Tucker Carlson.Photo: Phillip Faraone/Getty
The bombshell announcement Monday thatTucker Carlsonhad abruptlydeparted Fox Newshas been met with speculation and curiosity regarding what, exactly, caused the split between the right-wing media personality and the conservative network.
Fox News' only public comment so far has been that the network and 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.”
Carlson himself has not released a statement regarding the news, though from the outside, it seemed to be something of a surprise, considering Carlson ended what would be his final episode last Friday with the sign-off that he would be “back Monday.”
In addition to privately complaining about Donald Trump, even as he publicly courted his supporters, Carlson’s text messages show that he lambasted Fox’s management after the network accurately called the 2020 election in favor ofJoe Biden.
“Do the executives understand how much trust and credibility we’ve lost with our audience? We’re playing with fire, for real,” Carlson wrote in one message to fellow employees in the days following the election.
In another text exchange with fellow Fox News personalitiesSean Hannityand Laura Ingraham, Carlson called the network’s news department “pathetic,” writing that it had “destroyed a brand that took 25 years to build and the damage is incalculable.”
Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty.
While many of Carlson’s messages were made public, hundreds of pages of documents from the Dominion lawsuit were not — raising questions about what else the now-former Fox News host may have said about his colleagues and managers.
That Carlson’s former top producer Justin Wells has also left the network (according to multiple outlets, includingABC News) adds to the theory that the exit could have stemmed from private conversations that came to light as part of the recent lawsuit.
The network ultimately settled its lawsuit with Dominion for$787.5 million dollars, though other legal issues persist.
Grossberg, who previously worked as a booker onTucker Carlson Tonight, further argues in her complaint that she “was isolated, overworked, undervalued, denied opportunities for promotion, and generally treated significantly worse than her male counterparts, even when those men were less qualified than her.”
Fox has denied the claims, saying in a statement it would “continue to vigorously defend Fox against her unmeritorious legal claims, which are riddled with false allegations against the network and our employees.”
source: people.com
