The Blaze TV host Jason Whitlock is pushing back against critics who blasted his analysis of the Tyre Nichols video during an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight this past Friday. Nichols died from injuries sustained at the hands of five Memphis Police officers. Those officers have since been fired and charged with second-degree murder in his death.
Police released videos of the incident Friday. The gruesome images showed officers brutalizing Nichols following a traffic stop earlier this month. Whitlock shared the purpose of Monday’s Fearless with Jason Whitlock podcast was to address some of the things that he said on Carlson’s show.
“Sorry, I refuse to follow the script,” he said. “The script for Black influencers demanded that the Tyre Nichols tragedy be laid at the feet of so-called white supremacy. Five Black cops beat a 150-pound Black man to death and the script called for more mass shaming of white people and insinuations that policing be outlawed.”
Whitlock said that if he had followed that script, he wouldn’t be embroiled in controversy. Public figures such as pop singer Ciara took aim at Whitlock accusing him of undermining single Black women amid the tragedy.
“In fact, had I dishonestly blamed systemic, institutionalized racism for Nichols’ death, I would be the toast of Twitter, drowning in retweets, likes, and applause,” he said. “I would be high as a kite on dopamine and swimming in interview requests. But that’s not what I did when I appeared on Tucker Carlson’s cable news show.”
Whitlock stood firm on his analysis stating that he didn’t lie, and he didn’t concoct a narrative designed solely to please the mainstream media.
“I blamed the five cops for their criminal behavior and predicted that a predominantly Black jury will find them guilty of second-degree murder,” said Whitlock. “I then criticized CNN and other media outlets for hyping the release of the body camera footage like it was Al Capone’s secret vault and using the video to distract from America’s escalating involvement in the Ukraine – Russia conflict.”
“I said that the conversation we should be having about Tyre Nichols, centered on the cost of destroying the Black family,” he added.
