Reprinted with permission from Media Matters

While Tucker Carlson has been flirting with white nationalism for years, 2021 was the year he went full-tilt and repeatedly said the quiet part aloud, explicitly referencing the white supremacist “great replacement” conspiracy theory – and earning praise from infamous former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. And Carlson’s status as the most-watched Fox prime-time star seemingly encouraged his fellow hosts to follow suit; Laura Ingraham warned her viewers that Democrats “will import new voters to offset and eventually replace all you old people.”

Carlson has long pushed white supremacist talking points with full corporate support from Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch. In the process, he has gained praise from white nationalists, while the Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly called for his firing. White nationalism is now a pillar of Fox’s prime-time platform, and the Murdochs are willing to fund and defend their hosts’ hatred.

Stephen Miller – former White House senior policy adviser, chief architect of former President Donald Trump's Muslim ban, and noted white nationalist – was a habitual guest on Fox News during 2021. An equal opportunity racist, Miller espoused textbook “great replacement” talking points whether the topic at hand was the refugee crisis in Afghanistan or at the U.S. southern border. Miller repeated the lie that migrants coming to the U.S were spreading COVID-19, a common anti-immigrant trope among white nationalists.

By repeatedly launching nativist attacks with warnings of an “invasion of your neighborhood” and migrants “coming to our backyard,” Fox News’ goal here is clear: to scare its audience into buying the fantasy of “white genocide.”