On Monday, April 24th, Fox News, in a shocking announcement, Fox News stated that Tucker Carlson is no longer going to be the host of Fox’s arguably most successful primetime show, Tucker Carlson Tonight. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News says, without any explanation as to why he was let go. Additionally, this statement was issued less than a week after their 787.5 million dollar settlement with Dominion voting systems, over the network’s election lies, which further exposed Carlson’s vulgar language texts, calling Donald Trump’s advisor and attorney, Sidney Powell, a C-Word, a “bitch,” and much more. Additionally, Carlson’s sexism on the show has been exposed through a lawsuit filed in March by former top-booker, Abby Grossberg.
While Carlson was still a primetime host, he had one of the highest rated talk shows on air, in which he expressed radical right wing views and debated such topics on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight. He’d been with Fox news since 2009 but he didn’t gain actual attention until the airing of his show in 2016. In recent years, he rose to stardom through the use of promoting radical conspiracy theories and conservative rhetorics, promoting the Covid-19 conspiracy theories and sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the elections.
Now the real reason as to why Carlson is leaving Fox News isn’t 100% known. The LA Times reports that Rupert Murdoch, the Fox Corp co-chair was behind the decision, due to a lawsuit by a former employee and Carlson’s on-air assertions over several radical topics.
However, Wall Street Journal reports that the decision came from Rupert’s son, Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corps, and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. In addition to those two theories, many speculate that the Dominion settlement and Carlson’s problematic texts had a very large impact on his position in Fox News.
According to NPR reporter David Folkenflik, there were many more problematic quotes, as he said to Vox’s Peter Kafka.
“A ton of stuff was redacted and blacked out … I actually think there’s a lot more embarrassing stuff that’s been sunk by this, that’s been kept hidden, and submerged by the settlement,” said Folkenflik. As of writing this today, not a lot has been released to the public yet, and Carlson hasn’t really made any statements regarding it, except for a 2 minute long twitter video, in which he talks about how the media doesn’t permit any “actual debate,” on topics which will define the future of the U.S.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left, but there are some, and that’s enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope. See you soon,” says Carlson.
Sources:
SPARSH AIYAR
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SPARSH AIYAR#molongui-disabled-link
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SPARSH AIYAR#molongui-disabled-link
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SPARSH AIYAR#molongui-disabled-link
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SPARSH AIYAR#molongui-disabled-link