After seven years peddling racist disinformation and delivering white nationalist propaganda to millions of homes every night, Tucker Carlson has been FIRED from FOX News. The sudden departure is connected to the recent FOX News lawsuit with Dominion Voting System. FOX News is now on the hook for over $787.5 million to Dominion for their extensive election disinformation campaign. Yet, it is important to remember that Carlson was nothing but a mouthpiece for FOX News’ continued bigoted programming and unfounded claims. He represents only the beginning of the harmful rhetoric FOX News continually pushes, and it won’t be long before Fox finds a replacement for him. Despite this massive legal loss, cable providers like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast are still subsidizing FOX's lies and hate at the expensive of your cable bill. Every month, a significant part of your cable bill goes to pad FOX's pockets, because the cable providers pay FOX twice as much as any other news network. And in fact, FOX is currently trying to demand Comcast pay it triple. 

There’s no reason your cable bill should be subsidizing FOX's lies and incitement to violence. Tell them to cut Fox down to size: no more subsidies for racist, violent lies.

FOX News has made a reputation for broadcasting news stories that prey on racial tensions and fears. FOX News spreads anti-Black racism by:  

1. Reinforcing White Nationalist Conspiracies: FOX New has been a source of partisan misinformation for years. The “Great Replacement Theory” is a white supremacist conspiracy that argues a concerted effort exists to purposely diminish the white population in America. FOX News host Tucker Carlson explicitly repeated this racist theory on his cable talk show in July 2022 as part of an anti-immigration rant, and regularly repeats it on his nightly show. This same rhetoric was cited by the mass shooter in Buffalo, New York,  who specifically targeted Black Americans during his attack in May 2022. Carlson parroting the rhetoric of white nationalists is alarming, unacceptable and directly leads to violence against our communities.
2. Censoring Black History: FOX News continuously airs segments that seek to erase or rewrite histories of racism.  FOX News mentioned “critical race theory” more than 1,300 times in less than four months. These segments have a huge impact on the perceptions and actions of viewers. Anti-CRT campaigns seek to ban books by civil rights icon Ruby Bridges and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison.  FOX News intentionally misconstruing critical race theory is not just misinformation. It is a purposeful attempt to censor Black authors and suppress Black history.
3. Promoting Jan. 6 Disinformation: The Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection was the biggest direct attack on American democracy in recent history. FOX News continuously pushed false claims that “Antifa” was responsible for the attacks on the U.S. Capitol. When only 18% of FOX viewers believe the 2020 elections were legitimate, it is easy to see how FOX News programming fundamentally supports the attitudes that led to the insurrection. It is also important to situate the Jan. 6 insurrection as a form of white supremacist terrorism. The insurrectionists hurled racial slurs at Capitol Police and proudly waved Confederate flags. To deny the racist ideology that fueled the Capitol rioters is to deny the chokehold racism has on right-wing politics.
   

FOX News and their continuous anti-Black “reporting” supplements racist attitudes and fuels violent attacks. The Brookings Institute reports that “30% of Republicans agree with the statement, ‘Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.’ ” FOX News often cruelly excuses police brutality, even when the victims are children. These segments have a huge impact on the perceptions of viewers. A recent study showed that FOX viewers are more likely to believe protesting police brutality is an overreaction that leads to violence. 

FOX is simultaneously shaping and being shaped by racist rhetoric that fuels white supremacist violence against Black people. We even see avowed white supremacists studying FOX News programming. When your own journalist accuses you of sounding like a “white supremacist chat room,” you know there is a problem. The same ideology that motivated the attacks on Black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, and Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, is apparent in FOX News’ reporting.  

Something needs to change. The racism embedded in FOX News programming has harmful, real-world effects for Black people. FOX News is profiting off of white nationalist rhetoric and anti-Black discourse. We no longer can allow FOX News to be subsidized with our hard earned money to air dangerous, inaccurate and sensationalized content that harms Black people. And it is companies like Verizon, Comcast and AT&T that have the power to cut them down to size. Tell cable proivders that we have had enough: Drop Fox News.

Here is the Petition:

Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and other cable providers must re-evaluate their relationship with FOX News. The right-wing news channel is doing irreparable damage to American democracy and frequently targets the Black community. FOX News has pushed harmful conspiracy theories, including the white nationalist ”Great Replacement Theory,” to the detriment of their audience and the general public. FOX also has a long history of anti-Black coverage which, at best, frames any response to racism as an overreaction and, at worse, labels any attempts to address white supremacy as inherently violent and anti-American. Finally, FOX New repeats dangerous misinformation about the Jan. 6 insurrection. Not only is their inability to directly acknowledge and condemn the attacks on the U.S. Capitol a threat to democracy, but placing the blame on far-left activists puts an unnecessary target on the backs of Black and Brown people. The courts have now proven that FOX News repeatedly lied for profit, and tried to cover it up. They cannot be trusted, and there’s no reason your company should be subsidizing their lies and incitement to violence. Your cable company is currently paying twice as much to air Fox as they do to air any other news network. It's time to cut Fox down to size: no more subsidies for racist, violent lies.