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Advertisers like T-Mobile and ABC are abandoning Fox News' Tucker Carlson over his attacks on the Black Lives Matter movement

Jun 11, 2020, 20:00 IST
Business Insider
Fox News host Tucker Carlson.Fox News
  • Advertisers including T-Mobile and ABC have pulled ads from Tucker Carlson's Fox News show after his comments about the Black Lives Matter movement, according to Deadline.
  • Carlson has characterized Black Lives Matter protests as "riots" and has asked why he would be "required" to mourn George Floyd.
  • T-Mobile and ABC's parent company, Disney, have expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and were asked by campaigners why their ads were still appearing on Carlson's show.
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Disney's subsidiary ABC and T-Mobile have pulled advertising from Tucker Carlson's Fox News show because of his stance on the Black Lives Matter movement and the death of George Floyd, according to the media-news website Deadline.

Carlson has taken a hard line against the widespread protests that began after a white police officer in Minneapolis killed George Floyd, a Black man, on May 25. In a half-hour speech on Saturday, Carlson referred to the protests as "Black Lives Matter riots."

On June 1, after Nikki Haley, a prominent Republican who was President Donald Trump's UN ambassador, called for collective grieving, Carlson asked viewers why he would be "required to be upset about" Floyd's death, as he isn't from Minneapolis, according to Media Matters.

Conflating peaceful protesters with rioters, Carlson said on Friday that celebrities such as Lil Nas X and Janelle Monae were "paying to get violent rioters out of jail" by donating to bail funds.

ABC and T-Mobile have faced an online backlash for airing ads during segments like this, Deadline reported.

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On Wednesday, the political blog Popular Information said Disney had expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement but had advertised many times with the show this year.

Disney later told Deadline that, though it had run almost 29 ads for its ABC shows this year, they "were placed on the show without our knowledge by third party media buyers," who were instructed not to continue.

T-Mobile has advertised with the show 27 times this year, Popular Information reported.

When asked on Tuesday by the left-leaning campaign group Sleeping Giants whether it would stop, T-Mobile tweeted: "Of course. We haven't run ads on Tucker Carlson Tonight since early May and have cancelled all future placements. We will continue to support those who stand against racial injustice."

T-Mobile's CEO, Mike Sievert, tweeted, "Bye-bye Tucker Carlson!"

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Sleeping Giants had tweeted a clip of the Saturday segment in which Carlson made a cryptic statement about people who would "come for you."

"This may be a lot of things, this moment we're living through, but it is definitely not about Black lives," Carlson said. "And remember that when they come for you — and at this rate, they will.

A Fox News representative said earlier this week that "Tucker's warning about 'when they come for you' was clearly referring to Democratic leaders and inner city politicians."

The representative declined to comment to Business Insider about specific advertisers' decisions.

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