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Tag: tucker carlson

  • FBI Raid of Tampa Journalist Connected to Tucker Carlson Leaked Clips

    FBI Raid of Tampa Journalist Connected to Tucker Carlson Leaked Clips

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    FBI agents raided the Tampa home of Tim Burke, a former journalist who runs a media and political consulting firm, at 6 a.m. on May 8 and spent nearly 10 hours seizing computers, a phone, and other electronic equipment. At the time, Burke declined to share the search warrant with media outlets, and the FBI refused to provide any information about the raid. 

    But on Friday, the Tampa Bay Times reported that the raid was connected to leaked clips of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that went viral over the past year.

    The Times reportedly obtained a letter sent by U.S. assistant attorney Jay Trezevant to Fox News that describes an ongoing criminal probe into hacks at the company. Though the letter doesn’t mention Burke or accuse him of any wrongdoing, the Times was able to confirm that the raid was related to the probe. Burke declined to comment after the Times contacted him and read parts of the letter. 

    The criminal probe, the Times reports, “concerns allegations of unauthorized computer access; interception of wire, oral or electronic communication; conspiracy; and other federal crimes.” According to the letter, the hacked material refers to footage of Carlson published by Vice and Media Matters for America. The Vice clip, published in October, includes parts of an interview Carlson conducted with rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, that were cut from the ultimate broadcast in which the artist made a number of antisemitic statements. 

    The Media Matters clips were published in quick succession during the week after Carlson’s ouster in April. They capture the former host making a number of vulgar comments, including proposing to discuss “the fine points” of sexual technique with British newscaster Piers Morgan, calling a Dominion Voting Systems lawyer a “slimy little motherfucker,” and asking his makeup artist about pillow fights in the women’s bathroom. 

    The federal prosecutor’s letter specifies that neither media company is accused of any wrongdoing, according to the Times. 

    The leaked footage has caused major headaches for Fox leadership. The Daily Beast reported that Fox executives were “full-on freaked out” about the Ye footage, and in early May, a Fox lawyer sent Media Matters a cease-and-desist letter, demanding it remove the leaked videos. The liberal media watchdog refused, and the clips remain on the site. 

    “Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation,” Media Matters president Angelo Carusone wrote in a statement at the time. “Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.”

    Around the time of the raid, Burke’s wife, Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, said the warrant was “solely related to my husband’s work as a journalist.” Burke worked from 2018 to 2019 as a video director for The Daily Beast, where much of his work focused on right-wing media. In a 2022 Netflix documentary, Burke revealed that he’d once been part of the online hacking group Anonymous. “I developed a reputation as somebody who finds things,” he said. 

    Since the raid, Burke’s 100-plus follower Twitter account has been dormant, and his personal and business websites no longer work, the Times reported. 

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    Jack McCordick

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  • Fox News’ Greatest Rifts, From Tucker Carlson to Donald Trump

    Fox News’ Greatest Rifts, From Tucker Carlson to Donald Trump

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    On this episode of Inside the Hive, host Brian Stelter checks in with Vanity Fair senior media correspondent Joe Pompeo and Washington Post national enterprise reporter Sarah Ellison about Tucker Carlson’s Twitter gamble, Donald Trump’s dysfunctional relationship with Fox News, and the idea of the former Fox News host teaming up with the former president for a candidate forum. 

    “If you put Tucker and Trump together in an unofficial forum [they] would just be hating on the Republicans,” Ellison said. “They’d be hating on Mitch McConnell. They would certainly talk a lot about how terrible the mainstream media is, and that would include Fox as well. It would just be a grievance fest…. These are two people who want to blow everything up.” 

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    Brian Stelter

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  • Tucker Carlson Sends Startlingly Self-Aware Text Message To Journalist

    Tucker Carlson Sends Startlingly Self-Aware Text Message To Journalist

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    Tucker Carlson confessed to being “fundamentally a dick” in a text exchange with a journalist.

    In messages that Insider’s Mattathias Schwartz tweeted Wednesday, the former Fox News personality responded to a question about a potential presidential run by saying he’d announce his campaign “Friday in New Hampshire.”

    When Schwartz asked if he could call Carlson to stand up the story, Carlson admitted he was “totally kidding.”

    Carlson, who has admitted to lying on the air, said sorry and added: “I can never control myself. I’m fundamentally a dick. My apologies.”

    “It’s okay,” replied Schwartz. “I can appreciate a good troll. So you’ve ruled 2024 out completely, it sounds like.”

    In a later tweet, Schwartz suggested Carlson’s hope “was that we would go with it and hit print based on the one text.”

    “But I don’t know that,” he added.

    Carlson was reportedly fired from Fox last month for a reason that remains unknown. He himself has not addressed a run for the White House, despite multiple commentators suggesting he may take on Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

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  • Tucker Carlson Is Daring Fox to Stop Him From Doing a Show on Twitter. Will the Network Bite?

    Tucker Carlson Is Daring Fox to Stop Him From Doing a Show on Twitter. Will the Network Bite?

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    Tucker Carlson began his comeback tour on Tuesday with a tweet proclaiming, “We’re back,” accompanied by a video, and a restyled website that showed him standing in the woods clutching a shotgun. The rollout achieved exactly what he wanted: lots of media buzz about his forthcoming Twitter show—The Wall Street Journal put the news on Wednesday’s front page—and loads of sign-ups for his mailing list.

