Tucker Carlson news – live: Axed Fox News star calls enemies 'hysterical' in rambling first response to firing

Alex Woodward,Graig Graziosi,Alisha Rahaman Sarkar and Namita Singh

Tucker Carlson has broken his silence over his firing by Fox News in a video posted on his Twitter account.

In a rambling conspiracy-driven monologue he suggests he was the victim of efforts to suppress discussion of “big topics, the ones that will determine our futures”, but does not address the reasons for his exit directly.

Earlier, lawyers for Fox News reportedly persuaded a Delaware court to redact legal filings that showed Carlson calling a senior executive at the network the “c-word” as Fox prepared for a defamation trial over Dominion Voting Systems’s blockbuster lawsuit last week, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The messages are among hundreds of emails and texts from the case, which also revealed Carlson ridiculing guests and colleagues on the network and saying that he hates Donald Trump “passionately” while bolstering the former president on his most-watched programme.

Carlson’s surprise exit from the network also follow a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former producer on Tucker Carlson Tonight whose complaint alleges Grossberg and other women were routinely undermined and verbally violated “by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.”

Key Points

Carlson breaks silence over firing in rambling video

01:48 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Tucker Carlson yesterday evening broke his silence over his firing by Fox News two days earlier in a video released on his Twitter account and headlined “Good evening”.

The rambling 2.16 video of Carlson speaking directly to the camera did not directly address the reasons for his abrupt exit from the right-wing channel, where he was the most popular host, regularly drawing more than three million viewers a night.

After speaking about finding out how many “kind and decent people” there are in America having “stepped outside the noise for a few days”, Carlson goes on to outline a conspiracy which he seems to hint may have been behind the events of the week.

He claims that debates about “big topics, the ones that will define our futures” like “war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources” are “not permitted in American media”.

Graeme Massie has the story:

Tucker Carlson breaks silence over Fox News exit in defiant conspiracy-driven video

The unstoppable rise and sudden downfall of Tucker Carlson

05:00 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

The Independent’s Josh Marcus charts the rise and fall of Tucker Carlson Tonight, a primetime juggernaut that endured advertiser boycotts, repeated demands for the host’s resignation, and a view, as The New York Times put it, that his programme “may be the most racist show in the history of cable news,” all while amassing a nightly audience of 3.5 milion viewers.

The unstoppable rise and sudden downfall of Tucker Carlson

Fox News must ‘clean house completely', says ex-host

04:27 , Alisha Rahaman Sarkar

Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, responding to the firing of Tucker Carlson, said the company should “clean the house completely” if they want to have a genuine recommitment to journalism.

“I am not surprised at all at what has transpired here,” she told MSNBC.

“There is so much focus on what he may have said about executives. I actually think the Abby Grossberg lawsuit and her claims of continued misogyny and sexual harassment at a network that says have cleaned up its acts since my case.

“I actually think that’s paramount in this whole thing. I think that had a lot more to do with why he was fired than anything about Dominion.”

Carlson, who received a reported $20m settlement and an apology relating to sexual harassment allegations against then-chief executive Roger Ailes after she left Fox News in 2016, earlier said that getting rid of “one conspiracy monger, or all of them, might be big news and an extraordinary step”.

ICYMI: Tucker texts against Fox execs helped ‘seal’ his fate amid revelations that network had dirt file on him

04:00 , Alex Woodward

Fox News reportedly has a file of dirt on now-former anchor Tucker Carlson to keep him from retaliating against the company in the wake of his firing, Rolling Stone reports.

It’s unclear what cost Carlson his job; numerous theories – ranging from an ongoing lawsuit over workplace behaviour to claims the Murdoch children are sanitising the network to prep it for a sale – have been floated, but none confirmed.

Fox News reportedly has dirt file on Tucker Carlson, sources say

Why was Tucker Carlson fired from Fox News? Here are five theories

02:00 , Alex Woodward

A statement from Fox News after Carlson was fired fromthe network appeared to suggest that they “agreed to part ways” mutually. But reports later suggested that Carlson was blindsided by the decision, which reportedly came from the top of the network as late as Monday morning.

It seems Carlson does not even know the answer to that question; Vanity Fair reports that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott would not reveal to him the exact reason why he was being let go.

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi looks at several reports:

Why did Fox News fire Tucker Carlson? Here are five theories

Online far-right laments or brushes off Tucker Carlson’s exit

01:00 , Alex Woodward

On his Telegram, white nationalist Nick Fuentes has brushed off the idea that Tucker Carlson was an effective pipeline to his neo-fascist white supremacist ideology.

