Fox News host Tucker Carlson sounded the alarm regarding what he described as the increasingly authoritarian response of those in power to the coronavirus pandemic.
Carlson opened the Tuesday episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight revisiting a viral video of Drs. Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, two California physicians who publicly questioned the efficacy of widespread lockdown orders and also revealed the pressure some doctors are facing to inflate the number of COVID-19 deaths.
“They recited pages of government statistics and then interpreted them in light of their own long clinical experience as doctors,” Carlson said. “At one point, they noted that the newly adjusted death rate in their state of California, which is much lower than anyone expected it to be, and asked if government officials there should change their policies based on this new science.”
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Conceding the complexity of the situation, Carlson went on to lament that YouTube had removed the doctors’ video. “Unfortunately, for all of us, informed debate is exactly what the authorities don’t want,” he said. “They want unquestioned obedience, so they’re cracking down on free expression. Last night, the doctors’ video you saw last night was pulled off of YouTube, the largest video-hosting site in the world. It wasn’t an accident. YouTube admitted doing it. The company cited a ‘violation of community guidelines,’ and didn’t apologize.”
Carlson added that the official response to the coronavirus will likely be seen as a “turning point” in the relationship of U.S. citizens to their government, which will prove “a sharp break with 250 years of law and custom.”
Explaining how the doctors’ only offense was reaching “different conclusions for the people currently in charge,” Carlson added, “YouTube and its parent company, Google, have now officially banned dissent. The CEO of YouTube admitted that openly.”
[ Also read: ‘This is censorship’: Google suspends evangelical church’s app for violating coronavirus ‘sensitive events’ policy]
Citing the botched information the World Health Organization has offered during the pandemic, Carlson blasted the idea of removing information that contradicts them as “ludicrous.”
“This is not about science,” said Carlson. “Censorship never is about science. It’s about power. Big technology companies are using this tragedy to increase their power over the population.” He pointed to Facebook’s recent removal of a page about a planned protest against Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explained the protests like these are no longer protected political speech.”
“We are becoming more like China,” Carlson warned. “It’s horrifying. And it tells you everything that our professional class enthusiastically welcomes this.” Singling out a recent article in the Atlantic, Carlson further excoriated the media for “no longer challenging power,” adding, “they are colluding with power, and that may be so why there is so little critical coverage of the massive expansion of our surveillance currently in process.” He said politicians are also falling in line behind the tech companies.
“No wonder our leaders have done such a poor job protecting us from China,” Carlson concluded. “They’re on the same team.”