    But Carlson’s most interesting move on Tuesday was made out of public view, within an hour of his Twitter post, and delivered by his attorney Bryan Freedman. In a letter to Fox executives, Freedman accused the network of violating its contract with Carlson and signaled that Carlson may sue. Excerpts from the letter suggest it was designed to make Fox Corp. CEO and former Carlson pal Lachlan Murdoch wince.

    On Monday, Carlson and Murdoch spoke for the first time since Carlson was terminated on April 24. (The New York Times was first to report on the call.) Murdoch has put himself through the wringer this spring: First, Fox reached a $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems due to the network’s postelection smears, and then it fired Carlson, which may or may not have been related to the Dominion case. Carlson’s ouster dinged Fox’s stock, which has yet to recover, and the Dominion payout caused the company to post a loss when it reported earnings on Tuesday. Logically, the first questioner on Fox’s quarterly investor call invoked the former network host. So it was revealing that Murdoch—fresh off his call with Carlson—did not repeat the man’s name; he did not thank him for the years of profits or wish him well. “There’s no change to our programming strategy at Fox News,” Murdoch claimed, even though Carlson’s removal was a seismic change. Then he touted strong advertiser interest in prime time, a possibly veiled smack at Carlson, whose show on the network, Tucker Carlson Tonight, was radioactive in corporate America.

    Murdoch’s “Tucker who?” act implied that Carlson was an artifact of the past. But the reality is, Carlson is going to shape Fox’s future—and vice versa. 

    In the immediate aftermath of his dethronement, Carlson stayed almost completely mum. He posted a short video on Twitter—best understood as an initial shot across the bow at Fox—and chatted with paparazzi near his home in Florida, but that was it. He was uncharacteristically well behaved, even as the network’s ratings at 8 p.m. fell to pre-9/11 levels and several Fox wannabes capitalized on his fan base’s anger. Some of his friends urged him to go “nuclear,” as one put it, but he resisted temptation day after day.

    Despite having his show canceled, Carlson has more than a year and a half remaining on his contract. He’s in a contractual position known as “pay or play,” meaning that Fox doesn’t have to “play” him by putting him on air, it just has to pay him until the last day of his contract. This provision sometimes means that TV stars have to sit on the bench for months or even years. But Carlson is not just any star; he became the biggest name on Fox News and sometimes seemed bigger than the network he was on. Carlson lorded over the Republican Party in ways that Sean Hannity would never dare. That’s who is in television’s equivalent of a rubber room right now. And he wants out—which explains Tuesday’s legal letter and Twitter announcement.

    Freedman foreshadowed the legal maneuver over the weekend by telling Axios that “the idea that anyone is going to silence Tucker and prevent him from speaking to his audience is beyond preposterous.”

    Since Carlson is technically still a Fox employee, the network can try to prevent him from speaking. Television hosts typically get permission from networks before going on podcasts, giving speeches, or generally speaking in public. Fox clearly doesn’t want to be in the Carlson business anymore, and there’s a world in which lawyers and agents discreetly draw up a termination agreement; Carlson could give up the money, Fox could give up its muzzle, and the two parties could go their separate ways. But this negotiation is complicated by the fact that Fox’s ratings have utterly collapsed in the wake of the canning. Carlson averaged about 3 million viewers at 8 p.m. ET on Fox. Half of them are now watching something else, or nothing at all, during that time slot. Fox must be afraid of Carlson taking his conspiracy-laden diatribes elsewhere, as he could become big competition for the network.

    It’s already clear that Fox was ill-prepared for the Carlson aftermath. When I watched Lawrence Jones serve as guest host in the 8 p.m. time slot last week, I thought he was the worst thing you can possibly be on television: boring. By Friday, Jones’s fifth and final night hosting, the 8 p.m. viewership sank to 90,000 in the key demographic of 25-to-54-year-olds. Fridays tend to be a slow TV night, but on the first Friday in April, Carlson had averaged 287,000 viewers in that demographic. I was so astonished by the decline that I sought out historical data. Turns out that Friday night saw Fox’s weakest non-holiday performance in the time slot, amongst that same demographic, since June 2001, before the September 11 terrorist attacks turned Fox into a flag-cradling cable news juggernaut.

    If Fox is slow-walking to keep Carlson off the air, ratings are the reason. Team Carlson definitely suspects as much. Last week, when I tweeted that “it’s fair to wonder if Fox wants to keep Carlson on the bench, and thus off any rival outlets, while it tries to rebuild its ratings by wooing Carlson’s ticked-off fans,” one of Carlson’s many allies saw it and texted me, “That’s exactly what they are doing.” Former Fox host Megyn Kelly, a longtime friend of Carlson’s, voiced it on Newsmax Monday night: “They have no intention of letting Tucker out of his contract.” She claimed the network wants him “silenced and sidelined.”

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    Brian Stelter

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  • Tucker Carlson announces new Twitter show after leaving Fox News

    Tucker Carlson announces new Twitter show after leaving Fox News

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    Washington — Three weeks after abruptly parting ways with Fox News, controversial TV anchor Tucker Carlson said he is launching a new show on Twitter, claiming the Elon Musk-owned social media platform is one of the few platforms that supports free speech. 

