Tucker Carlson could not be more wrong- his ignorance is conflated as “news” and Fox News knows better
Women serving in the United States Military goes back all the way to the revolutionary war. Tucker Carlson misogynistic views are draconian and dangerous and antithetical to REAL American Values
-full disclosure I’m an Army Brat, emphasis on “brat” and this isn’t about some bra-burning feminism moment of grandiosity. This is about setting the record straight and pointing to Tucker Carlson’s fallacies. Oh and Tuck, 1951 called and wants you to knock off your contemptuous patriarchy malarkey. Okay?
Tucker Carlson and Fox News
Apparently last night Tucker Carlson decided that being a race-baiting - othering- disinformation agent of chaos was so 2020. No last night Carlson decided to use the massive megaphone (which Fox News gleefully handed to him sans conditions of normal societal decorum) and decided to; 1) overtly lie to his audience, 2) purposely misrepresentation of President Biden, and 3) went full on misogynistic douche canoe. I am not willing to embed his egregious segment from last night because I don’t want to proliferate his dangerous disinformation. However let’s settle the facts
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (NDAA-FY21)
Carlson misinformed his audience that President Biden was “feminizing our Military” by making maternity uniforms available to female members of our Military. This is a blatant lie, I don’t know what else to call it other than a blatant lie. Moreover if you’ve kept track of the NDAA-FY21 then you would have known about the “Rent the Camo” pilot program. This was a bipartisan effort spear headed by Reps Holland (D) and Waltz (R) it was their collective efforts that allowed this program to be included in the NDAA-FY21 - see full segment here
H.R.7289 - Rent the Camo: Access to Maternity Wear Act1 - Introduced June 22, 2020 with more than sixteen co-sponsors. And it was later rolled into the NDAA-FY21. Which now brings us to the factually incorrect premise of Tucker Carlson’s “news-info-tainment” —Carlson has never served one day in the Military. He is purportedly a “serious journalist” that has a long documented history of egregious and factually incorrect reporting (I’d argue it’s not actually reporting but a man who’s fully embraced his “white privilege” and beclowns himself every time he “reports” something stupid) -at what point will all advertisers (looking at you USAA, I’m a 20+ year member and I’m sick of seeing you advertise on his show) finally say “enough is enough” and withhold buying ads? This isn’t about the feigned “cancel culture” —no this is about a whiny mitch that uses his massive Fox News bullhorn to spew utter garbage. It’s wrong and Fox News knows it and I’ll bet so does Carlson.
NDAA-FY21 became law under Trump. Period. Full Stop.
Originally (then) president Trump did veto NDAA-FY21 -see the December 28, 2020 CSPAN video of the House Clerk reading the transmission from the White House
Congress overrides Trump’s Veto
Again we can disagree on “opinions” but facts are facts and certainly not “alternative facts”
December 28, 2020 -House Roll Call 2532 | Bill Number: H. R. 6395 Passed House over veto: Two-thirds of the Members present having voted in the affirmative the bill is passed, the objections of the President to the contrary notwithstanding. Passed by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 322 - 87
January 1, 2021 - Question: On Overriding the Veto (Shall the Bill H.R. 6395 Pass, the Objections of the President of the United States to the Contrary Notwithstanding? ) } Passed Senate over veto3: Passed Senate over veto by Yea-Nay Vote. 81 - 13 —accordingly on January 1, 2021 the NDAA-FY21 Public Law No: 116-2834
So unless President Joe Biden some how got into a Time-Flux-Capacitor and became President of the United States of America in 2020 - Tucker Carlson blatantly lied to his viewers. That’s not an opinion, those are the facts (see footnotes)
Carlson on the maternity uniform pilot program
I rarely use blanket statements - mainly because ubiquitous positions mean you can’t change your mind when facts become available. However in the particular instance where Tucker Carlson’s misogynistic flag is flying, I am okay with saying, his entire narrative is flawed and not grounded in actual facts. For Example (my assumption is Carlson’s staffers didn’t actually research the NDAA-FY21 law, much less read the following relevant - note the prohibition on “permethrin”5
The NDAA-FY21 also requires the Department of Defense to provide reports to Congress and examine the cost of “rental” versus providing pregnant military members with funding to purchase or rent maternity uniforms;
Top Senior Military Officials Respond and its brutal
The rebuke of Tucker Carlson’s segment was swift - and in some cases this is deeply personal. According to recent data, Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness -There are approximately 165,000 women serving in our Military- the attrition rate among female military members is high.
