Donald Trump Jr. claims that Fox News sources informed him that the network’s executives would not like his criticism of the abrupt termination of popular personality Tucker Carlson in late April.
The oldest son of the former president claims he was warned to “expect retaliation” after criticizing the firing as inappropriate and charging top officials with “censorship.” The article stated that he continued by claiming that he had not received an invitation to the network in nearly nine months.
“I’ve been watching the censorship happening even in conservative mainstream media,” Don Jr. said on the Steak for Breakfast podcast. “I mean, you saw what sort of Fox did to Tucker Carlson, last week, and the week before that, it was Dan Bongino and, you know, the people who would actually question some of that narrative.”
“I’ve been sort of outspoken at America First [network] and I used to be on Fox 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 times a week. I haven’t been on in nine months. Not a call, not an invite, not anything. And so I understand what it, what it appears like they’re trying to do to the America First movement. You know, Tucker was another one of those voices,” Trump Jr. added, according to Mediaite.
He recently tweeted the following: “Have heard from a few of my friends at Fox News that the leftist executives running things there are pissed at me for calling them out over firing Tucker and to ‘expect retaliation.’ A lot of good people still work at Fox, but their RINO leadership is at war with conservatives!”
The former president’s son may have been alluding to former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who joined the network’s board of directors after leaving Congress and was said to have been involved in the decision to “move on” from then-President Trump in the wake of his claims that the 2020 election was “rigged” against him, according to a court document that was leaked to The New York Times last month regarding Fox’s recent bombshell settlement with Dominion Voting.
A defamation settlement between the two parties saw Fox News agree to pay Dominion a record-setting $787.5, according to reports about the leaked document. However, the arrangement did not require the network to issue an apology to the company that makes voting election software.
Since Carlson was forced off the air, Fox’s ratings have plummeted, hurting even venerable programs like “Hannity.”
The audience for Sean Hannity’s show dropped from 1.9 million viewers last week to 1.3 million viewers on average this week. The total number of viewers for Hannity decreased by about 600,000 to 1.3 million.
According to AdWeek, “Fox fired Carlson, its most-watched on-air presence, last month following a steady string of controversies and dwindling participation in his primetime show by premium advertisers. Fox News’ rating performance declined around 50% in the key adults 25-54 audience demo in the immediate aftermath of Carlson’s final April 21 show.”
In spite of the effects of firing Carlson in April, Fox News continued to have the highest cable news viewership in May. With an average of 2.6 million total viewers and 267,000 average demo viewers, “The Five” had the top rating among cable news programs.
“Fox News, in the first full month since firing Tucker Carlson, brought in 1.42 million viewers in primetime – a 37% drop year over year. CNN’s total prime-time viewership sank to 494,000 viewers, a 25% year-over-year decrease. MSNBC, on the other hand, averaged 1.16 million prime-time viewers for a 14% percent gain compared to last year. For comparison, Fox averaged 2.09 million total prime-time viewers in the first quarter of the year, while CNN averaged 568,000 viewers and MSNBC had 1.11 million average viewers,” Mediaite reported.
“Fox News still swept the competition, marking its 27th straight month beating both MSNBC and CNN in total day and prime-time viewers,” the report added.
