Did Fox Fire Tucker Carlson?
Tucker Carlson is leaving Fox.
The news comes just days after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox Corporation reached a $787.5 million settlement in a massive $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion.
Throughout the lead-up to the trial-that-never-was, a stream of documents revealed how many Fox hosts and executives, including Carlson, knowingly perpetuated lies surrounding the 2020 election and false conspiracies surrounding voting systems like Dominion’s rigging the election.
It’s unclear whether Carlson was fired or not. But in a press release Monday, Fox noted that his “last program was Friday April 21st.” Given the separation is effective immediately, and Carlson has no formal opportunity to say goodbye, the exit does not appear to be on entirely good terms.
The Washington Post reports that “a person familiar with the company’s thinking” believes that Carlson’s comments about Fox’s management may have led to the departure. The revelations in the Dominion case were just the tip of the iceberg; had the trial continued as planned, more details about the inner workings of Fox may have been revealed
Carlson’s departure follows a series of incredibly deferential interviews to both Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Two weeks ago, Carlson hosted Trump in an hour-long special, in which the Fox host barely said a word, while the twice-impeached former president rambled on, telling fantastic tales of courthouse workers crying as he was arraigned—and praising Saudi Arabia, Vladimir Putin, and Xi Jinping.
Days later, in a two-part special with Musk, Carlson spent most of his time serving as the equivalent to a Twitter blue subscriber brainlessly responding to every Musk assertion with laugh emoji after laugh emoji.
In his last segment on air, between bites of pizza and plugging a conspiratorial special about the establishment forcing everyone to eat bugs, Carlson seemed to (or pretended to) have no idea that his departure was coming.
“We’ll be back on Monday,” Carlson said while closing his segment last Friday.
This story has been updated.