On Wednesday, co-host of “The View” Sunny Hostin lashed out against Fox News and host Tucker Carlson, referring to him as a “fake news anchor.”
The hosts were discussing a report indicating that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) made 41,000 hours of Capitol surveillance footage around the time of the Jan. 6 riot exclusively available to the Fox News host.
“When I say fake news anchor, I really mean it,” Hostin added. “Because a judge ruled in 2020 that Tucker Carlson is not a credible source of news. And, in fact, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil decided that the whole tenor of his show should make it clear to viewers that he’s not stating actual facts. It’s not a news show, says the courts. He’s just like entertainment.”
Hostin was referencing a defamation case brought by former Playboy model Karen McDougal, which was dismissed after Fox’s lawyers successfully argued that Carlson was stating his opinion in a hyperbolic manner, and reasonable viewers would “arrive with an appropriate amount of skepticism” regarding the statements.
Hostin theorized that McCarthy “had to make a lot of concessions to become speaker. And so maybe one of the concessions that he had to give Marjorie Taylor Greene or one of his supporters was [to] give Tucker Carlson this. We know how powerful Tucker Carlson has become within the Republican Party.”
“It’s so dangerous. It’s so divisive for our country. But it’s most dangerous for the security of our country,” she said of Carlson “slanting actual facts.”
“Do you think Fox News should be called Fox News, or should it be called like Fox Entertainment Channel?” she further asked her co-hosts.
“As a news organization, you would think the, you know, the executives there would not allow Tucker Carlson to use these tapes in this way,” Hostin continued.
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McCarthy has yet to make any public comment on the disclosure of the documents but did say last month that he was looking to release the tapes due to the “politicization” he believed had been fostered by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the January 6 Committee.
During the summer hearings of the Jan. 6 Committee last year, the group did air some clips of security footage, including one showing Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) running through a Capitol hallway.
Carlson told Axios, which broke the story, he believes there was “never any legitimate reason” for the footage to remain secret.
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