New in PJ Media:
Tucker Carlson’s show was yanked off the air Monday, and five days later, the reasons why are still murky. Asked to explain why the network parted ways with its top host, a Fox spokeswoman said: “I’m not going beyond the release” announcing the separation, and that was that. The far-Left propaganda organ Vanity Fair, however, has a new theory: Fox axed Tucker’s show because his speech at a Heritage Foundation event last Friday was too openly religious for Rupert Murdoch.
Now this sort of thing has to be taken with a large grain of salt, considering the fact that the source is so hostile to Carlson, Fox, and every individual and organization that opposes the hard-Left machine. Still, Vanity Fair makes some compelling points. Many have suggested that Fox offloaded Carlson because of the Dominion lawsuit, which saw the network paying a $787.5 million settlement. However, Vanity Fair points out that “Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo hyped Dominion conspiracies far more than Carlson did, and yet she remains on the air.” So that’s not likely to be it.
Then there are the ridiculous claims by a Fox producer who never actually met Carlson that he created a “toxic and misogynist workplace environment.” Here, however, Vanity Fair notes that “Fox hosts sued for sexual harassment in the past were fired publicly for cause, but Carlson wasn’t.” So that’s even less likely to be the reason why Fox decided to shoot itself in the foot so spectacularly.
Vanity Fair then continues: “A new theory has emerged. According to the source, Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch removed Carlson over remarks Carlson made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night.” What did Carlson say that was so bad? Did he suggest that a 92-year-old dating around and getting engaged, and then calling off the engagement after two weeks, is just kind of creepy? Did he criticize Fox’s slow but steady drift to the Left? Did he start praising Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and Megyn Kelly?
It was none of that. Instead, Carlson “laced his speech with religious overtones that even Murdoch found too extreme, the source, who was briefed on Murdoch’s decision-making, said.” Religious overtones? Did he advocate snake handling? Stoning? Suicide bombing? No, Carlson “told the Heritage audience that national politics has become a Manichean battle between ‘good’ and ‘evil.’” Well, yeah. He “said that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs want to destroy America and they could not be persuaded with facts.” Uh, that seems patently obvious.
There is more. Read the rest here.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Lawrence Jones is the replacement of Tucker the coming week, as per his tweet: not sure whether that’s a long term arrangement
As for Dominion, I did watch a few Tucker shows the week after the elections on the Dominion story. Tucker had a hostile face-off w/ Sydney Powell, and after that, stopped talking about the elections. In fact, as Vanity Fair points out, one got more of that from Maria Bartiromo. I’m surprised that she’s still there: she needs to do what Megyn Kelly did and bail out before she’s booted
Back in the day, I used to watch The Five, Special Report, sometimes Martha McCallum and finally Tucker. My favorite used to be Mark Steyn appearances on Tucker. Only thing: one Leftist, be it Juan Williams, Marie Harf used to be enough to totally stink up that show. It finally became just Tucker, after Bret Baier started defending the way Chris Wallace moderated the debate, but by then, the writing was on the wall
If one has a TV, there sure is Newsmax, but if one watches videos on YouTube or Rumble, there are so many – the Daily Wire columnists Shapiro, Walsh, Owens and Knowles, or even others like Dave Rubin, Vivek Ramaswamy and so on
Westman says
Fox likely made a mistake to settle the lawsuit so quickly. By guarding its software as proprietary and not allowing its inspection by more than one 3rd party, outside chosen, software expert, Dominion actually cannot prove its programs are free of bugs that could affect an election. It just becomes a confidence-game trial.
It is a mantra in the programing community that no software is error-free. Fox could have appealed this until another company, employing AI to write code, ate Dominion’s lunch. Dominion is likely finished since winning a trial won’t restore confidence in computer-based voting systems. It is still possible that there may come a later whistle-blower who claims to have information. We certainly see this phenomenon in politics.
I expect that Tucker Carlson will be joining the likes of Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, Victor Hansen, Joe Rogan, etc. The Murdochs don’t seem to realize that people are looking away from the declining news “majors” who are now seen as propaganda arms for the interests of their owners.
Tucker Carlson does extensive research and is willing to change his outlook when facts dictate. He is likely to become more influential in the future, in concert with other realists.
James Lincoln says
Westman says,
“Fox likely made a mistake to settle the lawsuit so quickly. By guarding its software as proprietary and not allowing its inspection by more than one 3rd party, outside chosen, software expert, Dominion actually cannot prove its programs are free of bugs that could affect an election.”
I’m not an attorney, but from what I understand:
If this lawsuit would have proceeded, the issue of “discovery” would have forced Dominion to let the other side’s cyber experts thoroughly inspect their machines and software.
somehistory says
Back during the *election,* fox jumped in with a *win* for biden before the voting was over in AZ.
It won’t really matter who they put on if those seeking Truth don’t listen…because they won’t hear it there. They could hire chirs matthews, or rehire the wallace guy, or maybe rosie o. Perhaps they could offer whoopie more than she gets on her share of the *view.*
James Lincoln says
More than anyone else, Tucker Carlson epitomized Fox News.
By “letting him go”, Fox has moved from center-right to center-left – and is definitely no longer a credible news source.
Viewers – including myself – are now flocking to Newsmax for their general news.
Westman says
“..Tucker Carlson epitomized Fox News” True. His firing was the kind of decision only an elitist owner would make, like Henry Ford II firing Lee Iacocca.
James Lincoln says
Yes, Westman.
And, as we know, Iacocca then went to Chrysler and rescued the automaker from near-bankruptcy – with the help of a $1.2 billion federal loan which was fully paid back five years later…