Fox News mentioned Monday that it was parting methods with Tucker Carlson, its hottest prime time host who was additionally the supply of repeated controversies and complications for the community due to his statements on all the pieces from race relations to L.G.B.T.Q. rights.
The community made the announcement lower than per week after it agreed to pay $787.5 million in a defamation lawsuit wherein Mr. Carlson’s present, one of many highest rated on Fox, figured prominently for its position in spreading misinformation after the 2020 election.
In making its announcement, Fox provided a terse assertion of gratitude. “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” it mentioned.
His abrupt departure surprised folks inside Fox News and within the broader conservative media universe, the place Mr. Carlson had appreciable energy to raise candidates and controversies. His place on the community appeared to develop untenable rapidly. Fox had been selling an interview Mr. Carlson was set to do on Monday with Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for president in 2024.
His final program was on Friday, Fox mentioned.
Mr. Carlson didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Fox News host Harris Faulkner mentioned on air on Monday that beginning that night, an interim present, “Fox News Tonight,” would fill the 8 p.m. hour “with rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.”
It wasn’t simply Mr. Carlson’s phrases on the air that received him in hassle. His non-public messages with producers — wherein they denigrated former President Donald J. Trump and his authorized advisers after the 2020 election in vulgar and sexist phrases — had been disclosed as a part of the defamation lawsuit in opposition to Fox by Dominion Voting Systems. In one alternate with employees, Mr. Carlson texted about Mr. Trump: “I hate him passionately.” In one other, he labeled Mr. Trump “a demonic force, a destroyer.”
His departure brings to an finish a speedy and controversial rise on the conservative news and opinion channel, the place Mr. Carlson was promoted to the prime-time lineup in late 2016 and rapidly emerged as one of many main media stars of the Trump period.
More than some other Fox host, Mr. Carlson drew in viewers by harnessing cultural anxieties and racial grievances of the previous president’s political base. He warned his viewers that they had been underneath assault from liberal elites and unchecked immigration, borrowing a few of his central themes from the white nationalist and far-right net and sharpening them up for a extra mainstream viewers.
When Fox launched a streaming community, Fox Nation, to exploit extra income out of its most loyal followers, it was Mr. Carlson who turned the brand new platform’s high persona, with a thrice-weekly speak present and periodic documentaries that doubled down on his themes of duplicitous elites and race-obsessed liberals.
At his peak inside Fox, he defied the community’s senior management whereas cultivating the impression amongst colleagues that he was shut with the Murdoch household, significantly Fox chief Lachlan Murdoch. He additionally wielded his stature to bully and stress extra junior colleagues on the news facet after they challenged the present’s highly effective opinion hosts or reported — precisely — on the 2020 election outcomes.
Mr. Carlson can also be going through a lawsuit from a former Fox News producer, Abby Grossberg, who claims that he presided over a misogynistic and discriminatory office tradition. Ms. Grossberg mentioned within the lawsuit, which was filed in March, that on her first day working for Mr. Carlson, she found the work area was embellished with giant photos of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sporting a plunging swimsuit. Ms. Grossberg mentioned Mr. Carlson’s employees ceaselessly used a vulgar time period for girls, and that she was as soon as referred to as into the highest producer’s workplace to be requested whether or not Maria Bartiromo, a Fox Business host she beforehand labored for, was having a sexual relationship with the House Republican chief, Kevin McCarthy.
Ms. Grossberg, who was fired after submitting the lawsuit, additionally claimed that after she was coerced by Fox’s attorneys into offering a deceptive deposition within the Dominion case and defending an offensive textual content from Mr. Carlson, his producers emailed the remainder of the employees in recognition of “Abby Day” and recommended ordering a employees lunch to have fun.
Fox has disputed Ms. Grossberg’s claims. A spokeswoman mentioned in a latest assertion: “We will continue to vigorously defend Fox against Ms. Grossberg’s unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against Fox and our employees.”
Mr. Carlson, 53, had helmed his prime time present “Tucker Carlson Tonight” since 2016. In 2021, he signed a brand new take care of Fox News increasing into podcasts and a collection referred to as “Tucker Carlson Originals” for the streaming service Fox Nation.
This is a creating story. Check again for updates.
Source: www.nytimes.com