Corporate advertisers are jumping ship from Tucker Carlson Tonight, the Fox News show hosted by the right-wing xenophobe, but Carlson appears to welcome the controversy sparked by recent comments that immigrants make the United States a "poorer and dirtier" country.
While the number of sponsors who have been pressured to suspend their campaigns on the show grows, Carlson on Monday night vowed not to be intimidated and declared his intention "to say what's true until the last day."
According to Buzzfeed, at least five companies have pulled their ads since Carlson's remarks last week caused a firestorm of criticism.
Writing for ThinkProgress, Frank Dale details how Carlson has long been "a favorite of white supremacists" and in recent years "has used his Fox News platform to claim that immigration advocates want to 'change your country forever,' advocate for excluding Latinx people from the U.S. to preserve the country's white identity, complain about how difficult it is to be a white man, promote a social media site frequented by white nationalists, and defend a white nationalist Pizzagate conspiracy theorist."
It's scandalous that they advertised on his show in the first place. Tucker Carlson is a white supremacist propagandist, but often panders to the left by conceding certain points (e.g. Amazon, etc.) to both legitimize himself and distract from said white supremacy. Don't buy it. https://t.co/i9rjQIyvi6
— The Humanist Report (@HumanistReport) December 18, 2018
The Washington Post reports:
People supporting the ad boycott, including producer Judd Apatow and Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), have excoriated Carlson for his "dirtier" comment, which one Twitter user described as "An offensive, dehumanizing and racist statement."
Apatow, who has been actively tweeting at companies to pull their advertising, pointed out that "Everyone's family is a family of immigrants."
"How can anyone advertise on a show which spouts hate?" he wrote.
While advertisers continued to flee the show over its hateful rhetoric, the host himself continues to draw wide rebuke for his brand of television.
As political commentator Dan Gillmore put it, "Tucker Carlson makes America poorer and dirtier in ways that he could never understand, or care about."
