Tucker Carlson, a longtime stalwart of Fox News Corporation, has left the media organization according to several other outlets.
Carlson has long been Fox News’s top ratings earner and is hugely popular with the conservative base of the Republican Party and Libertarians.
Carlson is known for his hard-hitting, in-depth stories that delved into topics other hosts wouldn’t dare touch.
Early reports say that Tucker left Fox News because of the recent Dominion Voting Systems vs Fox lawsuit settlement.
According to the UK’s Indpendent, “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has accused Fox News and its hosts of inciting violence in the January 6 Capitol riots as she called for media organisations to be held accountable for dangerous content.”
The New York congresswoman addressed Fox News’ $787.5bn settlement with Dominion Voting Systems as she sat down with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on her MSNBC programme on Sunday morning.
She said it would have been “better for the country” if the case – in which Dominion accused Fox of defamation for airing false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election – was not concluded with a settlement.
“What would have been best for the country, would have been to demand [and apology] and to not settle until we got that,” she said.
Ms Ocasio-Cortez also said the case highlights a much larger problem in the media.
“We have very real issues with what is permissible on air,” she said. “We saw that with Jan 6 and we saw that in the lead up to Jan 6 and how we navigate questions – not just a freedom of speech but also accountability for incitement of violence. This is the line that we have to really explore through law as well.”
“I believe that when it comes to broadcast television, like Fox News, these are subject to federal law, federal regulation in terms of what’s allowed on air and what isn’t,” Ocasio said.
“When you look at what Tucker Carlson and some of these other folks on Fox do, it is very, very clearly incitement of violence — very clearly incitement of violence. And that is the line that we have to be willing to contend with,” the far-left America-hating socialist continued.
“Tucker Carlson has parted ways with Fox News, the network said on Monday,” according to the left-leaning The Hill media outlet.
“We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network said in a statement.
Carlson’s last show was Friday, the network said.
Fox said it would air a new program called “Fox News Tonight” at 8 p.m. starting Monday evening as an interim show helmed by rotating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.
Carlson was Fox’s top-rated prime time host, netting an average of more than 3 million viewers per night, the most of any pundit on cable television.
Carlson’s departure from the network came less than a week after it agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit brought by Dominion Voting Systems over coverage of former President Trump’s false claims of voter fraud and the company’s software.
On Fox News’s website, Tucker’s page is still up where his catch-slogan is “‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ is the sworn enemy of lying, pomposity, smugness and group think. We ask the questions that you would ask – and demand answers. Catch us weeknights at 8 p.m. ET!”
Tucker landed an interview with Tesla and Twitter CEO, Elon Musk just last week which was a major television event.
During the interview, Musk told Carlson that Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short, is humanity’s biggest threat and could lead to the extinction of all human life.
As we reported last month, “The highest-rated cable news program last week was Carlson’s show, with 3.09 million viewers and 365,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic in the US. He streamed video footage of a protest on January 6, 2021, at the US Capitol Building, which received a total audience of 3.09 million viewers and 365,000 viewers in the 25-54 demographic.”
“That audience was enough to beat out the usual top show in cable news, Fox News’s The Five, as well as beat the competition on MSNBC and CNN by miles. In total viewers, Carlson tripled the 8 p.m. competition on MSNBC and sextupled his CNN rival. In the demo, Carlson more than tripled both MSNBC and CNN,” Mediaite reported.
On another night last week, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” brought in a whopping 4.1 million total viewers. Fox News prime time soared to over 3 million average viewers throughout the day, destroying competition.
“The very strong prime time number was anchored by Tucker Carlson, who brought in 4.14 million total viewers as his show sparked controversy on Monday night for his Jan. 6th coverage. Fox prime time doubled MSNBC’s average of 1.49 million total viewers and brought in more than six times the viewers of CNN. CNN’s prime time average came in at 451,000 total viewers,” Mediaite reported.
It was not well received by everyone when he showed the footage, however.
In response to the airing of the previously unseen security footage, the US Capitol Police chief issued a memo to his staff, which showed military and police officers appearing to stand passively by as a large crowd entered the Capitol building.
Police Chief Tom Manger condemned the comments made during the airing of the footage on Carlson’s Monday night program, stating that it was “filled with offensive and misleading conclusions” about the riot of January 6, 2021, when a group of people breached the U.S. Capitol building, causing disruptions to lawmakers who were in the process of certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
This is breaking news.
