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Democracy

Two Fox News contributors share an open letter explaining why they quit the channel for good

Tucker Carlson, pundits quit Fox News, capitol riot

Tucker Carlson speaking with attendees at the 2020 Student Action Summit hosted by Turning Point USA.

Fox News recently debuted a three-part series on the capitol insurrection hosted by Tucker Carlson that pledged to tell the "true story behind" the January 6 attack. "Patriot Purge," which aired on Fox Nation, Fox News' subscription streaming service, claims the attack was a "false flag" operation instigated by left-wing activists and the government is using it to strip Trump supporters of their rights.

The special has been condemned for advancing conspiracy theories and many of its claims have been roundly debunked including an in-depth fact check by PolitiFact.

Carlson claims that the series is "rock-solid factually."

In the series, Carlson makes the ridiculous and dangerous claim that Trump supporters are the government's newest enemy.

"They've begun to fight a new enemy in a new war on terror," Carlson says over footage of terrorism and torture from the post-9/11 era. "Not, you should understand, a metaphorical war, but an actual war. Soldiers and paramilitary law enforcement, guided by the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, hunting down American citizens, purging them from society, and throwing some of them into solitary confinement."


All of this was a step too far for Fox contributors Stephen Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, who announced that they've quit the news channel for good after the special's release. The two announced their departure in an open letter published in "The Dispatch" entitled, "Why we are leaving Fox News."

Hayes and Goldberg started "The Dispatch" two years ago to "do right as we see it, by providing engaged citizens fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture—informed by conservative principles."

The two made note that their problem was with Fox's opinion show hosts, not the actual reporting done by its news team.

"Fox News still does real reporting, and there are still responsible conservatives providing valuable opinion and analysis. But the voices of the responses are being drowned out by the irresponsible," Hayes and Goldberg wrote.

The pair called the "Patriot Purge" series "a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions." They claim that this type of misinformation is the exact reason why the January 6 attack happened in the first place.

"Over the past five years, some of Fox's top opinion hosts amplified the false claims and bizarre narratives of Donald Trump or offered up their own in his service," Hayes and Goldberg wrote. "In this sense, the release of Patriot Purge wasn't an isolated incident, it was merely the most egregious example of a longstanding trend."

Eventually, the two could no longer contribute to Fox News because it stood in stark contrast to their goals at "The Dispatch."

"The tension between doing that work well and remaining loyal to Fox has tested us many times over the past few years," they wrote. "But with the release of Patriot Purge, we felt we could no longer 'do right as we see it' and remain at Fox News. So we resigned."

The decision by Hayes and Goldberg to distance themselves from the alternative world of conspiracies slowly enveloping mainstream conservatism is bold because it comes with real risk. Dozens of prominent conservatives have stood up against Trumpism over the past six years and for many, it's led to them being thrown to the sidelines of conservative media.

Carlson, who once called Trump the "most repulsive person on the planet" decided to take the other road and his opportunism comes at the expense of his own country.

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Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

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According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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via Google and Freepik

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What makes the situation even worse is that our information was put online without any of our consent.

The good news is that Google just made a big change that gives us all a little more control over our personal information. On April 27, the company announced it will allow anyone to request removals of their personal information from its Search feature.

“Open access to information is a key goal of Search, but so is empowering people with the tools they need to protect themselves and keep their sensitive, personally identifiable information private. That’s why we’re updating our policies to help people take more control of their online presence in Search,” Michelle Chang, Google’s Global Policy Lead for Search, announced on the company’s blog.

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An 8-year-old snuck his handwritten book onto a library shelf. Now it has a 56-person waiting list.

Dillon Helbig's 81-page graphic novel— written by "Dillon His Self"—captured the hearts of his local librarians and their patrons.

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Writing a book is no easy task, even for adult professional writers. Many would-be authors dream of a day when their work can be found on library shelves, unsure if it will ever come.

But for 8-year-old Dillon Helbig, that day has already arrived—in truly unconventional fashion—thanks to his own determination to make it happen.

Dillon wrote his 81-page graphic novel, "The Adventures of Dillon Helbig's Crismis" (written by "Dillon His Self") in a hardcover journal with colored pencils over the course of a few days. He even put a label on the back of the book that reads "Made in Idho" [sic] and put an illustrated spine label on it as well. Then, without telling anyone, he brought it to his local library in Boise, Idaho, and slipped it in among the books in the children's section.

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Becca Moore and Raul Torres having margaritas.

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“I went to Coachella this weekend and I thought this guy was kinda hitting on me but then he just robbed me,” Becca says at the beginning of her three-minute TikTok video with over 3 million views. After the festival, she was left with no ride, money, or means to get in contact with friends and family. She was stranded in the desert.

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