    “There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” he said in a three-minute video on Tuesday announcing his next step. “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one, is Twitter, where we are now. Twitter has long served as the place where our national conversation incubates and develops. Twitter is not a partisan site, everybody’s allowed here, and we think that’s a good thing.” 

    At the end of a monologue in which he told viewers that “the news you consume is a lie,” Carlson said he would be “bringing a new version of the show we’ve been doing for the last six and a half years” to the platform. 

    “We’re just grateful to be here,” he said. “Free speech is the main right that you have. Without it, you have no others.” 

    Musk on Tuesday tweeted, “I also want to be clear that we have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators.”

    “I hope that many others, particularly from the left, also choose to be content creators on this platform,” Musk added.

    Why did Tucker Carlson leave Fox?

    Fox News Media announced April 24 it was parting ways with Carlson, a major shakeup for the network given he was the channel’s most-watched anchor. The move came just days after Fox settled a defamation suit with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million, a case that unveiled messages sent by Tucker and other Fox personalities in the wake of the 2020 election. 

    The New York Times later reported that one message which was redacted in court filings contributed to Fox’s decision to part ways with Carlson. In that message, the anchor texted a producer about a video that showed a group of “Trump guys” attacking “an Antifa kid,” reportedly writing that “it’s not how white men fight.”

    Carlson and Fox News are also facing a lawsuit from Abby Grossberg, a former producer who alleges she endured a sexist and hostile environment while working for Carlson’s show and the network. Grossberg previously worked for CBS News from 2011 to 2014, and CBS News Radio from 2005 to 2007.

    Some conservative outlets were quick to court Carlson after his ouster, including One America News Network, BlazeTV and Rumble. 

    Carlson joined the network as a contributor in 2009 and then was a co-host of “Fox and Friends Weekend” from 2012 to 2016. “Tucker Carlson Tonight” debuted in November 2016. 

    Caitlin Yilek

    Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital. Reach her at caitlin.yilek@cbsinteractive.com. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait

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  • Tucker Carlson Expressed Extreme Fear About His Job In Newly Reported Text

    Tucker Carlson Expressed Extreme Fear About His Job In Newly Reported Text

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    Tucker Carlson appeared to be concerned that Donald Trump’s election-denying antics in 2020 would trap him at Fox News for his whole career, according to texts obtained Monday by The Daily Beast’s Confider.

    “It’s so sad,” Carlson texted Fox News colleague Jesse Watters in 2020 about Trump. “He’s going to break some shit. He already is. Wish I knew where to run. But I’ll die here.”

    Carlson was fired last month by Fox News shortly after the conservative channel agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems related to Fox claims that voting machines were rigged against Trump in the 2020 presidential election. In texts that were part of Dominion’s lawsuit against his employer, Carlson was revealed to have privately disliked Trump and opposed his election lies while publicly promoting them. He also was found to have sent offensive messages about colleagues and executives that alarmed the Fox News brass.

    While his dialogue with Watters suggested Carlson was in a professional panic as Trump railed that the presidency was stolen from him after the election, Carlson also tried to protect Fox News’ standing with its audience.

    In another text reported by Confider on Monday, Carlson ripped Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich for contradicting the company line.

    “This girl apparently works for us in the ‘news’ division, though I’d be stunned if she’s ever broken a story,” he texted. “She was on Twitter last night calling out Hannity, and accusing Trump of planning to ‘steal’ the election. Can’t continue.”

    In their exchanges, Watters appeared to call for the dismissals of the more moderate Fox News personalities Chris Wallace and Neil Cavuto, Confider reports. “Wallace Cavuto and other [sic] have got to go. Need some fresh blood. Should hire some trump people,” Watters wrote to Carlson on Nov. 13, 2020.

    The Daily Beast reported last week that Carlson and news anchor Bret Baier frantically strategized damage control after Fox News correctly projected Arizona in favor of Joe Biden in the 2020 election and Fox News viewers were appalled.

    “We need to do something to reassure our core audience,” Carlson wrote in a text. “They’re our whole business model.”

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  • Fox Sends Media Matters a Cease and Desist Over Leaked Tucker Carlson Videos

    Fox Sends Media Matters a Cease and Desist Over Leaked Tucker Carlson Videos

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    Fox wants Media Matters for America to stop posting leaked behind-the scenes videos of former network host Tucker Carlson. A lawyer for Fox Corporation sent a cease-and-desist letter to the liberal-leaning watchdog Friday, demanding that the organization take down a series of articles published this week titled FOXLEAKS. The articles revealed previously unaired clips of Carlson bashing Fox Nation (“the site sucks”), proposing to discuss “the fine points” of sexual technique with British newscaster Piers Morgan, calling a Dominion Voting Systems lawyer a “slimy little motherfucker,” and asking his makeup artist about pillow fights in the women’s bathroom. In one of the clips, Carlson addresses Media Matters directly: “Hey, Media Matters for America, go fuck yourself.” It’s unclear how the organization obtained the footage, which Fox’s lawyer called “confidential intellectual property.”

