You’re not supposed to eviscerate a film before seeing it, but media outlets did just that to Tucker Carlson’s “Patriot Purge.”
It’s all too clear why.
The three-part docuseries, which debuted on Fox Nation and can be viewed at TuckerCarlson.com, details the assaults on liberty following the Jan. 6 riot.
Riot, not insurrection.
Producer Scooter Downey of “Hoaxed” fame assembles a damning litany of abuses by the U.S. government, aided and abetted by our corrupt media. Does Downey and co. lean on the bombastic side at times?
Absolutely.
Poynter, a liberal journalism site which doesn’t see fit to fact check Michael Moore “documentaries,” poked some serious holes in elements of “Patriot Purge. And yet Poynter’s essay also swung and miss so much it’s easy to sense its true purpose.
Make. This. Go. Away.
Sorry. There’s too many frightening elements captured in “Patriot Purge” to be dismissed.
Watching a U.S. Military veteran shot and killed before our eyes, all 5 foot 2 inches of her unarmed self, is troubling enough on its own. When Poynter dismisses her shooting death as justified, you know the fix is in.
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“Patriot Purge” may be part of Carlson’s new “Originals” production line, but it’s assembled in a smart, handsome package for a debut.
The early portions slam the original War on Terror, from President George W. Bush’s rhetoric (“You are either with us, or with the terrorists”) to its Weapons of Mass Destruction debacle. Now, we’re told, the new war on terror is taking a domestic turn.
The enemy? Trump supporters.
It’s an incendiary charge, and some of the data backs it up. Not all … some. Those nuggets are frightening, though, like the story of an Alaskan couple whose home was raided by Biden’s FBI. They were cuffed and greeted with drawn weapons, as if they were gang members or part of an organized mob.
Their crime? The wife looked like a woman who was seen in the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Patriot Purge” is decidedly one-sided, a trend that Moore himself helped champion in the 21st century. Contrarian voices would have strengthened the arguments in play, without question. It’s also troubling to drop the “false flag” label on Jan. 6 without harder proof.
That kind of big swing is fine for podcasts, but the stakes in play are profound and deserve the greatest scrutiny.
The three-part series doubles as a primer on liberal media bias, and boy, does it hit the bullseye over and again. We hear the “peaceful protests” line from various reporters regarding the fallout from George Floyd’s death.
We also relive the media’s Brian Sicknick lie.
The late police officer, who fought back violent protesters on Jan. 6, allegedly died from a blunt attack by a fire extinguisher, according to the New York Times. Except it wasn’t true, but the lie traveled so quickly across the media landscape it became a fact for many Americans (and Democratic pols eager to impeach President Donald Trump anew).
Sure, MSNBC hosts are an easy target, but some of the more unhinged morsels come from reputable news outlets. One damning report hails straight from The Intercept, a liberal news site. We also hear Katie Couric sharing how Trump voters need to be deprogrammed.
We also see President Joe Biden saying white supremacists are the biggest threat to America in 2021. That’s embarrassing, and false, especially since his administration now considers concerned parents “domestic terrorists.”
A few arguments in “Patriot Purge” are too weak to merit inclusion. One talking head suggests the government’s hands-off approach to BLM riots purposely inspired events like Jan. 6. The wrist slaps delivered to rioters in 2020 may have emboldened the Jan. 6 rioters, but to say it was planned months in advance to ensnare the Right is weak.
It’s still surreal to watch so much footage of “insurrectionists” milling about in the Capitol, conversing with cops and entering the building at a casual pace.
More unanswered questions?
We learn of several Jan. 6 protesters who claim to have been beaten severely while in U.S. custody. Is it true? Shouldn’t the media examine this? Instead, we watch as a smug CNN anchor dismiss that possibility. Maybe a news outlet could do more than offer a smirk at such allegations?
It’s the footage of Trump backer Ashli Babbitt getting shot, and dying before our eyes, that leaves the most sizable mark. How anyone could watch it and think she deserved to face deadly force is frightening. The documentary doesn’t allow us to look away, though, the camera lingering on her lifeless form.
The docuseries lets her grieving mother share the pain of her loss. Babbitt shouldn’t have been in the Capitol, period, but has any mainstream media outlet given her mother a chance to be heard?
It’s worth noting that Bill Maher riffed on Babbitt’s death on his HBO platform, sharing a faux commemorative coin in her honor. Grotesque.
Carlson, who narrates the docuseries, offers both a warning and advice late in the production.
“They’re pushing you toward violence, and they’re doing it on purpose,” he says, his celebrated flair for the dramatic spiking. “Don’t fall for it.”
“Patriot Purge” has its flaws, some of which are sizable. It still rightly demands we don’t accept the media and government narratives on Jan. 6. The docuseries will make every American wonder why the government wants to treat that awful day, and that grotesque riot, as an event worth losing our rights over.
HiT or Miss: It’s tough to watch parts of “Patriot Purge.” It’s even harder to deny what the bigger implications for this country are after seeing all three flawed but fascinating episodes.
” Contrarian voices would have strengthened the arguments in play, without question.” Except that “contrarian” voices is all we have heard for the last 10 months from 99.99% of the media along with tv, movie and music personalities weighing in with their biased views on what happened. Carlson’s documentary is not pure propaganda/lies like anything Michael Moore has put out, it is simply some investigation and questioning from the other side of the issue.