But the fringe far-right message boards like 4chan that have often served as pipelines to Carlson’s programme are missing a platform for their conspiracy theories and extremism.

“Once a story reached Tucker Carlson, it was at the apex of conservative media, and Fox News is the voice of authority in conservative media,” Robert Faris, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, told NBC News.

“It let other people know that it’s OK to talk about these kinds of things in the language that they use. Just that it’s on the air, it’s ambient and it’s on in so many public spaces means that anything they platform has a wider reach than any of the more committed hyper-partisan sites,” he added.

Meanwhile, other far-right figures like Steve Bannon, Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec, who amplified the bogus Pizzagate conspiracy that helped launch QAnon, have also lamented Carlson’s departure from Fox News.

“How does Fox stand up against Cancel Culture now after we all just saw them cancel Tucker? Curious,” Posobiec said on Truth Social on Wednesday. He also said this week that Carlson was fired for telling “too much truth”.

Fox ratings show network lost viewers at 8pm primetime slot on Tuesday

Thursday 27 April 2023 00:00 , Alex Woodward

For the first time that CNN’s senior media reporter Oliver Darcy can recall, Fox News lost viewers between the 7pm and 8pm primetime slots on Tuesday night. Tucker Carlson Tonight formerly held the 8pm weekday position.

Jesse Watters’ 7pm programme averaged 1.8m viewers, while the interim Fox News Tonight dropped to 1.7m.

Fox will share Murdoch docs in Smartmatic defamation case

Wednesday 26 April 2023 23:00 , Alex Woodward

Fox News has agreed to share material about Rupert Murdoch and other leadership with voting technology company Smartmatic as part of the company’s $2.7bn defamation lawsuit against the network.

The agreement was announced on Wednesday during a court hearing in New York, similarly following the case Dominion Voting Systems brought against the network that resulted in a massive $787m settlement last week.

“We will produce the materials as quickly as we are able to,” Fox lawyer Winn Allen, according to CNN.

Fox also will provide documents related to Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, Fox Corporation chief legal officer Viet Dinh, and Fox Corp senior vice president Raj Shah. Deposition transcripts and exhibits from the Dominion case also appear to be in the mix, according to attorneys.

(AP)
(AP)

Vivek Ramaswamy calls Tucker Carlson ‘one of the most thoughtful voices in our movement'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 22:30 , Alex Woodward

During an appearance on Newsmax, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy praised Tucker Carlson as “one of the most thoughtful voices in our movement” – the “pro-American movement” – who defected “from the GOP orthodox.” (Carlson notably recently inspired anti-immigrant policies for Republican governors Greg Abbbot and Ron DeSantis and convinced Kevin McCarthy to provide him with access to security tapes from the Capitol in an effort to secure the House Speaker gavel.)

His rambling answer about the Fox News fallout ended with his prediction that he would win the 2024 election “in a landslide,” comparing his campaign to Ronald Reagan’s in 1984 – an election in which Reagan won every single state but Minnesota.

Newsmax conducts ‘urgent poll’ asking viewers if they want Carlson ‘back on TV'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 22:00 , Alex Woodward

On Newsmax this week, host Dan Bolling – dubbed “the king” of the 8 o’clock primetime slot by Peter Navarro – said that his network will stay “conservative” after Fox News departed with Tucker Carlson.

“We’re not going to move to the center left like Fox is doing,” he said on Monday.

His remarks have echoed other far-right pundits who claim Fox is no longer the right-wing behemoth in American media but a Trump-hating, liberal outlet more closely aligned with CNN.

On Wednesday, Newsmax opened an “urgent” poll asking viewers if they believe it was right for Fox to fire him and if they “want Tucker back on cable TV.”

Russian Foreign Minister criticises Carlson’s firing in remarks at the UN

Wednesday 26 April 2023 21:30 , Alex Woodward

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov criticised Tucker Carlson’s firing from Fox News as “curious news” as he delivered unrelated remarks at the United Nations on Tuesday.

“What is this related to?” he said in Russian. “One can only guess.”

He claimed that with the departure of Carlson – who is often featured on Russian state media – “the wealth of views in the American information space has suffered.”

Full story: Tucker texts against Fox execs helped ‘seal’ his fate amid revelations that network had dirt file on him

Wednesday 26 April 2023 21:00 , Alex Woodward

Fox News reportedly has a file of dirt on now-former anchor Tucker Carlson to keep him from retaliating against the company in the wake of his firing.

