Global Courant 2023-04-25 05:04:19
Fox News said Monday it was parting ways with burn mark cancer Tucker Carlson, the network’s most popular prime-time host and a leading voice in the modern conservative movement known for conspiratorial rhetoric and provocations of culture warriors.
The network announced the stunning news days after it agreed to pay nearly $800 million to Dominion Voting Systems to avoid a high-stakes defamation lawsuit that had cast a shadow over the network’s future.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a brief press release. “Mr. Carlson’s last program was Friday, April 21.”
Carlson’s most recent broadcast contained no indication that he was preparing to leave the network. “We’ll be back on Monday,” he said cheerfully at the end of Friday’s episode.
Fox News did not specify why Carlson is leaving, and a spokeswoman did not immediately respond to an email from NBC News asking for more information about his abrupt departure.
The network’s statement contained no comment from Carlson. The network will rely on a rotation of temporary hosts until it names a permanent anchor for the 8:00 PM ET program block.
“Fox & Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade anchored Monday’s 8 p.m. hour and opened the show with a brief statement addressing the elephant in the room: “As you’ve probably heard, Fox News and Tucker Carlson have agreed to get out each other. I wish Tucker the best.”
“I am good friends with Tucker and always will be,” Kilmeade added. “But now it’s time for ‘Fox News Tonight,’ so let’s get started.”
Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was one of the most-watched programs on U.S. cable news.Fox news
A cornerstone of the Fox News lineup since 2016, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” has been one of the most-watched shows on U.S. cable news, surpassing rivals on CNN and MSNBC.
Carlson, 53, established himself as one of the most influential figures in a conservative political coalition reshaped by former President Donald Trump. He regularly sparked controversy for inflammatory statements on race, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and other topics.
Carlson faced fierce criticism last year when extremism experts linked his broadcasts to the “great replacement” white nationalist views of a gunman who killed 10 people in Buffalo, New York.
He was also widely criticized for spreading political disinformation, promoting conspiracy theories about the results of the 2020 presidential election, minimizing the severity of the January 6 riot at the Capitol, and attacking journalists at other outlets.
Leading up to the Dominion trial, Carlson’s internal communications were released showing that he criticized Trump and acknowledged that allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election were baseless.
“I hate him passionately,” Carlson said in a text message to an unidentified person on Jan. 4, 2021, according to evidence unsealed before the Dominion trial was set to begin. (Fox and Dominion settled the lawsuit for $787.5 million last Tuesday, just as opening statements were set to begin. Dominion declined to comment Monday.)
But Carlson came back later and recently devoted an entire episode of his show to an interview with Trump, who is once again seeking the Republican nomination for president.
The stock price of Fox Corp., Fox News’ parent company, fell sharply after Carlson’s departure was announced, falling more than 4%.
Fox News is facing other lawsuits related to statements made by anchors in the aftermath of the 2020 election. The network is also being sued by Abby Grossberg, a former Carlson producer, who claims the company is a hotbed of discrimination and misogyny.
Grossberg, who once worked as Carlson’s head of booking for the show, claimed in a legal filing that the anchor “created a work environment that subjugated women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typified religious minorities and disparaged their traditions, and had little to no showed respect for mental health.”
Fox has disputed Grossberg’s claims, and a spokeswoman for the network recently said, “We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s baseless legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
Grossberg’s lawyer, Gerry Filippatos, said on Monday they had discussed potential settlement talks with an outside mediator over the weekend and those talks had ended “unfruitful” on Monday.
An outside attorney investigated Grossberg’s allegations, Filippatos said, and Fox News informed Grossberg’s attorneys after her firing that her allegations were “baseless.”
The television news industry was upset again Monday when CNN host Don Lemon shared on Twitter that he had been fired by the network after 17 years there. Lemon recently caused a backlash for on-air comments about the age of GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
In addition to hosting a hit primetime show, Carlson has also been one of the big personalities on the company’s nascent streaming platform, Fox Nation, having signed a new deal with the company in 2021. “Tucker Carlson Originals”, a documentary series, recently profiled people who eat insects.
Carlson took over the 8 p.m. ET timeslot following the departure of Bill O’Reilly, who left the network in 2017 amid a string of sexual harassment allegations. O’Reilly’s lawyer denied any wrongdoing at the time.
Earlier in his career, Carlson worked at CNN and MSNBC. He also co-founded the conservative commentary website The Daily Caller and wrote articles for several magazines, including Esquire and The Atlantic.