Department of Defense and Female attrition
The problem of female military members leaving the military is a known issue. To that end the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO)6 commissioned a report. In May of 2020 the GAO submitted their findings to both the DOD and Congress - entitled:
Female Active-Duty Personnel:Guidance and Plans Needed for Recruitment and Retention Efforts
women in the military went up from 15.1% to 16.5%
Attrition rates for female enlisted and commissioned officers were higher than for males
Women were 28% more likely to leave the service than men
Promotion rates for enlisted were slightly lower for women than men, but officer promotion rates were higher for women
DOD doesn’t have guidance or plans for its efforts to recruit and retain women
GAO 5 recommendations are to better guide and monitor DOD and military service efforts to recruit and retain women.
So here’s my final thought - the advertisement dollars being pimped, I mean being pumped into Fox News and Tucker Carlson’s need to be turned off. People like Carlson enjoy the battles he purposefully starts, but this one is on a new level of deep stupid and self owning.
H.R. 7289 - Rent the Camo: Access to Maternity Wear Act - last visited March 11, 2021 https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr7289/BILLS-116hr7289ih.pdf
116th Congress - US House of Representatives | Roll Call Vote, last visited March 11, 2021, https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2020253
116th Congress - US Senate | Roll Call Vote # 292 | last visited March 11, 2021
Public Law 116-283, Congress, last visited March 11, 2021, https://www.congress.gov/116/bills/hr6395/BILLS-116hr6395enr.pdf
Kennedy D, Hurst V, Konradsdottir E, Einarson A. Pregnancy outcome following exposure to permethrin and use of teratogen information. Am J Perinatol. 2005 Feb;22(2):87-90. doi: 10.1055/s-2005-837736. PMID: 15731987. Last visited March 11, 2021, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15731987/
Government Accountability Office, Report GAO-20-61 - Female Active-Duty Personnel:Guidance and Plans Needed for Recruitment and Retention Efforts, last visited March 11, 2021 - https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-61.pdf
Under former administration, from day one, we saw attack on intel community. The attacks directed at McCain and gold star family laid initial groundwork to exhaust outrage. The ban on transgender access to medical treatment and banning from military also helped to erode the last threads of decency. Back the blue changed quickly when they saw the MAGA crowds beating a police officer to death or attacking the Capitol police during the insurrection. This was all made possible by chipping away over 4 years at our sense of right and wrong. It’s not surprising that the propaganda network has decided to go all in & perpetuate this constant attack on revered institutions. Whether it’s Muslim ban, the states restricting abortion access or the rolling back access to voting, this sector of far right has decided to go all in on misogyny, racism & discrimination. The only answer to the onslaught of prolific lies & propaganda, is truth. Fact based truth. As certain as we are tgat the sun rises in the east, we must lay bare the cold facts & fight back with truth....it’s an ugly tinder box right now. Truth must prevail.
They're not going to stop as long as they are allowed to use a major televsion station as a disinformation megaphone. I think the solution is simple. Codify Dangerous Speech. SCOTUS gave us the mechanism 102 years ago when they ruled that "Dangerous Speech is not protected by the 1A". The 'fire in a movie theater' example has been repeated to the point it is up front in our pop culture, but beyond that ruling, as far as I know, no serious attempt to define Dangerous Speech has ever been defined by Legislation. To me it seems clear that partaking in disinformation campaigns on national televison are Dangerous Speech. 1/6 could not have happened without years of support from the Fox News Network in the USA. Drawing the line from cause to effect is not far fetched. It "is" not technically legal in that light and SHOULD not be legal in any moral society. All we lack is Dangerous Speech being well defined , with penalties defined, by the Legislative Branch. 102 years later is never too late to pick up the ball and squash BS 'free expression' that harms and endangers others. Unfettered free speech is not the equivalent of freedom. But ppl lying and screaming slurs in public spaces associate their bad noise as 'freedom'.
RE: the specific attack on military women? Absurd and playing to their misogynistic and homophobic base. IE Par for the course until we give them a reason to stop.