Carlson was fired on Monday morning in a move that reportedly came down directly from Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the network. Fox News CEO Suzette Scott reportedly delivered the news.

It's unclear what cost Carlson his job; numerous theories – ranging from an ongoing lawsuit over workplace behaviour to claims the Murdoch children are sanitising the network to prep it for a sale – have been floated, but none confirmed.

His prior comments – revealed during the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against the network – showed he was critical of his colleagues and Fox News’ leadership before he was ousted. Those communications may have helped “seal his fate,” according to a source speaking to The Wall Street Journal.

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi has more:

Fox News reportedly has dirt file on Tucker Carlson, sources say

Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon turn to high-profile Hollywood attorney

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:40 , Alex Woodward

Shortly after they both lost their jobs at their respective networks, Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon turned to prominent Hollywood attorney Bryan Freedman.

The high-profile entertainment lawyer has represented clients including Mariah Carey, Julia Roberts and Quentin Tarantino, as well as the estate of Michael Jackson in a $100m legal battle over the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.

He also represented ousted Jeopardy! producer Mike Richards and Chris Harrison of The Bachelor.

The Independent has requested comment from Mr Freedman.

Fox News, Rupert Murdoch and backstage Trump whispers: The damning Dominion revelations

Wednesday 26 April 2023 20:00 , Alex Woodward

Before Fox News and Dominion Voting Systems settled a massive defamation lawsuit against the network for an unprecedented sum of more than $787m, the company’s court filings revealed damning messages from the network’s star anchors and executives surrounding coverage of Donald Trump’s false 2020 election fraud narrative.

Some of the takeaways:

Fox News, the Murdochs and backstage Trump whispers: The damning Dominion revelations

The unstoppable rise and sudden downfall of Tucker Carlson

Wednesday 26 April 2023 19:20 , Alex Woodward

The Independent’s Josh Marcus charts the rise and fall of Tucker Carlson Tonight, a primetime juggernaut that endured advertiser boycotts, repeated demands for the host’s resignation, and a view, as The New York Times put it, that his programme “may be the most racist show in the history of cable news,” all while amassing a nightly audience of 3.5 milion viewers.

The unstoppable rise and sudden downfall of Tucker Carlson

Rupert Murdoch was reportedly disturbed by Carlson’s segments on Ukraine

Wednesday 26 April 2023 18:45 , Alex Woodward

Rupert Murdoch had reportedly grown frustrated with Tucker Carlson’s increasingly far-right agenda, including segments that sought to undermine Ukraine while it was under attack from Russian forces.

A graphic during one segment referred to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “Ukrainian pimp,” which disturbed the Fox Corporation chief, according to The Washington Post.

After one segment last month, Murdoch joined a Fox newsroom meeting to loudly challenge Carlson’s message, The Post reported.

Still, it remains unclear why exactly Carlson was fired from the network, a decision that also caught him by surprise. The Post also confirms reporting that Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott called Carlson on Monday morning, adding that she said the move came “from above,” meaning Rupert or his son Lachlan Murdoch.

Ms Scott and Lachlan Murdoch made the decision on Friday evening, three days after the bombshell settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, The Post reports. Lachlan Murdoch spoke to his father about it on Saturday, the newspaper added.

Tucker Carlson spotted cruising around in a golf cart: ‘Retirement is going great so far'

Wednesday 26 April 2023 18:15 , Alex Woodward

A grinning Tucker Carlson was captured cruising around in a golf cart outside his Boca Grande, Florida home on Tuesday night.

“Retirement is going great so far,” he told The Daily Mail. “I haven’t eaten dinner with my wife on a weeknight in seven years.”

Fox News co-host Geraldo Rivera slams Tucker Carlson’s ‘perverse’ January 6 conspiracy theories

Wednesday 26 April 2023 17:10 , Alex Woodward

Geraldo Rivera, a co-host on Fox News’s The Five, slammed the “perverse” conspiracy theories about January 6 aired on Tucker Carlson’s programme.

“I don’t wish ill on anybody, but there is no doubt-as I said at the time-Tucker Carlson’s perverse January 6 conspiracy theory was ‘bull****’” he wrote on Twitter.

“Having lost the election President Trump incited an insurrection that sought to undermine our Constitutional process,” he added.

Justice Department reportedly interested in Abby Grossberg’s tapes

Wednesday 26 April 2023 16:49 , Alex Woodward

Justice Department Special Counsel Jack Smith – who is investigating the events surrounging January 6 and Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election – are interested in former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg’s recordings of Fox stars during off-air conversations with elected officials and members of Trump’s team.

