Photo: Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty
Fox News announced thatTucker Carlsonisleaving the network.
In a statement shared on April 24, the network said “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.”
Dominion Voting Systems filed suit against Fox News in March 2021, accusing it of knowingly airing false statements claiming Dominion helped to rig the 2020 presidential election against former President Donald Trump. In the results' wake, the tech company was the subject of conspiracies of widespread election fraud and other wrongdoing.
Here’s a timeline of Carlson’s controversial moments through the years.
2011: Tucker Carlson says footballer Michael Vick should be ‘executed’ for dog mistreatment
Tucker Carlson.Richard Drew/AP/Shutterstock
During a 2011 guest hosting gig onSean Hannity’s show on Fox, Carlson made headlines when he said that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, who pled guilty in 2007 to a federal charge of operating an unlawful interstate dog fighting venture,“should have been executed"for his mistreatment of dogs.
About a week later, hereturned to the showto apologize. “Anybody who looks into how he mistreated these dogs and personally tortured them to death gets upset and I over-spoke. I’m not comfortable with the death penalty under any circumstances.”
He added, “Of course I don’t think he should be executed.”
Dec. 23, 2016: Tucker Carlson faces backlash after interview with interview withTeen Voguecontributor Lauren Duca
After an on-air conversation between Carlson andTeen Voguecontributor Lauren Duca boiled over regarding her commentary on Trump, the political host dismissed the writer and told her to"stick to the thigh-high boots"in reference to the pop-culture stories she also writes about for the publication. “You’re better at that,” Carlson said before wrapping the interview.
Duca defended herself onTwitterafter the interview, writing, “[Tucker Carlson] is an enemy of rational discourse. In this fraught moment, his bully tactics are profoundly damaging, and achieve nothing.”
Dec. 15, 2018: Tucker Carlson suggests immigrants would make the country ‘poorer and dirtier’
“Our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this,” he said at the time. “We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our own countrypoorer and dirtierand more divided. Immigration is a form of atonement.”
In the wake of his controversial remarks, more than 30 advertisers cut ties with Carlson’s show in the months that followed, including iHop, Red Lobster, and Samsung. Rather than apologizing, Carlsondoubled down on his anti-immigration claimsa few days later.
“The left says we have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor. Even if it makes our own country more like Tijuana is now, which is to say poorer and dirtier and more divided,” he said.
March 26, 2021: Dominion sues Fox News for $1.6B over election coverage, singling out Tucker Carlson
Tucker Carlson.Rich Polk/Getty
The voting equipment company — which found itself the target of conspiracies of widespread election fraud and other wrongdoing — sued multiple of Trump’s allies in recent months for repeating lies about them, of which Carlson was one of them.
Sept. 2, 2022: Tucker Carlson calls Maren Morris ‘lunatic’ amid transgender rights remark
Rich Polk/Getty for Politicon; Barry Brecheisen/Getty
Oct. 6, 2022: Tucker Carlson interviews Kanye West about ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt
Kanye Westdefended his decision towear a “White Lives Matter” shirtat his Yeezy Season 9 presentation during 2022 Paris Fashion Week onTucker Carlson Tonight. The interview with Carlson was aired in two parts.
“I do certain things from a feeling, I just channel the energy. It just feels right. It’s using a gut instinct, a connection with God, and just brilliance,” West explained of the choice in part.
Feb. 17, 2023: Tucker Carlson’s text calling Trump ‘demonic’ surfaces
Acourt filing made publicin February 2023 revealed that Carlson, Hannity and Laura Ingraham wereprivately critical of Trump’s claimsthat the 2020 election was stolen, with Carlson going so far as to call the former president"demonic.“Publicly, however, the network continued to offer a platform to Trump loyalists who amplified the false claims.
Carlson, in other conversations in the wake of the election, privately took aim at Trump himself, calling the then-president"the undisputed world champion"of “destroying things,” and worrying that he would “destroy us if we play it wrong.”
March 6, 2023: Tucker Carlson downplays Jan. 6 Capitol attack
Carlson faced backlash from Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike when describing footage from the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol as “mostly peaceful chaos.” The downplay comment came as he aired select snippets from 41,000 hours of security footage from the day of the riots.
“‘Deadly insurrection.’ Everything about that phrase is a lie,” Carlson said on his weeknight program, reportedThe Hill. “Very little about Jan. 6 was organized or violent. Surveillance video from inside the Capitol shows mostly peaceful chaos.'”
March 8, 2023: Tucker Carlson’s text that he ‘passionately’ hates Trump surfaces
Tucker Carlson (left) and President Donald Trump.Roy Rochlin/Getty; Doug MIlls-Pool/Getty
The company has argued that some of the people spreading the lies about election fraud — including, it argues, Fox News personalities — privately acknowledged they did not believe the conspiracy theories, but still amplified them on-air, allegedly in order to get ratings.
One text between Carlson and a colleague read, “We are very, very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can’t wait,” according toThe Washington Post; he added “I hate him passionately.”
Insiderreported that she filed suit against Carlson and other Fox executives, accusing them of running “a work environment that subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes. Her federal suit — which contained numerous allegations of sexism and anti-Semitism in the workplace, perNPR— named Carlson as a defendant, along with other superiors at the network.
Speaking toNBC News' Cynthia McFadden during a televised interview in the week following the firing, Grossberg alleged she was “bullied, intimidated and coerced into saying that [under oath] just to keep my job and stay at the company.”
She continued: “And the question a lot of people would have is, ‘Why would you do that?’ I made the decision to keep my job so that I can keep paying my bills. It seemed like the safer decision for me at the time.”
April 24, 2023: Tucker Carlson departs from Fox News
Fox News announced in statement thatCarlson is leavingthe network. It read, “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.”
source: people.com
