Yesterday morning, Fox News made the shocking, surprise announcement that they and Tucker Carlson were parting ways. On his Friday show, Tucker said he’d be back on Monday, so it was surprising and unexpected to his fans. It was also a “terrible move,” according to Megyn Kelly.
Speaking during the opening of her Sirius XM “The Megyn Kelly Show” podcast, she said:
“This is a terrible move by Fox and it’s a great thing for Tucker Carlson. I don’t know what drove Fox News to make this decision and it was clearly Fox News’ decision because they are not letting him say goodbye. That’s my supposition.”
Continuing, she said that Fox News’ settlement with Dominion Voting Systems happened because the channel had called Arizona too soon and then was trying to make up for that with its more conservative base by attacking Dominion. In her words: “They called Arizona too soon … they were under pressure by their audience to reverse the call. The audience started to leave them in droves because they felt betrayed like they didn’t understand the mission of Fox News, which is to be fair to especially the Republicans who don’t get a fair shake on other channels.”
Continuing, she added, “And they [Fox] went into a panic as the audience started to flee. Then they overcorrected. By covering the bulls*** claims about Dominion as though they were plausible and gave way too much credence to some of those claims on the air.”
However, she added that Tucker leaving was probably not part of Fox News’ settlement with Dominion, as that is not an issue he really talked about, saying, “He was not the reason for that $800 million settlement. … They get rid of Tucker? Talk about misjudging your audiences yet again … I think this is a massive error.”
Then, speaking about Tucker, she said that he will be better off without being part of Fox News, saying, “I firmly believe Tucker will be better off. I think these cable networks are dinosaurs … getting out under the thumb of the big corporate management is a blessing. It is a blessing and I know he’s smart enough to know that.”
That echoed what she said on Twitter: “Good for Tucker. Trust me, he doesn’t need them.”
Good for Tucker. Trust me, he doesn’t need them. https://t.co/NjFqqsIV4q
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) April 24, 2023
Fox News, in its statement released on Monday morning about it and Tucker parting ways, said:
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. Fox News Tonight will air live at 8 PM/ET starting this evening as an interim show helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.
FOX News Media operates the FOX News Channel (FNC), FOX Business Network (FBN), FOX News Digital, FOX News Audio, FOX News Books, the direct-to-consumer streaming services FOX Nation and FOX News International and the free ad-supported television service FOX Weather. Currently the number one cable network, FNC has been the most watched television news channel for more than 21 consecutive years, while FBN ranks among the top business channels on cable. Fox Corporation owns FOX News Media, which reaches nearly 200 million people monthly.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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