No, Tyson's claim is not "basic theory at the high school level". It is a particular interpretation of a theory (Special Relativity) that does not work, for the reasons I gave.

> Photons put it all into the X, Y, and Z components, leaving nothing for the t component.

Wrong. The spacetime vector that describes a photon's trajectory does have a t component.

> Seems that a fellow named Maxwell got a lot of mileage out of the concept

Dude, if you think the concept Tyson described is the same as the concept that Maxwell got a lot of mileage out of, then you are the one who needs to learn more about "how it works".