Tucker Carlson Calls Out ‘Censorship’ After Facebook Limits Account For ‘Sharing Of False News’

Facebook’s move came after Carlson aired a Sept. 17  piece on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” alleging the mayor of Nashville hid low numbers of coronavirus rates linked to bars and restaurants from the public so the mayor could justify keeping local businesses closed.

Carlson, co-founder of the Daily Caller, based the commentary on a report from Nashville Fox affiliate, which obtained “leaked emails” that supposedly revealed the ruse.

“Hide all good news — that’s the policy,” Carlson said during the show, referring to what he believed at the time was a political strategy designed to stoke fear about the coronavirus pandemic. “Otherwise, the fear might subside and our power along with it.”

A subsequent Sept. 18 fact check from The Nashville Tennessean reported that the Fox affiliate’s report left out critical context.

The data was kept private for fear that it could reveal the names of people who test positive for COVID-19, the mayor’s office said, the Associated Press reported Sept. 21. Such a move would violate federal privacy laws, and the total number of cases linked to bars and other eateries was publicly revealed at the time in separate media reports, the AP reported.

The Fox affiliate removed the story from its website, according to a Sept. 19 CNN report.

“In a segment that aired earlier this week, we incorrectly asserted that Mayor Cooper’s office withheld COVID-19 data from the public, which implied that there had been a cover up. We want to clarify that we do not believe there was any cover-up, and we apologize for the error and oversight in our reporting,” the station said in a press statement addressing the report.

Carlson told viewers on Sept. 21 that the Fox affiliate had removed the story “under pressure from the mayor’s office.” He added: “We don’t know the truth” about the leaked emails for which the report is based.