Dear MoveOn member,
Fox News was the #1 most-watched network last week, as Russian President Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine.1
And last week, Tucker Carlson, Fox's "ratings king," told his 4.6 million viewers that it's "not un-American" to support Putin, that the Russian invasion is just a "border dispute," and that "Ukraine is not a democracy" but a "puppet" of the West.2,3
Tucker Carlson is dangerous—truly dangerous. Russia's state propaganda TV networks have been running clips of Tucker Carlson defending Putin and trashing Ukraine to sell Putin's war.4 And The Washington Post reported last week that new polling shows Republicans view Putin more favorably than they do President Joe Biden.5
Carlson has become the tip of the spear of the powerful right-wing media machine, the de facto leader of the white nationalist, authoritarian, right-wing media echo chamber, and we need to fight back.
MoveOn's in-house Creative Lab produces powerful videos and other viral content that directly counters the onslaught of right-wing talking points, authoritarianism, and lies. Since its launch, the Creative Lab has produced thousands of hard-hitting, fact-based videos that have been viewed hundreds of millions of times.
Democracy is at an inflection point, and we cannot let white supremacist, authoritarians like Carlson shape public opinion.
But unlike Fox News, MoveOn doesn't have billionaire corporate backers. We're fueled by you, our members. And in this moment, we need you, John.
If you are able to, will you start a $5 monthly donation to MoveOn to fight back against the right-wing media machine and keep up the effort against right-wing disinformation for the long haul?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
On Wednesday, as Putin moved 190,000 troops to the Ukrainian border, Carlson ranted, "Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him? Has he shipped every middle-class job in my town to Russia? Did he manufacture a worldwide pandemic that wrecked my business and kept me indoors for two years? Is he teaching my children to embrace racial discrimination?"6
Carlson is telling his viewers that Putin isn't an enemy—but that fellow Americans are.
A clip of this segment has been viewed on Twitter more than 2 million times.7
MoveOn was built more than 20 years ago to be an organizing hub for the grassroots progressive movement. Our Creative Lab has created hard-hitting, fact-based viral videos time and again that get the truth out to millions of people. But now more than ever, we need to fight right-wing lies and defend democracy, and we can't do it without you, John.
Will you help fight back against the dangerous right-wing media machine over the long term by chipping in $5 a month?
No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.
Together, we'll defend democracy and achieve peace.
Thanks for all you do.
–Mana, David, Cheryl, Casey, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "Thursday, Feb. 24 Scoreboard: Fox News Is No. 1 During Ukraine Coverage, Has Highest-Rated Day in More Than 1 Year," Adweek, February 25, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161042?t=6&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
2. "Fox News Channel Has Now Spent 20 Years In The #1 Spot On The Cable News Rankings," Forbes, February 1, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161049?t=8&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
3. "Tucker Carlson Hoping We Can Just Forget About All the Times He Insisted Putin Was the Best," Vanity Fair, February 25, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161044?t=10&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
4. "Russian TV Uses Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard to Sell Putin's War," The Intercept, February 24, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161045?t=12&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
5. "Republicans view Putin more favorably than they do leading Democrats," The Washington Post, February 23, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161046?t=14&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
6. "Tucker Carlson is steering Republican opinion to support Vladimir Putin — polling shows he might have an opening," Media Matters for America, February 24, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161047?t=16&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
7. "Tucker Carlson, downplaying Russia-Ukraine conflict, urges Americans to ask, 'Why do I hate Putin?'" The Washington Post, February 23, 2022
https://act.moveon.org/go/161048?t=18&akid=318054%2E40999114%2ElJZLPy
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community is working every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist the right wing's agenda, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back towards sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
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