Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes, long-time conservative commentators at Fox News, announced that they would be leaving the network. “the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible.”
They specifically cited Tucker Carlson’s three-part documentary Patriot Purge, which was broadcast on Fox Nation. “a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions. And its message is clear: The U.S. government is targeting patriotic Americans in the same manner —and with the same tools—that it used to target al Qaeda.”
The series presented a variety of conspiracy theories about January 6, 2009, when the Capitol was under siege. One theory was that it was an apocalypse. “false flag”operation that allows for the “left is hunting the right,”The deep state has orchestrated a domestic war on terror. Hayes and Goldberg claimed that such claims are “dangerous,” and that Carlson’s series was only one in a series of instances of misinformation being advanced by the opinion side of Fox News.
They posted on their website The Dispatch, “Over the past five years, some of Fox’s top opinion hosts amplified the false claims and bizarre narratives of Donald Trump or offered up their own in his service. In this sense, the release of Patriot Purgewasn’t an isolated incident, it was merely the most egregious example of a longstanding trend.Patriot Purge creates an alternative history of January 6, contradicted not just by common sense, not just by the testimony and on-the-record statements of many participants, but by the reporting of the news division of Fox News itself.”
Patriot PurgeThe trailer was shown on Fox Nation’s subscription streaming service, but it was criticized by figures like Liz Cheney and other Fox News personalities such as Geraldo Rivera. The Anti Defamation League called for the network to stop running it.
Fox News spokespersons did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Carlson howeverThe New York Times‘ Ben Smith, who first reported the departures, that it was “great news” “our viewers will be grateful.”
Hayes, Goldberg and the network have been together since 2009.