    Media Matters President Angelo Carusone has rejected Fox’s demand to take down the leaked footage. “Reporting on newsworthy leaked material is a cornerstone of journalism. For Fox to argue otherwise is absurd and further dispels any pretense that they’re a news operation,” Carusone wrote in a statement. “Perhaps if I tell them that the footage came from a combination of WikiLeaks and Hunter Biden’s laptop, it will alleviate their concerns.” On Twitter, Carusone added that Fox’s original letter mistakenly said that the corporation “does consent” to further distribution of the Carlson footage. Fox, per Carusone, had to send a second letter to fix the mistake.

    Carlson was abruptly fired from Fox on April 24, less than a week after the conservative media behemoth settled a massive $787 million defamation case with Dominion. Last week, The New York Times reported that in the lead-up to the trial, Fox executives discovered private messages that showed Carlson “making highly offensive and crude remarks that went beyond the inflammatory, often racist comments of his prime-time show,” which may have spurred Fox’s decision to settle. On Wednesday, the Times published one of these messages, in which Carlson described watching a group of Trump supporters attacking “an antifa kid” and lamented that the three-on-one beating was “not how white men fight.” 

    The Times reporting adds to a chorus of theories around Carlson’s ouster (including Vanity Fair’s Gabe Sherman reporting that Carlson’s “spiritual talk” was irking Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch). Whatever the reason, Carlson’s departure has seemingly already taken a toll on Fox’s ratings. According to reporting from The Washington Post, in the week after his firing, viewership on Fox’s 8 p.m. timeslot, which Carlson took over after Bill O’Reilly was pushed out in 2017 for sexual harassment allegations, dropped by almost half. In a statement to the Post, the network waved off the loss in viewership: “for more than 21 years, Fox News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories,” the company said.

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    Jack McCordick

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  • Texts From Tucker Carlson That Got Him Fired

    Texts From Tucker Carlson That Got Him Fired

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    “I hate the way you talk to me, And the way you cut your hair. / I hate the way you drive my car, I hate it when you stare. / I hate your big dumb combat boots, and the way you read my mind. / I hate you so much it makes me sick, It even makes me rhyme. / I hate the way you’re always right, I hate it when you lie. / I hate it when you make me laugh, Even worse when you make me cry. / I hate it when you’re not around, And the fact that you didn’t call. / But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you, Not even close, Not even a little bit, Not even at all.”

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  • Lawrence O’Donnell Dismantles The Ugly Question In Tucker Carlson’s Vile Text

    Lawrence O’Donnell Dismantles The Ugly Question In Tucker Carlson’s Vile Text

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    MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell on Wednesday explained why he doesn’t buy Tucker Carlson’s apparent soul-searching at the end of his newly-unearthed text message in which the former Fox News host said three white men attacking an “Antifa kid” were “dishonorable” because it’s “not how white men fight.”

    In the message, Carlson also confessed that while watching footage of the beating he wanted the kid to be killed. But he then claimed an “alarm went off” in his brain. “I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed,” he wrote. “If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”

    O’Donnell called Carlson’s, “How am I better than he is?” question, “his version of white supremacist introspection.”

    Carlson, suggested O’Donnell, just asked it rhetorically.

    “He means, ‘I am better than he is.’ And that is Tucker Carlson’s right-wing, religious belief about the world. Posed with fake introspection as a question,” he added.

    Fox News announced it had parted ways with Carlson last week. Multiple media outlets report Carlson was fired. The exact circumstances remain murky. Some newspapers have suggested the text led to his departure, although O’Donnell insisted there “must be more” to it considering Carlson’s long history of making offensive, racist and xenophobic comments on air.

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  • Mehdi Hasan Nails Why Latest Tucker Carlson Report ‘Doesn’t Add Up’

    Mehdi Hasan Nails Why Latest Tucker Carlson Report ‘Doesn’t Add Up’

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    In the message reported by The New York Times, Carlson described watching a video in which three white men attacked an “Antifa kid.” He said the men were “dishonorable” because that’s “not how white men fight.”

    Carlson also admitted he wanted them to murder the kid, then seemed to feel bad about that wish.

    Hasan told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace that “you can’t not be shocked by this stuff” but added that it’s “not that surprising” given Carlson’s history.

    The network instead stood by him.

    Hasan also noted other racist comments made by Carlson on the air.

    “You just have to wonder: Was the Fox board not watching ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ for the last few years?” he asked, adding:

    “It’s been five years, Nicolle, since the Daily Stormer ― the neo-Nazi website ― said that Tucker Carlson is our greatest ally and ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ is basically Daily Stormer: The TV Show. Not sure if the Fox board were paying attention when they said that five years ago.”

    “I don’t think this is the full story yet,” he concluded.

    Fox News parted ways with its star host last week just days after the right-wing network agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit over lies about the 2020 presidential election.

    It did not give a reason.

    See more of Hasan’s conversation with Wallace below:

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  • Fox News Guest And Satanist Has Hell Of A Good Time Trolling Outlet Over Lawsuit

    Fox News Guest And Satanist Has Hell Of A Good Time Trolling Outlet Over Lawsuit

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    The devil made him do it. (Watch the video below.)

