Tucker Carlson's Fox News flat earthers will never be convinced by the facts

Journalists are meant to report facts, provide context and accurately describe an event.

Which, in this instance, is a waste of time.

The many writers, reporters, politicians and others who are using facts to convince Fox News viewers that Tucker Carlson grossly misrepresented the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by cherry picking a few calm scenes from 40,000 hours of video must never have heard the apocryphal story about former two-time Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson.

During one of his campaign stops in the 1950s a supporter of Stevenson’s is said to have shouted, “Every thinking person in America will be voting for you!”

Stevenson answered, “I’m afraid that won’t do. I need a majority.”

Fox News viewers don't want to see this

Yeah, it’s like that.

A former staff member on the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol, Tom Joscelyn, debunked Carlson’s claptrap for Politico.

He pointed to the many incidents of violence and vandalism that Carlson ignored, providing references to the mob ramming its way into the Capitol, smashing through doors in the East Rotunda, and busting windows and climbing in. There are hours of video like that.

To the viewers of Fox News it doesn’t matter one bit.

Carlson and most of his colleagues at the network understand that their audience is not looking for information.

They’re looking for reassurance. They want to have reinforced what they already believe.

Their beliefs are faith, not fact, based

Their loyalty to the Fox is not fact based, it is faith based.

They’re the political equivalent flat earthers, wearing the same blinders as creationists, climate deniers, 9/11 truthers and vaccine opponents. They may be those same people.

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Scientists and researchers have done a number of studies on this phenomenon.

As researcher Troy Campbell from the University of Oregon explained it, “We find that people will take a flight from facts to protect all kinds of belief including their religious belief, their political beliefs, and even simple personal beliefs such as whether they are good at choosing a web browser. People treat facts as relevant more when the facts tend to support their opinions.”

They want to buy Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6 lie

PolitiFact declared Carlson’s claim that the Capitol rioters “were not insurrectionists, they were sightseers” to be a “Pants on Fire” lie.

It isn’t too difficult to prove, actually, given the damage done to the Capitol, the ransacked offices and the 140 officers assaulted that day. Along with that little chant to “Hang Mike Pence!”

A number of Republican lawmakers have condemned Carlson’s presentation as well.

It won’t matter.

In Politico, Tom Joscelyn wrote, “Many Americans have already seen some of this footage with their own eyes. They know the mob was not at the Capitol primarily for sightseeing, as Carlson claimed … No one who relies on facts and logic will be fooled.”

That is true, but as the late Adlai Stevenson might has said, “I’m afraid that won’t do. I need a majority.”

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tucker Carlson's flat earthers cannot be convinced about Jan. 6