It’s been quite the wild week for Fox News and their legions of fans.
The broadcasting titan announced their shock decision to part ways with popular conservative news host Tucker Carlson on Monday, prompting widespread backlash amongst a large portion of their viewership.
By all accounts Carlson himself was blindsided by the decision – the 53-year-old was said to be in the middle of renegotiating his contract through till 2029 – and wasn’t given an official reason when he was told of the move by Fox CEO Suzanne Scott.
Fox’s statement on the matter was released to the general public at the beginning. of the week, reading:
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
According to the announcement, there will be no send-off for Carlson and his departure was effective immediately: his last program aired on Friday. His 8 PM ET time slot will be filled by Fox News Tonight in the interim.
For his part, Carlson has remained quiet over the past few days, but the conservative political commentator has now broken his silence in a new video…
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The world of news and entertainment was caught off guard on Monday when Tucker Carlson was dismissed from his role as host of Tucker Carlson Tonight at Fox News.
Carlson has been one of Fox News’ most popular but controversial personalities over the years: his primetime show Tucker Carlson Tonight was one of the highest-rated cable news programs.
His firing came mere days after Fox News agreed to pay a $787.5 million settlement in Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit alleged that Fox News personalities, including Carlson, made false claims that the company’s voting machines were rigged against former president Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
Yet while it was initially strongly rumored that Carlson’s dismissal was directly linked to the settlement, the Daily Mail, citing The Wall Street Journal, say that his criticisms of Fox News executives played a big part.
Jason Koerner / Stringer
The Wall Street Journal reportedly say that the offending comments in question were made public as part of the lawsuit filed against Fox by Dominion Voting Systems. As per the Daily Mail, many of the messages were redacted at the request of Fox attorneys, but not before they were seen by Fox bigwigs.
Fox’s decision to oust Carlson from his role has been opinion-splitting to say the least. Though many celebrated the dismissal of a host who seemed to revel in stoking the fires of controversy on a weekly basis, Fox have certainly felt the effects of pushing him out the door.
Reports say audiences for Fox News Tonight dropped 700,000 after Carlson’s departure, while other sources claimed Fox Corporation’s worth as a public company has sunk more than $500 million.
Carlson himself took to Twitter last night to make his first statement since departing Fox News. Though he didn’t address his firing, he did comment on a number of things he had noticed this week.
Carlson began by highlighting the kindness of people in the wake of his exit from Fox News, while also claiming to have taken a new view on the majority of things that are debated on television.
“They’re completely irrelevant,” Carlson said in his video. “They mean nothing. In five years we won’t even remember that we had them.”
He went on to argue that big topics such as “war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, and natural resource” are given “virtually no discussion time at all.”
Carlson said: “Debates like that are not permitted on American media.”
He went on: “This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue, so it wont…the people in charge know this, that’s why they’re hysterical and aggressive, they’re afraid. They’ve given up persuasion, they’re resorting to force. But it won’t work.”
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