A report from the Los Angeles Times says Rupert Murdoch, the longtime giant in conservative media who helms Fox Corporation, decided on the surprising firing revealed this Monday of Tucker Carlson, a longtime Fox host.
The cancellation of Carlson’s show was effective immediately, with his last broadcast having been what turns out to be last Friday. Throughout his time at the network, Carlson has pushed nonsense galore, whether about the war between Russia and Ukraine, the riot at the Capitol in 2021, or the 2020 presidential election. Still, the report from the Times said Dominion asserted Carlson’s sudden departure from Fox was unrelated to the recent settlement in a legal dispute between the conservative media source and Dominion Voting Systems, an elections technology company repeatedly implicated in nonsensical allegations of widespread fraud. Outlet sources instead tied Carlson’s ouster to litigation filed by Abby Grossberg, a former producer at Fox who has alleged discrimination in court. She’d worked on Carlson’s show when employed.
“Murdoch is also said to be concerned over Carlson’s coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, in which the host has promoted the conspiracy theory that it was provoked by government agents,” the Times said.
In covering that violence, with special assistance from House Speaker Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Carlson has also promoted the false narrative that it wasn’t actually all that bad, as though he can simply wish the ample documentation of brutal violence out of existence. There’s no secret Democratic plot to skew the history of the attack and make it seem fundamentally violent — it was! And denying the basic documented reality is a nonsensical approach. We all saw it, Tucker. His other lies include his recent claim U.S. troops are fighting Russian soldiers in Ukraine, a notion also popularized by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who got behind a member of the National Guard who covertly disclosed protected military documents.