    The co-founder of The Satanic Temple on Tuesday ribbed Fox News host Lawrence Jones about the channel’s massive lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems.

    Lucien Greaves appeared on the right-wing channel after a federal judge ruled the After School Satan Club sponsored by Greaves’ organization could proceed on public school grounds despite a Pennsylvania school district’s objections.

    Jones asked Greaves about the clubs and the guest mostly declined to answer, he said, because the matter was still in the courts.

    “What do you seek to do in schools all across America?” Jones asked.

    “Well, I won’t speak to the issues of what we do in school,” Greaves answered. “If we’re gonna have a discussion about litigation that nobody wants to have, I have 787.5 million questions for you.”

    That, of course, was the dollar amount Fox News agreed to pay Dominion for repeatedly and falsely claiming that its machines were rigged against Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

    Jones, who was filling the fired Tucker Carlson’s time slot while the network decides on a new host, pressed on about the temple’s philosophy, and Greaves said it was advocating freedom from religious superstition. (The Satanic Temple says on its website that it is “non-theistic” and “non-supernaturalist.”)

    Asked by Jones whom he would endorse for president, Greaves replied: “Well, as a spokesperson for a religious organization, I certainly would not endorse any politician whatsoever … I think churches should start shutting their mouths when it comes to politics as direct as endorsing particular candidates.”

    Greaves jabbed at the right-wing channel and its fallen prime-time star before the interview.

    “My one-stop gloating I-Outlasted-Tucker-Carlson victory tour will take place tonight on Fox News during Tucker’s old time slot around 8:20pm live with Lawrence Jones,” he wrote on Twitter.

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  • New York Times Obtains Tucker Carlson Text That Contributed To Removal From Fox News

    New York Times Obtains Tucker Carlson Text That Contributed To Removal From Fox News

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    The New York Times obtained a copy of a text message Tucker Carlson sent to his producers that set off an internal “crisis” just before the company settled a mammoth defamation case and ultimately fired the prime-time host.

    Carlson, who until last month was Fox News’ golden boy, texted one of his producers in the hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that he had recently watched a video of someone being beaten by three white men. The host described the men as “Trump guys” surrounding an “Antifa kid” before “pounding the living shit out of him.”

    “It was three against one, at least,” Carlson wrote in the message, which had been redacted in court filings. “Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.”

    Carlson went on to say that an “alarm went off” in his brain and he realized he shouldn’t gloat over the victim’s beating but instead be bothered by it. He did not describe the race of the victim.

    “I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed,” he continued. “If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”

    The revelation adds new context to Carlson’s departure from the network.

    The Times reported last week that Fox News executives and board members were stunned after learning about “highly offensive” messages Carlson sent that went beyond the racist, inflammatory rhetoric on his prime-time show. Fox lawyers uncovered the missives as they prepared for the company’s defense against Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against the media company, but senior executives only learned of them a day before the trial was set to begin. It’s unclear why the top brass hadn’t seen the messages until the eleventh hour.

    Regardless, the Times, citing sources familiar with Fox’s internal discussions, said Carlson’s texts set off a “crisis” and were a key point in the company’s decision to settle with Dominion for $787.5 million and avoid a potentially embarrassing trial.

    On Tuesday, the Times reported that the Fox board worried the Carlson text could become public at trial and add to a string of damaging revelations in the weeks leading up to the Dominion trial.

    The content of the message echoed Carlson’s inflammatory rhetoric on his weeknight program.

    The host regularly embraced white nationalist talking points and promoted racist “great replacement” conspiracy theories centering on false claims that white Americans are being intentionally replaced by immigrants and people of color. Just last month he suggested that a Black lawmaker in Tennessee spoke like a “sharecropper.”

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  • Tucker Carlson Once Again Forces People to Contemplate Him Having Sex

    Tucker Carlson Once Again Forces People to Contemplate Him Having Sex

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    Less than a week before he was unceremoniously fired by Fox News, Tucker Carlson took to the airwaves for an extremely uncomfortable conversation with Elon Musk in which he declared that “the urge to have sex and procreate is, after breathing and eating, the most basic urge.” Those were a series of words most people probably hoped to never hear from the conservative pundit again—and yet despite his booting from prime time, we’re still being forced to listen to the guy talk about sex.

    In behind-the-scenes footage leaked to Media Matters, Carlson tells Fox Nation host Piers Morgan, who he was about to be interviewed by, “If we’re going to talk about sex, I’d love to hit some of the fine points of technique, but, you know, but it’s your show. It’s totally up to you.” Laughing, Morgan replies, “We can certainly talk about your sexual technique, especially after your tanning testicles last week,” referring to Carlson’s special, the “End of Men,” which included a segment encouraging men to tan their balls. Carlson then responds, “Not mine! We’ll speak in more general terms, but I’ve got something to add.”

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    In other footage obtained by Media Matters, Carlson is heard telling someone off-camera, “I’m not, you know what, I’m not qualified on that score. I will say, I thought his girlfriend was kind of yummy.” In a separate clip, he says, “I can never assess my appearance. I wait for my postmenopausal fans to weigh in on that.” The New York Times had previously reported the existence of such videos, noting last week that “Given how polarizing he has been, both inside and outside Fox News, more evidence of embarrassing and inappropriate conduct could emerge.”