Ms Grossberg attorney’s Gerry Filippatos told CNN on Wednesday he provided Mr Smith’s team with a spreadsheet outlining the contents of the 90 tapes, some of which have been aired or published in recent days.

Talks are reportedly underway for a subpoena so Ms Grossberg can provide federal prosecutors with more information.

“We’re in the process of negotiating a targeted subpoena for Abby’s electronic data, so they can have what they want,” Mr Filippatos said.

While Carlson’s programme bled blue-chip advertisers, Fox relied on its success to leverage distribution deals

Wednesday 26 April 2023 16:18 , Alex Woodward

Advertisers fled Tucker Carlson’s primetime, most-watched programme in recent years to steer away from association with content they deemed too controversial or toxic to their branding.

The show featured direct-response advertisers, like Mike Lindell’s MyPillow, and other companies airing toll-free numbers for direct purchase.

“The lack of advertiser demand meant the commercials in many cases weren’t being sold at a premium or at a rate commensurate with its audience size, which meant it wasn’t providing a financial windfall to the network,” according to The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the network’s operations.

But the immense popularity of Carlson’s Tucker Carlson Tonight also gave the network leverage to negotiate distribution deals with cable and satellite providers that carry the network. Fox News costs those providers about $2 a month for a subscriber, according to industry estimates reviewed by The WSJ. The network will enter re-negotiations with most major distributors over the next few years.

Ex-Fox News producer Abby Grossberg says Tucker Carlson made her life ‘a living hell’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 15:45 , Alex Woodward

Abby Grossberg, the former Fox News producer who is suing the network, said Tuesday that Tucker Carlson and his executive producer were responsible making her life a “living hell” when she worked for them.

Ms Grossberg, who was fired by Fox shortly after filing a pair of lawsuits against the network earlier this year, said during an appearance on MSNBC that Carlson’s sudden termination by Fox on Monday left her with mixed emotions.

“There were feelings first of ‘Yes!’ and then also the reality that you don’t want anything bad to happen to anybody,” Ms Grossberg said. “But at the same time, Tucker and his executive producer, Justin Wells, who was also fired, really were responsible for breaking me and making my life a living hell. So there is a feeling of justice, but it’s only partial.”

Fired Fox producer says Tucker Carlson made her life ‘a living hell’

Abby Grossberg’s attorney shares audio of Ted Cruz and Maria Bartiromo discussing efforts to overturn 2020 results

Wednesday 26 April 2023 15:15 , Alex Woodward

A recording of Ted Cruz speaking with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo in the days surrounding January 6 has shed more light on the senator’s intentions to assist Donald Trump in overturning the 2020 election.

The recording, made by former Fox News producer Abby Grossberg and published by MSNBC and The Washington Post, reveals Mr Cruz’s support for an appointed electoral commission that would deny election certification relying on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.

The Independent’s Ariana Baio has more:

Bombshell leaked audio reveals Ted Cruz plotting to overturn 2020 election

Tucker Carlson’s offensive messages about a Fox News colleague ‘sealed his fate’ at the network, report finds

Wednesday 26 April 2023 14:40 , Alex Woodward

Lawyers for Fox News reportedly persuaded a Delaware court to redact legal filings that showed Tucker Carlson calling a senior executive at the network the “c-word” as Fox prepared for a defamation trial following Dominion Voting Systems’s lawsuit, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Carlson, however, was reportedly not impressed, and did not care that his remarks would be made public.

The messages are among hundreds of emails and texts from a discovery process in Dominion’s case, which also revealed Carlson ridiculing guests and colleagues on the network and saying that he hates Donald Trump “passionately” while bolstering the former president on his most-watched programme.

The messages also follow a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former producer on Tucker Carlson Tonight whose complaint alleges widespread toxicity at the Fox News workplace, where Grossberg and other women were routinely verbally violated “by a poisonous and entrenched patriarchy.”

“Within Fox’s management, reservations had been mounting about risks Mr Carlson presented for the network, people familiar with the matter said,” according to The WSJ. “Some of the people pointed to concerns that the populist firebrand had come to believe himself bigger than the network – a cardinal sin in Fox [Corporation].”

Earlier this week, NPR media reporter David Folkenflik said he heard Carlson describe another one using the same vulgar language.

Carlson also called election conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell as a “f****** b****,” according to messages obtained by Dominion.

(AP)
(AP)

The lawsuit that could be at the heart of Carlson’s exit

Wednesday 26 April 2023 14:00 , Alex Woodward

Abby Grossberg was a producer for Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo before she was hired as the head of booking for Tucker Carlson Tonight in September 2022.

