This just in to CNN.
Tucker Carlson is out at Fox News.
The right wing network just announced the two have parted ways.
CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy is here with more on this.
What are you learning? He was out on Friday.
Will we see him say goodbye? We're not going to see him say goodbye.
This is really stunning news coming from Fox.
They say his last show was April 20.
First they put out a very short statement.
They said they think him for his service.
And that's that's all we know. Right now.
But of course, this comes days after last week, you remember.
Fox News settled this massive defamation lawsuit
with Dominion voting systems over the election lies that it promoted
in the wake of the 2020 election so they paid out $787 million
the highest known defamation settlement ever publicly known in U.S.
media.
So this is coming days after that.
Unclear, of course whether this is related.
It's kind of hard to imagine that these coincidentally these things happen.
Tucker Carlson was sowing doubts about the US election results
Just up until the last few weeks.
So it's possible that there was a relationship there.
But really big news and I should also point out that they've stuck with them
really through quite a lot.
Like he has promoted conspiracy theories about the vaccines.
He has said things that are just blatantly anti-immigrant.
He has, like I said, promoted that doubt about the 20, 20 election.
They have stuck with him throughout all of this.
So, you know, really shocking news that now he's no longer with the network.
Yeah. The big question as you say, is why?
Why now?
Fox has let their number one people go before.
I mean, Bill O'Reilly, they pushed out when he was number one
they're doing this now with Tucker Carlson.
We talk about this happening in the wake of the Dominion decision.
Now, it's interesting with Carlson,
which is that it wasn't his show
or he shows that Dominion was suing over necessarily for promoting false news.
It was some of his behind the scenes stuff that was legally problematic.
For Fox, but he wasn't one of the people who helped
get them in trouble with Dominion, was he?
No, he wasn't the main culprit that really spawned this lawsuit.
But, you know, it's not to say also that other hosts could not be eventually
leaving the network as well.
I mean, this raises a lot of questions about whether the network potentially
is trying to at least rein in some of the more extreme people on the channel.
I mean, of course, Tucker Carlson, the most extreme probably on that channel.
I should also note, John, why this is so important.
I mean, Tucker Carlson outside.
Donald Trump really was the person commanding the GOP really directing it.
You saw Republican lawmakers, prominent Republican lawmakers often grovel
at his feet.
Ted Cruz, Ted Cruz, for instance, grovel, that is he and others because they were
afraid of of him going on his primetime show and lashing out at them.
So this is not
only huge news in the world of media, but also in the world of politics
where he was really pushing the GOP in that extremist direction.
In this. Also, just to that point,
this all also his show is also a place that a lot of Republican lawmakers
or anyone who wanted to speak to Donald Trump would go
in order to send their message because they knew
that Donald Trump would be watching and so closely tracking
that show in and of itself, doing it where he was in his contract.
Are they going to be able to say that this was and of his contract?
They just want to try something different?
I'm I'm not sure. I mean, I have been reaching out.
I have also reached out to Tucker Carlson and and everyone
trying to get more information on this but this is a very short statement.
Also, notably, there's no statement from Tucker Carlson.
And here, you know,
it doesn't seem if I have to guess, that they parted ways amicably.
We'll be obviously looking for more information in the hours ahead.
I think the other question here is it's not just about this defamation case
that has already been settled.
There is more to come.
There's more legal action Smartmatic and others.
And it does make you wonder if this has something to do with that,
because it is so abrupt and it doesn't seem amicable at this point.
Not with that. Right.
There's a lot more legal action on the way for Fox News.
They have the Smartmatic lawsuit, which is a $2.7 billion lawsuit that's
also making its way through the courts and that hasn't been resolved yet.
So it's potentially possible that, you know, Fox News just had enough.
They maybe have needed a scapegoat, someone to just kind of throw and say,
look, we got rid of this guy.
I mean,
because they do have some other problems with with shareholders probably upset
that they had these election deniers go on air and knowingly spread falsehoods.