    While it is unclear how Media Matters obtained the cringe clips in question, eight sources at and close to Rupert Murdoch’s network recently told Rolling Stone that Fox News executives “have in their possession a dossier of alleged dirt on Tucker Carlson should he attack the network in the wake of his departure.”

    Curious lack of mentions here re: him trying to steal a second term via insurrection

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    And now let’s hear from the “everything Clarence Thomas did was fine” crowd

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    Bess Levin

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  • Week In Review: April 30, 2023

    Week In Review: April 30, 2023

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  • Biden Torches Fox News, Tucker Carlson At White House Correspondents’ Dinner

    Biden Torches Fox News, Tucker Carlson At White House Correspondents’ Dinner

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    President Joe Biden didn’t hold back his swipes at Fox News and its recently-“finished” host Tucker Carlson during a White House Correspondents’ Association dinner speech on Saturday.

    The president made several sharp quips into his remarks about a number of Republicans – including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) – as he also found time to take aim at Carlson just days after his surprise firing at the network.

    “The truth is, we really have a record to be proud of: vaccinated the nation, transformed the economy, earned historic legislative victories and midterm results. But the job isn’t finished, I mean, it is finished for Tucker Carlson,” Biden said as the D.C. crowd gasped.

    “What are you ooo’ing about like that. Like you think that’s not reasonable? Give me a break.”

    Biden later roasted Fox News personalities and the network’s recent $787.5 million defamation lawsuit settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, a settlement that included a statement from Fox on its “commitment to the highest journalistic standards.”

    “It’s great that cable news networks are here tonight, MSNBC owned by NBCUniversal, Fox News owned by Dominion Voting Systems,” he said.

    “Last year, your favorite Fox News reporters were able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted. This year, with that $787.5 million settlement, they’re here because they couldn’t say no to a free meal. And hell, I’d call Fox honest, fair and truthful. But then I could be sued for defamation.”

    The president, elsewhere in his remarks, claimed that it’s “simply not true” if someone thinks he doesn’t like Fox founder Rupert Murdoch before stacking himself up against the multi-billionaire.

    “How could I dislike a guy who makes me look like Harry Styles? Call me old? I call it being seasoned. You say I’m ancient, I say I’m wise,” said Biden as he made a nod to concerns about his age.

    The evening was headlined by “The Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr., who poked fun at politics in Washington and members of the media including Carlson.

    You can watch more clips from Biden’s roast at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner below.

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  • Republicans Tucker Carlson Dissed Insist the Fox Host Wasn’t Actually That Important

    Republicans Tucker Carlson Dissed Insist the Fox Host Wasn’t Actually That Important

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    Just about everyone in Washington has an opinion on Tucker Carlson losing his top-rated perch at Fox News. Democratic lawmakers, as well as anonymous officials at the Department of Defense who spoke to Politico, have unsurprisingly wished him good riddance. Donald Trump was of course torn up that the TV host was no longer on air, calling it a “big blow” to cable news, as did many of his loudest congressional allies. Senator Ron Johnson called Carlson’s exit a “huge loss,” Representative Lauren Boebert announced that she stands with Carlson, and Senator J.D. Vance hailed him “the most courageous person in American media.” 

    After all, as much as Carlson’s show was crafted for a mass audience, the host appeared to fashion himself as some kind of MAGA-whisperer for Republicans. Whether it’s his push for Kevin McCarthy to create a “new Frank Church Committee” to investigate the FBI and intelligence community (which McCarthy eventually did do) or his call to end billions in aid to Ukraine (a position many right-wingers have taken), there’s always been a chicken-and-egg situation between Carlson’s monologues and the right-wing agenda on Capitol Hill. Carlson either emboldened hard-line stances, or hard-liners tuned in to figure out what position to stake out next. No wonder so many MAGA-aligned officials are so upset by his unceremonious exit.

    But then there are the Republicans Carlson didn’t like. Notably, some in the Republican establishment—a set the host often disparaged to his millions of fans—are waving off his ouster as a non-story. 

    Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who recently called Carlson’s downplaying of the January 6 attack on the Capitol “bullshit,” basically said the host was irrelevant. “You have got to think about the scale—I know he had an audience of three million people. There are 330 million people in the country,” Tillis told Politico. Tillis insisted that while cable news hosts sway what lawmakers “think is wrong,” they have less impact on how they choose to “make things better” (think “noise-shaped air” from the television show Veep).

    Senator John Thune, the second-ranking Senate Republican, argued Carlson might have been an influencer, but that it didn’t amount to much actual change. “National security issues, those are for most members a responsibility they take very seriously,” he told Politico. “And, yes, there are influencers out there. But I don’t think, one way or the other, that swings votes.”

    Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican who Carlson dubbed “eye-patch McCain” due to his injured right eye and his support for upping US aid to Ukraine, was not so delicate. “I’ve shed many tears over Tucker Carlson losing the show—many, many tears,” he said in a statement to Politico that he noted was “really fucking sarcastic.”

