Tucker Carlson and Floyd Brown Rail Against 'Tech Tyrants' Putting a 'Thumb on the Scale of Democracy'
Disclosure: Some of the links below may contain affiliate links from Patriot Depot, a sister company of The Western Journal. By making purchases through these links, you’ll be helping to support The Western Journal.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson and The Western Journal Publisher Floyd Brown took big tech companies to task for engaging in censorship and thereby damaging American democracy beyond what Russian President Vladimir Putin could have ever dreamed.
On Wednesday’s edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the Fox host introduced the subject by arguing that Facebook and YouTube are doing everything they can to shape the narrative around House Democrats’ push to impeach President Donald Trump.
He noted that both companies are censoring mentions of the name of the alleged whistleblower whose complaint launched the impeachment inquiry.
Media outlets such as RealClearInvestigations, the Washington Examiner, The Federalist, Breitbart and The Western Journal have reported that the whistleblower is a CIA analyst who previously worked in the Obama administration for former Vice President Joe Biden and former CIA Director John Brennan.
The alleged whistleblower’s name is also mentioned in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and in a transcript from Ambassador Bill Taylor’s closed-door testimony, which has now been made public.
In light of Facebook and YouTube’s decisions not to allow the whistleblower’s name to be published on their platforms, Carlson said, “It seems to me that we’ve moved to a stage, a year out from a presidential election, where the tech monopolies, which really control all of digital journalism in this country, are deciding what facts we’re allowed to know. Why should we not be terrified?”
“We should be terrified,” Brown responded. “The truth is that over half of all news consumed by Americans is consumed on these social media platforms.”
“And when they can censor the way they’re censoring right now, both Facebook and [YouTube owner] Google, around the name of this whistleblower, it’s chilling,” he added.
Brown co-authored the recent book “Big Tech Tyrants,” which raises red flags about the impact Silicon Valley could have on the 2020 election.
“There’s been major changes in tech since Donald Trump was elected,” Brown said, “and those major changes are all around keeping Donald Trump’s ideas and his message from reaching people.”
The commentator noted the irony that while the establishment media has put up a united front to protect the name of the whistleblower, those same outlets have been more than willing to publish some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets, such as the Pentagon Papers or information obtained by Wikileaks.
Brown highlighted the fact that though The Western Journal published four stories naming the whistleblower, a relative few of its millions of Facebook followers saw those stories on the platform.
Carlson contended that Russian President Vladimir Putin could never have imagined being able to have such an impact on the information seen by U.S. voters.
“Purportedly American companies are putting a thumb on the scale of democracy and nobody’s saying anything about it. Why?” Carlson asked.
“Congress should be investigating them,” Brown answered.
“It’s a very dangerous situation,” he added. “When you see this kind of censorship, this is worse than what you would imagine from Putin.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
