Two Fox News Commentators Resign Over 'Egregious' Tucker Carlson Special on Jan. 6 Attack

Two longtime Fox News contributors say they are quitting the network over its support of a Tucker Carlson-helmed special that twists the truth about the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by a pro-Trump mob.

In an open letter posted Sunday on their conservative website The Dispatch, co-founders Jonah Goldberg and Stephen Hayes — who often appeared on Fox News — wrote that they had previously been "proud" of their time on the network, which they joined as contributors in early 2009.

"Fox News still does real reporting, and there are still responsible conservatives providing valuable opinion and analysis," Goldberg and Hayes wrote.

But lately, they continued, "the voices of the responsible are being drowned out by the irresponsible."

The biggest example of irresponsibility, they wrote, was Patriot Purge, a three-part special hosted by Carlson that aired on Fox's subscription streaming service earlier this month.

It was Patriot Purge that was the breaking point for Goldberg and Hayes, they write. (A Fox News executive says the network had not intended to re-sign contributor contracts for either of them in 2022.)

In their open resignation letter, Goldberg and Hayes call Patriot Purge "a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions. And its message is clear: The U.S. government is targeting patriotic Americans in the same manner — and with the same tools — that it used to target al Qaeda."

Goldberg and Hayes write that such misinformation is dangerous as it can help lead to events just like Jan. 6, when a violent group of former President Donald Trump's supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election, leading to a deadly and chaotic scene that temporarily sent lawmakers into hiding.

"If a person with such a platform shares such misinformation loud enough and long enough, there are Americans who will believe—and act upon—it," Goldberg and Hayes write.

They go on to note, however, that other Fox opinion hosts have previously amplified false claims similar to the lies about the election. But they call Carlson's Patriot Purge "the most egregious example of a longstanding trend."

They continue: "We remain grateful for the opportunities we've had at Fox and we continue to admire many of the hard-working journalists who work there. This is our last recourse. We do not regret our decision, even if we find it regrettably necessary."

Speaking to The New York Times, Hayes said that Patriot Purge was "truly dangerous in a way that the usual hyperbole that you get on a lot of cable news isn't."

Carlson isn't alone in shifting the narrative some 10 months after the Capitol riots.

Though the events were widely denounced in their immediate aftermath by lawmakers on both side of the aisle, many of Trump's allies (and the former president himself) have since worked to downplay what happened.

A Georgia congressman compared the events to being that of a "normal tourist visit," while Trump told author Jonathan Karl that he was unsurprised to hear rioters chanting "Hang Mike Pence," saying, "People were angry."

No stranger to controversy, Carlson often regularly draws rebuke for divisive remarks made on his show, such as in March, when he said new uniforms for pregnant service members made "a mockery of the U.S. military," drawing backlash from military leaders and veterans alike.

Carlson also previously mocked the relationship between President Joe Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and drew condemnation for making false claims about COVID-19 vaccines.

He has contended criticism is driven by partisan hysterics; lawyers for Fox News have argued his show shouldn't be taken literally.