    Carlson’s ideological bent—most recently, at least—aligned far more with the isolationist paleoconservatism of Pat Buchanan than the neoconservatism that has dominated the GOP since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. This put him in direct conflict with many establishment Republicans, particularly over foreign policy. It also helped make him the most popular and influential movement ideologue in the naissance of Trump’s presidency in January 2017, just after Carlson, coincidentally, launched his show on Fox. He often vouched for the former president’s unorthodox foreign policy views, like his defense of Trump’s close relationship with Kim Jong Un and his shrugging off of Jamal Khashoggi’s assassination by the Saudi state, while pricking Senate minority leader Mitch McConnelltop Pentagon officials, and Bush-era holdovers like David Frum and Stephen Hayes. , 
      
    But just as Trump hasn’t gone anywhere, Republicans like Crenshaw and Tillis who traded barbs with Carlson, likely aren’t rid of him yet. He already has experience creating his own streaming talk show and documentaries outside of prime time, and other conservative news networks are reportedly clamoring for his services. Moreover, chatter of Carlson’s potential as a White House contender has naturally increased since his Fox exit. As of now, though, no one else at the network has managed to strike fear, rage, or much emotion at all in the GOP establishment quite like Carlson, whose old 8 p.m. time slot is being filled by bench players while Fox searches for a long-term replacement.

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    Caleb Ecarma

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  • Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon Are Out but Not Down

    Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon Are Out but Not Down

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    Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon operated on different channels that sometimes seemed like different realities. But each television host became a recurring character on the other man’s show.

    On Fox News, Carlson deliberately mispronounced Lemon’s name for years; sneered at Lemon’s comments about being a Black man in America; and labeled Lemon “a guy who makes millions of dollars a year from presiding over a show that’s failing.” Just about two months ago, Carlson called Lemon “dumb and kinda crazy.”

    On CNN, Lemon accused Carlson of poisoning Fox’s audience with hateful lies. He said Carlson mainstreamed “white supremacist propaganda to your neighbors and your family members.” And he said Carlson did it for the money and power, likening his coverage to a “ratings grift.”

    This cable news crossfire is relevant because, as you well know by now, both men were fired by their respective networks this week. It was a coincidence for the cable ages. When the Carlson news broke at 11:28 a.m. on Monday, the Lemon drop was already in motion. Lemon went public at 12:14 p.m. by tweeting a statement saying that he had just been terminated. So now these adversaries are forever linked. And I can’t help but marvel at how much they have in common right now.

    No, this is not going to be one of those irresponsible false-equivalence pieces that claims Carlson and Lemon were equally polarizing. Fox and CNN are two different species producing two different types of products for two very different audiences. But the similarities between the two situations are stacking up. Carlson and Lemon know it: They have been texting back and forth in the past few days, according to two sources with knowledge of the relationship.

    By “relationship,” I do not mean friendship. Far from it. The two men have never met, and they likely didn’t have much to discuss until recently. They live very different lives: Carlson, with his wife of nearly 32 years, Susan, spends time in rural Maine and on the Gulf Coast of Florida, eschewing the Manhattan and Hamptons social scene that Lemon and his fiancé, Tim Malone, inhabit. The first photos of Carlson after his sacking showed him riding through Boca Grande in a golf cart, while Lemon walked the red carpet at the Time100 Gala.

    But there is an obvious kinship that comes from being shoved from such a lofty perch at precisely the same time on the same day.

    The first commonality between the two cases was the speed: Carlson, age 53, and Lemon, 57, were both notified by phone that their services were no longer needed, and both stories broke almost immediately. Fox management reportedly wanted to issue a joint statement with Carlson, according to one of his friends, but Carlson rejected that. Similarly, CNN management wanted to roll out the Lemon news in coordination with him, perhaps by issuing cordial time-synced statements, but Lemon rebuffed that and announced it on his own. “It is clear that there are some larger issues at play,” Lemon said in his statement, perhaps implying that he was fired for political reasons.

    The next commonality came out within hours. When I caught wind that both men had retained the same lawyer, the LA-based entertainment litigator Bryan Freedman, I called Freedman’s office and reached his assistant, who sounded surprised when I told her what I planned to report. I surmised that both clients were so new, so freshly fired, that word hadn’t gotten around yet. Freedman tends not to talk publicly about his clients, and hasn’t publicly commented about Lemon or Carlson, but he has a similar objective in both cases: to secure money and freedom for his clients.

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    Brian Stelter

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  • Jimmy Kimmel Taunts Tucker Carlson With Supercut Of His Own Dumbest Segments

    Jimmy Kimmel Taunts Tucker Carlson With Supercut Of His Own Dumbest Segments

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    “These texts were said to be so offensive Fox didn’t know whether to fire Carlson or to give him another hour on primetime,” Kimmel cracked. “It’s easy to forget how much Tucker Carlson has accomplished over his career. He’s been fired by Fox, CNN, MSNBC and PBS. That’s like the EGOT of cable news.”

    Earlier this week, Carlson released an odd video in which he complained about how “unbelievably stupid” TV debates are, saying “they mean nothing.”

    “I agree,” Kimmel said. “Wait until you hear about this guy named Tucker Carlson. You are gonna hate him.”

    Carlson said the “big topics” get no airtime on TV.

    “Right, right, the big topics,” Kimmel shot back. “The important subjects ― like these.”

