Or maybe it was the $12 million Fox News paid out to his producer, Abby Grossberg, for the toxic workplace she endured working for Tucker Carlson’s show and/or the 90 tapes she made.
On his Twitter show, Tucker Carlson spoke with Dave Portnoy about getting fired from Fox News.
Carlson claimed he’s “not exactly sure” why he was fired. Which suggests he could probably make a good guess.
CARLSON: My view on Fox hasn’t really changed. They let me say whatever I wanted, really, for 14 years, and I’ll never stop being grateful for that. And then obviously I said too much, and I’m not exactly sure what I said that was bad, no one ever told me, but one day they’re like, ‘oop, can’t have this anymore’ and they fired me.” … I can’t be mad about it. I mean, they were great to me. The Murdochs were always nice to me.
Well, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Murdochs were the driving force behind Carlson’s firing, along with CEO Suzanne Scott. But Carlson only complained about “fearful women.”
CARLSON: [T]he Murdoch's were always nice. They never got in my way at all. They were always super nice to me. But there were, you know, small-minded -- It's a company run by fearful women, you know what I mean? And they were always like, you know, second-tier people who were hassling my producers. But no one ever called me. I got along with everybody, but I mean, I think they knew that censorship is not -- I don't welcome that, you know?
The LA Times also noted that “Carlson’s exit is related” to the lawsuit filed by Grossberg. As The New York Times described it, her suit “accused Fox and Mr. Carlson of allowing a culture of rampant misogyny. She said she had been subjected to sexist and antisemitic harassment during her time as the head of booking on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’” She also had “at least 90 tapes” that were turned over to special counsel Jack Smith for his federal investigation, now a criminal case against Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
There have been all kinds of theories about why Carlson was fired, including calling a senior Fox News executive the c-word. But as I’ve said all along, it has to be the money. My guess is, it’s not just the $12 million paid to Grossberg as the result of her tapes but also liability in what Fox knew was a pending defamation case from Ray Epps. He’s a former Marine whom Carlson repeatedly, falsely claimed was an FBI plant who incited the January 6, 2021 violence as a false flag operation against Donald Trump and his supporters. Epps has since commenced suit against Fox for an unspecified amount in damages.
So, while nobody outside of a small Fox-elite circle seems to know which straw broke the back of the network’s tolerance for its popular America-hating seditionist host, the one thing we know for sure is that whatever it was, Fox very much wants to keep it a secret.
And speaking of Tucker’s America-hating sedition, Carlson also claimed he does not side with Russia over Ukraine in their war. “My view was not pro-Russia, never has been pro-Russia. Just like this is not our fight. … We should just put an end to the war because people die in war," he told Portnoy
Sorry, Tuckums but there’s video of you saying that you support Russia over Ukraine. There’s also video showing just how closely your rhetoric matched President Vladimir Putin’s. Then there’s the fact that the Kremlin considered clips from your show “essential” for Russian media.
Carlson’s concern for people dying in war is laughable considering he has deliberately endangered journalists; deliberately endangered America’s top infectious disease specialist; lionized a vigilante killer; deliberately endangered transgender Americans and those who offer them medical care; stoked white supremacist violence; and urged an unvaccinated woman to breathe on First Lady Jill Biden.
But hey, maybe he cares about Russians dying.
You can watch Carlson lie and flaunt his misogyny below, from the September 1, 2023 Tucker on X (Elon Musk’s ridiculous new name for Twitter), via Media Matters.
(NewsHounds’ Brian contributed much of the research in this post)