In the two days since he was suddenly fired by Fox News, several different reports have surfaced as to why Tucker Carlson has been dropped.
The latest sees a combination of the former host ripping colleagues and trafficking in naked racial prejudice on his highly-watched show.
What We Might Know About the Tucker Carlson Firing
Fox News abruptly fired Tucker Carlson on Monday morning, and there have been quite a few explanations given as to why in the 48 hours since.
Varying reports from different media outlets have theorized that Carlson was fired because he ripped his bosses in emails released from the Dominion Voting System lawsuit because the network was embarrassed at the conspiracy theories he has shared on his show, because of concerns about another lawsuit from a former talent booker, or because of Carlson using vulgar language when discussing former Trump lawyer and Fox guest Sidney Powell.
Some of the reports have overlapped with each other, or pointed to multiple explanations.
A Vanity Fair story Tuesday night stated that one possible “theory” for the firing might have been that Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch objected to “spiritual talk” Carlson had shared in a recent speech, and that tied in with the belief by Murdoch’s ex-fiancee that Carlson was “a messenger from God.”
The same report said Murdoch had been acting “erratically” of late, and that part of Fox’s reason for settling the Dominion suit was that the company did not want Murdoch testifying in court.
Rolling Stone, meanwhile, reported Tuesday that Fox possesses a massive “oppo file” on Carlson, which they are using as leverage against Tucker Carlson should he trash the network.
Another story arrived Wednesday morning, from Fox’s corporate sibling, the Wall Street Journal, which carried the headline “Tucker Carlson’s Vulgar, Offensive Messages About Colleagues Helped Seal His Fate at Fox News.”
The Journal story stated that Carlson had been told by Fox attorneys that they had succeeded in getting the host’s use of the c-word – not in regards to Powell, but rather to a Fox executive — from the Dominion case, but “told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message.”
The story attributed Carlson’s sudden firing to his “famously combative stance toward members of Fox News management and other colleagues.” As mentioned in previous reporting, the Dominion deposition transcripts had a lot of redacted materials, which the network feared could contain embarrassing details.
There were also fears, per the Wall Street Journal, that “the populist firebrand had come to believe himself bigger than the network—a cardinal sin in Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch’s empire.”
Tucker Carlson and the Racism Issue
Also, per the Journal, Carlson had in recent months “turned up the volume on commentary that had expanded beyond a conservative viewpoint on politics into more of an attack on marginalized groups. His show… sometimes trafficked in what critics—including some higher-ups within Fox—felt was thinly veiled racism on his show, such as when he recently suggested a Tennessee lawmaker got into a good college only because of his skin color.” Others would argue that the racism wasn’t so “thinly-veiled,” with the New York Times last year declaring it “what may be the most racist show in the history of cable news.”
The report also stated that Carlson was feuding so bitterly with Fox News’ PR staff that an intermediary, former Trump aide Raj Shah, was brought in to referee the dispute.
“Inside Fox News, there has been a growing sense that Mr. Carlson couldn’t be managed, and viewed himself as untouchable,” the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the company. “Legal documents also revealed Mr. Carlson was unafraid to run roughshod over those whose views or actions he opposed.”
The piece noted, as the Vanity Fair one had, that Carlson had recently dined with Rupert Murdoch and his then-fiancee Ann Lesley Smith, although it left out the part about her seeing Carlson as a “messenger from God.”
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Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
