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Poynter, operator of PolitiFact, explains why CNN was right to go after an increasingly dangerous Tucker Carlson

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson is always under threat of a boycott, but the powers that be tried to cancel him twice last week: first, for “attacking” New York Times writer Taylor Lorenz (and using her official headshot on air), and second, for accusing the Biden administration of feminizing the U.S. military with things like maternity flight suits, which drew criticism from several Department of Defense officials, some of them speaking in uniform from their offices, and all of them mistaking Carlson’s monologue as arguing that there shouldn’t be women in the military. “Get right before you get left, boomer,” warned an official Marine Corps Twitter account.

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It was probably a nice break for Carlson to have riled up someone other than CNN’s Oliver Darcy and Brian Stelter. But Poynter, the institute that runs PolitiFact, argues that CNN — Stelter in particular — was right to go after Carlson and his increasingly dangerous rhetoric.

Dabbling in divisive rhetoric? Who in cable news does that?

Tom Jones writes:

Look, the Fox News primetime host says outrageous things. He’s more of an entertainer than a journalist and sometimes you can’t help but wonder if it’s all one big act.

But — and let me be very clear about this — whether he’s just trolling by saying the most ridiculous things he can think of or simply trying to drum up a big audience, it doesn’t mean his words are any less irresponsible, hurtful and dangerous.

And while you can call him an entertainer or pundit or whatever word you want to use to somehow soften many of the reckless things he says, the fact is he owns one of the most prized pieces of real estate (weekdays from 8 to 9 p.m. Eastern) on a network that has the word “news” in its name. That alone gives Carlson some credibility, at least by his employers. In addition, we cannot ignore that some 4 million people a night tune into his show and see him as more than just a so-called entertainer.

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But — and let’s be very clear about this — neither Poynter nor Stelter can stand that Carlson draws an audience of 4 million.

OK, there’s more, but we’re including a beverage warning; don’t be drinking anything when you read the next excerpt:

But this does not mean Stelter is wrong. Not only is Stelter widely respected as a journalist, but it also should be noted that he’s not alone in questioning Carlson.

That’s right: the folks who run PolitiFact just said Stelter is widely respected as a journalist. Case dismissed.

Yeah, it’s funny that this comes out the same day CNN issued a correction to its totally bogus story about President Trump telling the Georgia secretary of state’s office to “find the fraud.” Is PolitiFact going to touch that one? Will Stelter cover it on “Reliable Sources” this Sunday? Or will it be a rerun of the episode where he analyzed Trump’s Twitter typos?

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Bad? Dangerous even.

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