The conservative political commentator, writer and television personality Tucker Carlson, who hosted the nightly political talk show Tucker Carlson Tonight – was fired on Monday morning 24 April by Fox News. His departure comes amid Fox settling a $787.5 million lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems (DMS) over hosts with false claims, following the 2020 presidential election.
Tucker was one of the biggest stars of Fox News, and became their most-watched host; in 2022, his show was averaging 3.2 million views and he pulled in the largest audience in all of cable news. How could they let him go? He drew people to Fox News, which is what any news company is fighting for and also survives on – no viewers, no programme.
As expected, shares in Fox tumbled as much as 5% on Monday, with the company losing $504 million in value. Without doubt, their value will continue to decrease and they will lose more than what DMS originally asked for, which they still have to pay. So, not only have they lost a great host who was helping their platform to grow, they have lost more money than they should have; how ironic. Hopefully they realise that they have made a very big mistake and Carlson was the only thing propping the show up.
Despite Carlson’s obvious popularity, there has always been some hysteria around his work on Fox News and around Fox News in general. For example Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a left-wing politician said that certain hosts, including Carlson, were inciting violence:
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t. When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence — very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with.”
Ocasio-Cortez did not provide any facts or examples to back up her allegations. It seems that for those on the Left, the accusation alone is sufficient evidence.
It is not entirely clear why Carlson has parted company with Fox News, although there is wild speculation around this as reported in a recent article in The Independent. Opinion ranges from his professed religious views, his criticism of Fox News management, the recent lawsuits against Fox, and a host of conspiracy theories with which he was allegedly involved. He was also notoriously Covid sceptical, especially about the vaccines. Finally, there is the view that the Murdoch empire, which owns Fox News, wanted a big clean up before selling it.
On Wednesday, Tucker broke his silence and took to Twitter in a two-minute monologue which wasn’t particularly cryptic:
“When honest people say what’s true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful. At the same time, the liars who’ve been trying to silence them shrink, and they get weaker. That’s the iron law of the universe: true things prevail.”
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
The clip has been viewed over 70 million times thus far, with more people watching within the first hour of publication than watched his old slot at 8pm. Thanks to Elon Musks rebalancing of Twitter, it would appear that Fox needs Tucker more than he needs them.
One this is certain. Fox news are already suffering from a fall in the ratings competition, and are unlikely to find someone to replace him who will prove such a draw to viewers. The Murdoch’s may profit from this latest move, if indeed they are responsible. But this could also be another example of ‘get woke, go broke’.
Jack Watson is a 14-year-old schoolboy, who has a Substack about being a Hull City fan. You can subscribe to it here.
