a hierarchy of concerns, problems this country has, where would white supremacy be on the list? Right up there with Russia probably. It’s actually not a real problem in America,” Carlson told his audience on Tuesday night.Claiming that the white supremacy issue was being used by Democrats as a political tool, Carlson continued: “This is a hoax. Just like the Russia hoax, it’s a conspiracy theory used to divide the country and keep a hold on power.”Carlson also claimed all the white supremacists in America could fit inside a football stadium before repeating his belief that white supremacy in the US is a non-existent problem. He went on to insist that he’s “never met anybody – not one person – who ascribes to white supremacy”.The host’s comments were made even as the FBI stated last month that it considers a majority of the growing number of domestic terrorism cases as versions of white supremacist violence.The suspect in the Walmart shooting on Saturday that left 22 people dead and injured dozens more posted an anti-immigrant manifesto minutes before the rampage highlighting his support for a gunman in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 people at two mosques in March.According to FBI data, since 2011 suspects with ties to white extremism have carried out at least 17 “active-shooter” attacks, or attacks defined by the agency as “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area”.After the mass shooting at a food festival in Gilroy, California, last month, the FBI confirmed it considered that attack to be a potential case of domestic terrorism.The gunman in that incident, 19-year-old Santino Legan, had been exploring violent ideologies and had drawn up a list of potential religious and political targets.A study by the New York Times published this week indicated the growing international ideological connections between attackers as well as repeated referencing by later gunman to previous incidents.In keeping with the attackers in Christchurch and El Paso, the gunmen in Poway, California, and Pittsburgh, Pennslyvania, posted white nationalist views online before launching their assaults. Both the El Paso and Poway gunmen praised the Christchurch shooter in manifestos posted online.While the extent to which online message boards such as 8chan are used as a conduit for violent ideologies, the role of the mainstream media remains clouded.Carlson is not alone at his channel in attempting to minimize the role of white supremacy ideology in the current wave of attacks. The media publication Media Matters this week accused Fox News of attempting to “mainstream” the white supremacist conspiracy theory of “replacement”.“Adding to its pattern of mainstreaming toxic extremism, Fox News regularly echoes and sanitizes the dangerous white supremacist conspiracy theory that non-white immigrants represent the threat of ‘replacement’ to white populations,” the publication wrote.“This racist talking point has already inspired massacres and hate crimes around the world.”
