Fox News stunned its viewers — and, according to sources within the company, its own staff — when it let go of primetime host Tucker Carlson on Monday. Fox News employees were said to be “shocked” and “upset” when they read the public press release announcing Tucker’s departure from the network.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” read the muted release. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Speculation as to the reasons behind Tucker’s abrupt exit has run rampant. The initial online consensus was that Tucker was out due to his being named prominently in Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Fox — but that doesn’t explain why Maria Bartiromo and Judge Jeanine Pirro are still on the air. Others suggested that actually Tucker’s texts, which were released during discovery and showed him speaking negatively about Fox management, were the impetus. Then there’s the lawsuit from former producer Abby Grossberg which alleges that Tucker Carlson Tonight was a sexist workplace environment. (One such example is that staff shared a photo of Pelosi in a bathing suit around the office as a “joke” — Cockburn would never!)
Cockburn’s sources, including a Fox insider, argued that the legal troubles may have just been the excuse Rupert Murdoch needed to oust a host that had amassed far too much power for his liking. Tucker’s show has been described to Cockburn as “editorially independent” from the rest of Fox programming, to the point that Tucker was not beholden to the network’s secret internal blacklist of guests.
“This is a slap in the face to our viewers,” one Fox employee who is close to the primetime shows said.
Meanwhile, Mediaite reports that the decision to fire Tucker was made by Fox Corporation CEO Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott on Friday night. Scott reportedly told Tucker in a phone call Monday morning to break the news that the decision was made “from above”.
So where does Tucker go next?
In a rare on-air mention of a fallen colleague, Greg Gutfeld joked on The Five that he might run for president. “To write off his potential chances in a GOP primary field would be naive,” wrote Cockburn’s colleague Stephen L. Miller. It would be a shock move; Tucker has previously pooh-poohed the idea of running for office and made his disgust for politicians a frequent centerpiece of his nightly monologues.
Tucker is also welcome at the Heritage Foundation, the DC-based conservative think-tank that gave him his first job. Tucker spoke at Heritage’s fiftieth anniversary gala on Friday night, after which the group’s president, Dr. Kevin Roberts, joked that Tucker could come back and work for them if things at Fox didn’t work out. Roberts reiterated his offer following the news of Tucker’s exit: “To the man himself, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there will always be a home here for you, Tucker.”
When Tucker was first tapped to take over the 8 p.m. slot at Fox News, he left behind his job as editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller, the news company he co-founded with Neil Patel. Perhaps it is time he made his triumphant return?
Elsewhere in conservative media, former Fox anchor Glenn Beck pitched for Tucker to join him at the Blaze on air: “We would love to have you here. You won’t miss a beat. And together, the two of us will tear it up. Just tear it up.” Another former Fox anchor Megyn Kelly, who went independent after a brief spell at NBC, seemed to indicate Tucker would do well striking out on his own: “Good for Tucker. Trust me, he doesn’t need them.” The former host offered a hint on his website, encouraging fans to “text TUCKER to 44055 to become a tuckercarlson.com insider to find out what Tucker’s up to next.”
Head to his personal website, Tucker Carlson dot com, and you’ll be hit with an opportunity to sign up by text to “find out what Tucker’s up to next.”
Selfishly, Cockburn must hint that Tucker would do quite nicely at The Spectator. We can’t be the only ones that miss his original, incisive and humorous writing!