According to reports, her lawsuit at least in part prompted Carlson’s firing.

Her complaint last month alleges that Fox attorneys coerced her testimony in the Dominion case to bolster the network’s defenses, but the complaint also accused the network and Carlson’s programme of fostering a toxic work environment that “subjugates women based on vile sexist stereotypes, typecasts religious minorities and belittles their traditions, and demonstrates little to no regard for those suffering from mental illness.”

Read more takeaways from the filing in The Independent:

Lawsuits from Tucker Carlson producer depict culture of ‘systemic chauvinism’ at Fox

Why is Russian state media courting Tucker Carlson?

Wednesday 26 April 2023 13:30 , Alex Woodward

It didn’t take long for Tucker Carlson to land a job offer after losing his primetime slot on the most-watched cable news network in the country.

Within hours after Fox News announced that the network agreed to “part ways” with the far-right nationalist pundit on Monday morning, Russian state media personalities and propaganda outlets opened their doors.

Putin-linked propagandists trolled American media with their bid for his attention, courting Carlson on television and in an email pleading for the now-former Fox News host to join Russia-1.

Russian state-owned media figures offer Tucker Carlson a job

‘Tucker Carlson’s legacy at Fox News is that he was a giant phony’

Wednesday 26 April 2023 13:00 , Alex Woodward

The Independent’s Richard Hall, who profiled Tucker Carlson in the months leading up to the 2020 election, at a critical juncture for the most-watched cable news personality in America, reflects on his departure from the network:

But what made Carlson different from other broadcasters? Stripped of context and the pomp of primetime, there isn’t much to distinguish him from any other shock jock blowhard. He is no great intellect. Most of his arguments and soliloquies would collapse under the mildest scrutiny — which is why he rarely hosted opposing viewpoints. People like him — bigoted, but effective communicators — have always existed in some form.

What made him unique was the platform provided to him by one of the most-watched cable news network in the country. It was Rupert Murdoch who made the consequential decision to unleash Carlson on the country and reaped the financial rewards for doing so.

Tucker Carlson’s legacy at Fox News is that he was a giant phony

Lavrov brings up Carlson's firing at UN

Wednesday 26 April 2023 12:30 , Namita Singh

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov brought up Tucker Carlson’s firing at the United Nations on Tuesday.

“It’s curious news,” Mr Lavrov said. “What is this related to? One can only guess, but clearly, the wealth of views in the American information space has suffered as a result.”

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to the media at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters on 25 April 2023 in New York City (Getty Images)
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov speaks to the media at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters on 25 April 2023 in New York City (Getty Images)

Carlson was let go on Monday, less than a week after Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787m for airing bogus claims of voter fraud following the 2020 election.

Tucker Carlson’s climate problem

Wednesday 26 April 2023 12:00 , Alex Woodward

Tucker Carlson Tonight was a hotbed of fossil-fuel industry talking points, wackadoo conspiracy theories and monologues interwoven with racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and homophobic material.

He claimed that the “existence of winter disproves the science of climate change”; called climate science a “state religion”; said scientists and activists “bully” people like him and “hate the Earth... hate nature.”

His most reliable framing was “you vs them,” which he also applied to the climate crisis and the environment.

The Independent’s senior climate correspondent Louise Boyle writes:

The real reason Tucker Carlson should have been fired

Fox News ratings fall after Carlson’s exit

Wednesday 26 April 2023 11:45 , Rachel Sharp

Ratings at Fox News have fallen after Tucker Carlson’s shock exit on Monday.

On Monday night, Brian Kilmeade filled the top host’s spot and drew in an average of 2.6 million viewers and 294,000 in the key advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo, according to Nielsen Media Research seen by CNN.

The Monday before that – 17 April – when Carlson held the primetime spot, the show drew in 3.2 million total viewers and 445,000 in the key advertiser-coveted 25-54 demo.

Tucker who? Fox News hosts avoid Carlson’s name after he’s kicked from network

Wednesday 26 April 2023 11:30 , Namita Singh

The day he was fired, Tucker Carlson was nearly invisible on the Fox News prime-time lineup that he used to dominate.

“We’re not talking about him,” former colleague Sean Hannity said in one of the two very brief mentions of Carlson’s name on Fox News on Monday night. “I don’t have any details on it. He had a massive audience and he had a huge following.”

In contrast, his ouster was the lead story on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts.

More in this report:

Tucker who? Fox News hosts avoid Carlson’s name after he’s kicked from network

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