The Fiserv Forum is drawing criticism after announcing it will host the former Fox News personality Tucker Carlson on a national tour in September, with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones as special guest.
The arena’s social media accounts originally said that both Carlson and Infowars founder Jones are coming to the Fiserv Forum on September 16. However, by late Tuesday afternoon, the caption on the Instagram post had been edited to remove mention of Jones, and the post on social platform X had been removed.
Carlson’s website still states that Jones will join him as his special guest when he visits Milwaukee.
The announcement was met with widespread reaction on social media, with many particularly disappointed that Jones would be hosting the venue, which was ordered by a jury to pay $1.5 billion to the families of Sandy Hook victims after he had promoted conspiracy theories that the elementary school shooting was a hoax.
Extremism experts warned of the dangers of amplifying the voices of conspiracy theorists like Jones, who used his Infowars show to promote theories like “Pizzagate,” in which Hillary Clinton was falsely accused of involvement in a child sex trafficking ring in the basement of a pizzeria. or claiming that yogurt company Chobani “imported migrant rapists,” which he later retracted to resolve a defamation lawsuit.
“It really creates a deep — primal, almost — fear in this population of largely white, Christian Americans who have bought into the idea that they are being replaced,” said Jon Lewis, research fellow for the Program on Extremism at George Washington University.
Fiserv Forum officials declined interview requests and directed questions to a Carlson aide, who could not immediately be reached for comment.
Carlson will make more than a dozen stops during his tour, with different guests in each city, including Marjorie Taylor Green, Donald Trump Jr. and Megyn Kelly. His visit to Milwaukee falls between the 2024 Republican National Convention in July and the presidential election in November.
The tour’s website states that the event is “presented by Sambrosa.com and brought to you by Swan Bitcoin.” Officials from those companies were not immediately available for comment.
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How Jones maintains a fan base with divisive conspiracy theories
Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor at American University who studies the strategies extremist groups use to radicalize the public, pointed out that the tour announcement comes just days after Jones agreed to liquidate his assets to pay his debt to the Sandy Hook families to pay after successfully suing him. for defamation.
The timing is “very good for someone who is facing a serious financial problem,” Braddock said.
After losing his media company Infowars, Jones must find a new platform, Braddock said. He is not surprised that Jones is working with Carlson, who was fired last year as host of his conservative opinion show on Fox, he said.
“Alex Jones coming to Milwaukee after the RNC is, I think, an attempt to reinsert himself into the conversation around these players in the field,” Braddock said.
Lewis pointed out that Carlson recently spoke highly of Jones on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast in April, crediting him for predicting September 11.
“They are no strangers to embracing shared conspiracies,” Lewis said.
Braddock said Jones and other far-right influencers attract fans by taking the position of the “noble truth-teller” who risks their safety to tell you what others don’t want you to know.
“People like to feel like they have knowledge that other people don’t have,” says Braddock.
Then those individuals come together online, he said, where they can amplify each other’s ideas without opposition.
And people tend to cling to theories that demonize one group as the “other,” he said.
For example, Braddock said Carlson’s anti-immigration comments raised unfounded fears that white Americans are being “replaced.” Demographers have widely debunked the conspiracy theory.
“This (theory) was talked about dozens of times after Carlson’s show,” Braddock said.
Researchers warn of the danger associated with normalizing extremists
Theories that denigrate certain groups are not limited to online forums. Experts say rhetoric from influential conspiracy theorists like Jones could escalate into violence.
“If someone has a platform and a large following of people who admire them politically, they have the power to move those people one way or another,” he said. “And sometimes, unfortunately, these conspiracies can incite people to violence.”
Lewis said that when theorists like Jones gather at popular venues like the Fiserv Forum, their views become increasingly mainstream.
“All it does is create the conditions for violence,” Lewis said.
Research from the National Institute of Justice shows that far-right attacks continue to outnumber all other forms of terrorism and domestic violent extremism.
According to a report from the Anti-Defamation League Center on Extremism, all extremism-related killings in 2023 were committed by people with far-right connections, with 15 of the 17 incidents involving people with white supremacist beliefs.
Stephen C. Rea, a senior scholar at the Critical Internet Studies Institute, said Carlson and Jones are not currently as popular or influential among the most violent far-right extremist groups.
But there are still many uncertainties between now and September, Rea said, including the conviction of former President Donald Trump and the RNC next month. The far-right media “ecosystem” is particularly fluid these days, he added, so their fan base is subject to change.
RNC could shape Tucker Carlson’s talking points, attendance numbers
While Jones lost some of his fan base after the Sandy Hook lawsuits, Braddock said there are still many people who find comfort in the conspiracy theories he spreads.
“(Conspiracy theories) allow people to identify who the bad people are,” Braddock said. “So as long as Alex Jones keeps saying who the bad people are — and Tucker Carlson, for that matter — I think there are people out there who will listen to him.”
With Jones no longer able to fall back on Sandy Hook conspiracies, Braddock said he and Carlson will likely pick up other topics likely to be addressed at next month’s RNC, such as immigration and LGBTQ+ issues.
“We heard a lot about that on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox, and I’m sure Alex Jones would have no problem jumping into that conversation,” Braddock said.
Given Carlson and Jones’ limited fan bases, Rea said he wonders who exactly the show is for.
“Realistically, I think it will attract a fair number of visitors, but certainly nothing big,” Rea said. “A lot depends on how the summer goes and whether or not Tucker tries to tie this event directly to Trump’s re-election.”
Quinn Clark is a Public Investigations reporter. She can be emailed at QClark@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Quinn_A_Clark. Mary Spicuzza is a political and investigative journalist. You can send an email to MSpicuzza@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Fiserv Forum criticized for hosting Tucker Carlson tour with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones
