By his own admission, far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson isn't above lying to the millions of viewers on his primetime broadcast. His lawyers even argued in a defamation suit against him last year that no "reasonable person" would take what he says seriously.
Nevertheless, Carlson continues to promote racist conspiracy theories like the "great replacement," and two Fox News employees recently resigned in light of his Fox Nation show promoting the fantasy that the deadly failed insurrection of January 6 was actually a secret government operation to target Trump supporters.
Most recently, Carlson brandished an egregiously misleading graph to support his claim that women in the workforce are pushing men out of their jobs.
Watch below.
FULL Tucker Carlson Tonight 12/16/21 🔴 FOX BREAKING NEWS TRUMP December 16, 2021youtu.be
Carlson asked:
"Why are fewer people choosing to work? And have been for a long time, by the way, this is not a new trend."
Carlson then presented two graphs. The first showed the labor participation of men declining from 90 percent in 1950 to 67 percent in 2021.
The next graph Carlson displayed was of the female labor participation rate, which showed participation increasing from 65 percent in 1950 to 84 percent in 2021.
Carlson said:
“This is the labor force participation rate of women in America. That line moves in the opposite direction. As you can tell, for 70 years we’ve been losing men in the workforce.”
If those numbers sound off to you, it's because they are.
A graph Carlson aired on Thursday night inaccurately claimed the female labor participation rate was nearly 20 points higher than men’s—though the male rate is actually significantly higher.https://t.co/Vd7BRqkM5j
— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) December 17, 2021
As Justin Baragona of The Daily Beast noted, the numbers for women's participation are completely off. He notes that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (where Carlson claimed to have gotten this information), the women's number should have gone from around 30 percent in 1950 to around 60 percent in 2021.
Baragona goes on to note:
"In November, men were employed at a rate of 67.8 percent, which is a notch down from the February 2020 pre-pandemic level of 69.2 percent. The women’s rate, meanwhile, was at 56.2 percent in November, down from the pre-pandemic number of 57.8 percent. The female participation rate actually peaked in early 2020 at 60.3 percent and has been gradually moving down since."
But as is his wont, Carlson proceeded to cite the false information in peddling hysteria over eroding gender roles:
“Many call this progress on the assumption that anything bad and degrading for men must be good for America, but it is not progress. It’s a problem. The average man defines himself by his job. Men and women are very different, extremely different. Society is built on their differences. Every society is. The thing about men is they kind of need to work. They tend to fall apart when they are unemployed.”
People are astounded that Carlson's on-air lies continue to go unchecked.
Why is that deplorable person still on the air?
— ILIKEME (@JoycePerkins) December 17, 2021
Surely something can be done about him
— Bryan Suttle (@BryanSuttleman1) December 17, 2021
Yeah, but he's still employed.
— tellthetruth (@9_tellthetruth) December 17, 2021
Can we please stop deceiving people? https://t.co/pQlFIYJJ6T
— Adam Schwegman (@aschwegm) December 17, 2021
#tuckercarlson should be fired, banned, and arrested.https://t.co/S73FfLdkL5
— ICannotTellALie (@mtgresign) December 17, 2021
Others wondered what would be so terrible about women overtaking men in the work force.
And so what if they did? What would be the problem? Are men entitled to jobs and women aren’t?
— Stan Van Gundy (@realStanVG) December 17, 2021
And is this a bad thing?
— Nancy Q (@4gators) December 17, 2021
But it’s ok if it were the other way around, right?
— RobinCATL_Dem 🇺🇸🇮🇹🌈💙🌊💉 (@RobinCornatl) December 17, 2021
Is Tucker afraid that big bad mean woman is going to take his job?
— ctw279 😸🌊💙 (@ctw279) December 17, 2021
Carlson has yet to correct the misinformation.