Star Fox News host Tucker Carlson is leaving the influential television network, as announced by the conservative media on Monday, days after he reached a judicial agreement for 787.5 million dollars due to a defamation case.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as an anchor and prior as a contributor,” Fox News said in a statement.
Carlson was the most well-known personality among Fox hosts and hosted a popular late-night prime-time show, which drew a very loyal audience among viewers on the right of the political spectrum.
Carlson’s departure comes just a week after, on April 18, Fox News signed a $787.5 million deal with electronic voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems, which had sued the network for defamation.
Dominion had filed the lawsuit alleging that false claims were made on Carlson’s show that his voting machines they were used to rob Trump of the 2020 presidential election against Democrat Joe Biden.
The agreement ensured that neither Murdoch nor presenters like Carlson would have to testify in what was expected to be an explosive trial.
(You can read: Fox pays $787 million to avoid trial for lies about electoral fraud)
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However, numerous internal Fox News communications published by US media outlets prior to the trial had suggested that senior officials at the network were willing to spread falsehoods about the election for fear of losing viewers to their competitors.
In the leaked communications, Carlson said he couldn’t wait to be able to “ignore Trump most nights,” adding, “I hate him to the bone.”
His sudden departure shocked Washington and Wall Street and Fox News’ stock price fell nearly four percentage points.
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Fox News, launched in 1996 to compete with the news network CNN, remains firmly at the top of cable in terms of audience ratings.
Carlson, 53, did not immediately react to Fox’s statement. The network, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s empire, said its show (“Tucker Carlson Tonight”) on Friday was its last and will be replaced from of this Monday.
Criticism against Carlson
Key figure in Republican politics, often interviewed former President Donald Trump (2017-2021) and has been widely criticized for its aggressive style, its alleged lack of journalistic rigor and, to its biggest critics, for displaying hateful and racist rhetoric.
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Tucker Carlson has not commented after the announcement.
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Program after program Tucker Carlson became one of the most resonant voices of American conservatives. The iconic Fox News host has been accused of popularizing conspiracy and racist theories that some believe could be dramatic.
On “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” which had been on the air since 2016 and was one of cable’s most-watched shows, the suit-and-tie host painted a portrait of an America under siege. For immigration, Black Lives Matter protests or even justice into one’s own hands.
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With his blue eyes fixed directly on those of the spectators, five nights a week and for an hour, He commented on the news with a very personal tone, saying that “American men are in a very delicate position”, or that “anti-white racism is exploding across the country”.
Opposed to abortion and a great defender of the right to bear arms, the 53-year-old pro-Trump presenter never hesitated to express his opinions in a program that, on its website, claims to be “the sworn enemy of lies.”
Following his recent high-profile indictment in New York, it was Carlson that Trump gave his first interview on April 11.
According to his critics, the host relied on fear to win over viewers.
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Despite Carlson’s challenges, Fox News supported his figure at all costs, arguing about the diversity of opinions that it was supposed to represent. See you Monday. Did the hefty sum the channel had to pay to avoid a defamation lawsuit in the 2020 presidential election beat him?
During a trial in 2020, lawyers for the channel argued that given Carlson’s reputation, any viewer was likely to approach his show with some skepticism.
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Election technology company Smartmatic is suing Fox News for defamation and is seeking $2.7 billion.
Impervious to criticism, in a September 2022 interview, this father of four said: “You should only care about the opinion of those who care about you.” Apparently, it is a lesson he learned from his “weird childhood”, marked by the departure of his mother, an artist, when he was just six years old.
The road to glory is long for Carlson. He worked for CNN and was temporarily unemployed in his early 40s. He says he never had a television and lives far from the political heart of the United States, in a rural corner of Maine (northeast).
From there he usually records his program, in a studio prepared for him. Will politics be his next move? For a while, rumors circulated about his possible candidacy in the 2024 presidential election. But in June 2022, he dismissed the idea with a laugh on the conservative “Ruthless” podcast. “I’m a talk show host. I love it.”
CNN also moves
The departure of this star from the conservative channel is added, but in the ranks of the progressive media, to that of the presenter Don Lemon, dismissed by the CNN channel, which has not been to his liking.
In a brief note, the channel reported that “CNN and Don have taken different paths,” according to The New York Times, which reproduces the statement.
“Don will always be a part of the CNN family and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years. We wish him the best and encourage him in his future endeavors,” the network wrote.
Don will always be a part of the CNN family and we thank him for his contributions over the past 17 years.
The journalist was one of the hosts of the “This Morning” program and began his career at CNN in September 2006.
Last February, she was the protagonist of a controversy by ensuring that a woman “considers herself at her best at 20, 30 and perhaps 40”, which earned her a wave of criticism despite the fact that she later apologized.
Lemon, who this morning participated in the program, assured on his Twitter account that he was informed by his agent of the end of his contract: “I am stunned,” he said.
“After 17 years at CNN I thought someone in management would have the decency to tell me directly,” he said before thanking all the colleagues and teams he has worked with. “They are the most talented journalists and I wish them the best,” she concluded.
AFP AND EFE
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