Fox News and Tucker Carlson broke up.
The network said in a stunning announcement today, one week after Fox News settled a monster defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million over the network’s dissemination of election lies, that Carlson’s last show was Friday, April 21.
According to CNN, Carlson played an outsized role in the litigation,
Only one of the 20 allegedly defamatory Fox broadcasts mentioned in the lawsuit came from Carlson’s top-rated show. But, he was set to be one of Dominion’s first witnesses to testify at trial. And his private text messages, which became public as part of the suit, reverberated nationwide.
Dominion got its hands on Carlson’s group chat with fellow Fox primetime stars Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, and a trove of other messages from around the 2020 presidential election.
These communications revealed that Carlson told confidants that he “passionately” hated former President Donald Trump and that Trump’s tenure in the White House was a “disaster.” He also used misogynistic terms to criticize pro-Trump lawyer Sidney Powell and reject her conspiracies about the 2020 election – even as those wild theories got airtime on Fox News.
Carlson’s departure at Fox News comes after the network also severed ties with right-wing bomb thrower Dan Bongino, who had been a regular fixture on the network’s programming, in addition to hosting a weekend show.
Shares of Fox Corp. (FOXA) fell 5% on the news. The stock had been up slightly before the announcement.
Mood upon hearing the news of Tucker Carlson being canned by Fox:pic.twitter.com/RpM3tCPFkd
— Jo 🌻 (@JoJoFromJerz) April 24, 2023
Couldn’t happen to a bigger asshole…
New jobs for Tucker Carlson:
— Paul Rudnick (@PaulRudnickNY) April 24, 2023
– Life Coach to Bill O’Reilly
– Jeanine Pirro’s gigolo
– One-man show as Rush Limbaugh
– Guy who calls Matt Gaetz to watch the game but Matt’s always busy
– Opening a Nazi memorabilia kiosk at the mall
– Kid’s party clown named Uncle Tucky
– Trump VP
