Tucker Carlson will no longer be able to carry on his self-generated battle against lying, pomposity, smugness, and groupthink at Fox News Channel.
Carlson, Fox News Channel’s most-watched primetime host, will leave the network in an abrupt and surprise exit, leaving the network without a fill-in for one of its most popular hours and with dozens of questions hanging over it as it grapples with pressures resulting from a $787 million settlement it will have to pay to Dominion Voting Systems
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the company said in a statement Monday. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” A spokeswoman for Fox News declined to elaborate.
Carlson will not appear on Fox News again in his current role. His last broadcast, Fox News said, took place on Friday –meaning he will not be given the opportunity to bid viewers farewell.
The host’s exit comes just days after corporate parent Fox Corp. agreed to pay $787.5 million in a settlement to Dominion Voting Systems after being accused of defaming the ballot-technology company by passing along specious conspiracy theories about its role in the 2020 presidential election. Carlson, who has passed along reports tilting at the veracity of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2020 and filled Fox News’ 8 p.m. hour with a litany of diatribes against subjects ranging from Black Lives Matter to Senator Tammy Duckworth over the years, was expected to have to testify in the matter and the goings-on at his show were expected to be analyzed in a separate suit Fox is navigating involving Abby Grossman, a former producer.
Fox News appears to be cleaning house of some of its most rightward-leaning elements. Last week, the network failed to come to renewal terms with weekend host Dan Bongino, a popular pundit in ultra-conservative circles.
More to come…