Just days after a gunman reportedly posted a white supremacist manifesto riddled with Fox News talking points on extremist message board 8chan and allegedly killed more than 20 people in El Paso, TX, Fox prime-time host Tucker Carlson said that the idea of white supremacy is a “hoax.” Meanwhile, users on 4chan and 8chan have praised Carlson since the shooting, arguing that the Fox host was taking his talking points from their message boards, which have been hot spots for white supremacy.
On August 6, discussing the recent mass shooting in El Paso, Carlson claimed that the issue of white supremacy was “a hoax” and “not a real problem in America.” Carlson made these claims even though the shooter’s manifesto featured talking points ripped from Carlson’s own show.
4chan and 8chan are known for hosting white nationalists. 8chan in particular has links to multiple shooters, including the alleged El Paso shooter. Users of these forums have discussed Carlson regularly -- and Carlson in turn has spoken up in their defense. A Media Matters analysis found that Carlson has been mentioned by the chans 19,808 times just in 2019 so far, 2,914 of which were on 8chan.
Members of these forums have continued their praise of the Fox host in the days since the El Paso shooting. Below is a sampling of that praise, including a comment from one user who noted that Carlson is “getting [his] talking points from us.”