So, you know, there's a lot of things at play, but there is so much, you know,
that was happening for so long before we got to this point, right?
Yeah. But now they've had to pay $787 million
and they have shareholders who are not happy about that.
I mean, that's a lot of money.
We'll see.
Look, it's hard to imagine Fox all of a sudden just changing the way
it does business completely.
They've had to do payouts before.
Let me read this statement because it is so short. Yeah.
It says Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways.
We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that
as a contributor.
Mr. Carlson's last program was Friday, April 21st.
That's really incredible. In its brevity.
There As for Tucker Carlson, this may sound outlandish to some,
but there are people who suggested that maybe he would become
a Republican candidate himself, and that's because of the firm grip
he has exerted over the GOP in the last few years.
I mean, he
I should say this is the top rated host, not only on Fox, but really all of cable.
I mean, he was commanding a huge audience, a huge audience,
and he was very influential over that audience.
It was a very loyal audience.
They tuned in.
If you look at the ratings,
the ratings would spike on Fox News specifically for Tucker Carlson.
And so, yes, he has a huge sway over GOP primary voters.
I think that's why those questions were raised.
Whether he would potentially run for president one day,
you know, doesn't seem like that's probably why he's leaving,
given the statement in the way this just ended here.
But, you know, one, we we've decided to part ways is not a way
you send off your top rated,
top rated anybody on any show for any reason.
You don't cast them aside or part ways with them unless something is wrong.
I mean, he was on the list for four possible witnesses
when it came for the truth to the Dominion Voting Trust.
He was supposed to be one of the one of the first witnesses
that they called to the stand.
And of course, that got averted when they when they had that settlement.
But we should also point out, too, he is so extreme.
I mean, the things that he was doing on this program
make Sean Hannity look like a moderate.
I mean, it started off more as he was a mainstream conservative figure,
but he has really been radicalized in recent years and he's also radicalized
his audience.
I mean, the things that were promoted on his show used to be what you would see
on Infowars, which is that far right company hosted and founded by Alex Jones.
He was also facing over $1,000,000,000 in legal problems.
But it was being mainstream to the Fox
News audience, which is obviously very dangerous.
And so it's potentially possible that Fox thinks it can get away
with so much
more like Sean Hannity,
who promotes a lot of conspiracy theories himself, but is a little bit
more mainstream, not as radical as Tucker has been letting this go on for years.
This is not like New York.
So it's interesting, the timing of all this.
We'll have to wait and see what he says.
I'm sure there will be something coming out from his side of things.
Well, that's actually one that's kind of an interesting question.
Though, because what we do know when it comes to Fox
and when they part ways with someone there, just ask
Gretchen Carlson and the nondisclosure agreement.
And also the interesting thing, too, is,
is he free to jump to another network if that's what something he wants to do?
Newsmax, if he jump to Newsmax, which is that smaller right wing channel
that Fox News was really worried about in the wake of the 2020 election,
his audience, I'm sure, would follow him over there.
So is he free to do that? Is that something he wants to do?
Is it possible he wants to do something like Glenn Beck
started his own media empire on the side?
There's a lot of different options for him here, depending on what his contract is.
And I will say the legal problems for Fox throughout over
they have the Smartmatic lawsuit
Smartmatic has sued Fox for more than Dominion did.
And now you have a potential disgruntled
employee, Tucker Carlson, as a witness there.
And we should say this to last week after this Dominion lawsuit was settled,
you saw Tucker Carlson kind of poke the eye of everyone
when he went on this program and was just talking about,
can you imagine a media company openly lying to the viewers?
It seemed like a subtle reference to what Fox News was accused of
and him trying to make it about the rest of the media.
So, you know, he really was someone who didn't
seem bound by the normal rules over at Fox.
And now his time there is coming to an end.
All right, Oliver Darcy, keep us posted.
I imagine there will be more coming out.