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Ticketmaster , is linking arms with proper- aircraft extremists, boosting their ability to reach popular audiences and profiting off their risky and cruel speech ahead of the November election.
The ticketing sales giant is the distributor of the upcoming live speaking tour from , Tucker Carlson,  , who announced plans this week to cross the country with a 15- city arena tour, inviting other conspiracy theorists like as , Alex Jones , and , Marjorie Taylor Greene , to meet him along the way.
Carlson is described on the Ticketmaster site as” the leading voice in American elections” and as” an alternative to commercial advertising dedicated to telling the truth about the things that matter — clearly and without anxiety.” Although it’s difficult to imagine how Ticketmaster came up with this gloomy explanation of Carlson itself, it is amazing that the company would review of it and promote it on its website.
Because there is n’t a drop of truth to how Ticketmaster presents Carlson to its customers. Carlson, a former major conservative who over the program of , Donald Trump ‘s , president traveled to the fringes of American elections, has for centuries promoted harmful disinformation and destructive conspiracy theories. Carlson lied about the Covid- 19 vaccines, discouraging his fans from receiving the life- saving shots. He sowed doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election, implying that it was rigged by evil forces opposed to Trump. And he repudiated the falsehood that the insurrection of January 6 was a so-called “false flag” operation carried out by the “deep state.”
In addition to those corrosive lies, Carlson has been one of the top promoters of the , Great Replacement Theory, the idea favored by White supremacists that falsely accuses the , Democratic Party , and wealthy Jewish figures, such as , George Soros, of importing third- world migrants into the U. S. to shift the country’s demographics to win elections. For his repugnant promotion of such lies,  , The New York Times , noted that , while Carlson was at Fox News, he” constructed what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news”.
Ultimately, Carlson grew to be too much of a problem even for , Fox News, and the , Rupert Murdoch- controlled right- wing channel dispensed of him last year. Evidently, Fox News has higher expectations for those with whom they will conduct business than Ticketmaster, which is a remarkably low bar for the events industry giant to cross.
Representatives for the Live Nation subsidiary decided against responding when asked for comment this week. In fairness to the company’s public relations division, it is difficult to see how they can defend such conduct. How can a decent person justify profiting from Carlson’s hateful rhetoric while also participating in Carlson’s poisoning of the public discourse?
CNN also posed questions to the venues hosting Carlson, which include the , Honda Center,  , T- Mobile Center,  , Delta Center,  , Dickies Arena,  , Intrust Bank Arena and others. Spokespeople for each location did not comment.
These are difficult questions that will affect major businesses in the years to come as the Republican Party  veers even further and farther toward the left. Far- right and conspiratorial figures like Jones, the founder of , Infowars , who openly fantasized this week about executing , Dr. Anthony Fauci , and other Trump critics, were once banished to the shadows of the conservative movement, mocked by people like Carlson. Now, Carlson and others openly celebrate Jones, fully aligning themselves to assail the nation’s institutions.
Companies with basic ethics should, of course, reject doing business with dishonest figures who profit by dumping toxic waste into the country’s information environment. But doing so makes them vulnerable to the eyes of those very same people who, like Trump, have a lot of sway over the majority of Republicans and serve as a launching pad for painful boycotts.
But, while the politics of 2024 makes for a thorny business environment for companies to navigate, from an ethics perspective, the questions that lie before them come with clear and obvious answers. These obnoxious choices run the risk of putting them directly in the path of information wars, where grifters like Carlson flourish.
