CNN’s communications team on Friday accused Fox New’s Tucker Carlson of lying about the network on his Thursday night broadcast and called on him to offer up a correction.
“Last night on his program @TuckerCarlson again lied to his audience about CNN, stating we’d ‘dutifully removed’ the COVID-19 tracking graphic from our coverage now that President Biden has taken office. That is false. We look forward to his correction tonight,” said a statement on Twitter.
The statement was accompanied by screenshots of CNN’s on-air coverage from Thursday morning through evening. All nine attached images showed the death count ticker on display as on-air hosts and guests discussed the raging coronavirus pandemic. As the graphic points out, over 400,000 Americans have died of COVID-19.
On Thursday’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” the primetime host said, “It’s Joe Biden’s first day in office and you know what that means: CNN can finally take that COVID death-ticker off the screen. There’s no reason for it now.”
As CNN’s communications team pointed out on Twitter, Carlson said the network had “dutifully removed” the ticker.
CNN has countered similar claims in the past. After Biden was declared the winner of the 2020 election, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz quipped that he found it “miraculous” the network removed its ticker. Numerous reporters pointed out at that time that CNN deploys the ticker during segments on COVID-19 and leaves it off during segments on other topics.