Insiders at Fox News revealed that Rupert Murdoch’s son, Lachlan, was behind the firing of Tucker Carlson. Lachlan serves as chief executive of Fox Corporation.
Reports also identified that Suzanne Scott, chief executive of Fox News Media, decided to fire Carlson.
Carlson was the highest-rated cable news host in U.S. history at the time of his firing.
Variety and Axios reported that Carlson was fired as a condition of the network’s lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. Both Dominion and Fox Corp. have rejected this allegation.
WATCH: Rupert Murdoch is asked about the firing of Tucker Carlson.
“I didn’t do it…” pic.twitter.com/TnHCaOlXBm
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 22, 2023
An unnamed Fox News board member directly told Carlson that this condition of the settlement was an unwritten promise from Fox News to Dominion, according to the Variety report. It was not put down in writing as part of the official court documents.
Fox News agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million as part of the settlement, which is the largest media payout in history. Fox News was accused of airing false claims about Dominion’s equipment during the 2020 presidential election.
"[Dominion] got accountability…and they got justice and some measure of compensation for the company in the largest known defamation settlement in American history" Dominion attorney Stephen Shackelford on the Fox News settlement. #KatiePhangShow pic.twitter.com/lDEWJerDQN
— The Katie Phang Show (@katiephangshow) April 22, 2023
Dominion released a statement, saying, “As the Fox principals who negotiated the settlement well know, Dominion made no demands about Tucker Carlson’s employment orally or in writing. Any claims otherwise are categorically false and a thinly veiled effort to further damage Dominion. Fox should take every effort to stop these lies immediately.”
During other statements, the CEO of Dominion Voting Systems, John Poulos, as well as a lawyer for the company, Stephen Shackelford, appeared to take credit for the firing of Carlson, according to the Daily Mail.
“Dominion did not insist on them firing Tucker Carlson as part of the settlement,” Shackelford claimed. “But the very fact that that’s what resulted out of all of this, and it’s traceable from the work that Dominion set in motion.”
In the case, Dominion’s lawyers allegedly uncovered texts in which Fox hosts and journalists seemed to acknowledge that the fraud claims were not true or farfetched, but gave them airtime anyway.
Fox News and parent company Fox Corp have agreed a $787.5m settlement with voting machine firm Dominion.
Stephen Shackelford, co-lead counsel for Dominion, said: "Money is accountability and we got that today from Fox.
More: https://t.co/xgVDQsN3Y6 pic.twitter.com/c7Q5W6TCMc
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 18, 2023
“Of course I know what’s in the redacted stuff and I can’t say anything about it,” he added, referring to how much of the legal battle has been redacted, or hidden, from the public.
“I hope that it all gets un-redacted at some point,” Shackelford said.
This explanation for Carlson’s firing would make the most sense due to the timing of the two events.
If the public reporting is accurate that Dominion Voting Systems demanded that Tucker Carlson be fired as part of a litigation settlement, then I am happy that Dominion does not operate in Texas, and I don’t think that they should do so in the future. We may disagree with other’s…
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 13, 2023
Carlson hosted the nightly political talk show “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Fox News from 2016 to 2023.
Born in San Francisco, California, in 1969, Carlson went on to graduate from Yale University in 1992 and then worked as a writer for The Weekly Standard and other publications.
In 2000, he joined CNN as a commentator, and he co-hosted the network’s prime-time news debate program Crossfire from 2001 to 2005. From 2005 to 2008, he hosted the nightly program Tucker on MSNBC.
In 2009, Carlson joined Fox News as a political analyst. He began hosting his own show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, in 2016. The show quickly became one of the most popular programs on Fox News.
Despite his firing, Carlson undoubtedly remains one of the most influential voices in conservative media.