    Kimmel played a supercut video of Carlson’s segments on leprechauns, manboobs, zombie raccoons and more.

    Check it out in the Thursday night monologue:

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  • ‘Daily Show’ Guest Host Desi Lydic Answers Tucker Carlson’s Clueless Complaint

    ‘Daily Show’ Guest Host Desi Lydic Answers Tucker Carlson’s Clueless Complaint

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    “Just like the Unabomber,” she added.

    Carlson in his video said he found there are “genuinely nice people in this country” once he was able to “step outside the noise.”

    “Buddy, you are the noise,” she shot back. “Your entire show was you being mean to people: trans people, immigrants, women, lady M&Ms. Tucker complaining about people being mean is like Guy Fieri complaining about how there are no salad shows.”

    See more in her Thursday night monologue:

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  • What’s next for Fox News following Tucker Carlson’s unceremonious exit?

    What’s next for Fox News following Tucker Carlson’s unceremonious exit?

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    Fox News shocked viewers and media pundits this week when the network announced that it was parting ways with its biggest star, Tucker Carlson. Yet while his departure risks alienating loyal viewers of the popular host, it could also open the door for the broadcaster to attract more mainstream advertisers and bolster its bottom line.

    Carlson’s program had previously been the focus of advertiser boycotts, with major companies such as AstraZeneca and Pacific Life backing away from his show due to his sexist and racist comments. But as Fox News’ top draw, Carlson continued on unscathed — until Monday. 

    The exact reasons for his departure remain unclear, although The Wall Street Journal (which is owned by Fox News corporate parent Fox Corp.) reported that “vulgar, offensive messages” about his colleagues that were unearthed in the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit had contributed to his ouster. Whatever the case, Carlson’s absence in the 8 p.m. hour could open the door for Fox News to attract the type of advertisers that have been missing from the primetime slot, analysts said. 

    “[T]he long game here is probably the ad game,” wrote Huber Research analyst Doug Arthur in a research note this week. “The highly partisan cable news shows — on both sides — have weak advertising and questionable ad mix. Direct response seems to make up a lot of the ads.”

    Direct response ads are spots that ask viewers to contact the company to order a product, such as by calling a toll-free number or ordering a product from a website featured in the ad. These types of ads range from old-school “infomercials,” like those for the Snuggie or Thighmaster, to current ads from the likes of My Pillow, the company run by election conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell.

    Direct response ads typically aren’t used by the nation’s top marketers, such as Coca-Cola or Procter & Gamble, big corporations that rely on branding strategies featuring 30-second commercials on mainstream TV shows, typically with higher production values.

    On “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” advertisers had largely dwindled to spots from either Fox News or Fox Nation or offbeat direct marketing companies by the end of 2021, according to industry publication TVRev. My Pillow had the second-largest number of ads on the show after Fox News/Fox Nation, the site found.

    “Less ‘My Pillow’ stuff”

    Direct advertising was called out as “softer” in Fox Corp.’s most recent earnings call, an issue the company said had hurt its news division. 

    “Blue-chip advertising — or where the money is — seem to overtly shy away from the highly partisan cable news shows,” Arthur wrote. “Advertising trends at Fox’s cable segment have been weak/disappointing — despite leading ratings.”

    At the same time, like other broadcasters Fox News has been hurt by cord-cutting, with millions of consumers canceling their cable subscriptions in favor of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. That puts a premium on boosting affiliate fees, which are paid by cable companies to TV networks and which are based on the number of customers who receive a particular network.

    The double-whammy of weaker direct marketing advertising and greater pressure on affiliate fees may make a switch to a less controversy-prone anchor more appetizing, as it could help lure back marketers with deeper pockets.

    “[A] shift away from fanatical conspiracy content, less “My Pillow” stuff, might begin to re-attract big-time advertisers,” Arthur said. 

    Ratings plunge

    For Fox News, of course, the obvious risk is that it won’t be able to replicate the blockbuster ratings of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” Early evidence indicates the audience for that hour has plunged since Carlson’s last show on Friday. 

    The 8 p.m. slot, now held by “Fox News Tonight,” drew 2.6 million on Monday night and 1.7 million viewers on Tuesday night, the first two days following Carlson’s ouster, according to AdWeek. That represents a decline of 2% and 36%, respectively, from the 2.65 million viewers who watched Carlson’s final show on April 21. 

    Some Fox News viewers are vowing to boycott the network to protest the host’s departure, decrying the network’s decision as “woke.” 

    “Fox News sure will learn not to go woke!!! BOYCOTT BOYCOTT!!!,” one user wrote on Twitter. 

    Still, analysts doubt that Fox News is in immediate danger of losing its leadership in primetime, pointing to the network’s ability to weather the loss of previous stars such as Bill O’Reilly, who exited Fox in 2017 after sexual harassment allegations.

    What’s next for Carlson?

    Carlson will likely have plenty of opportunities within the conservative realm, with suitors such as One America News Network, a Fox News competitor, extending an open invitation on Twitter. The network wrote, “Maybe Fox News’ loss could be OANN’s gain.”   

    By contrast, it’s “inconceivable” that Carlson would join a mainstream media network, Andrew Tyndall of the Tyndall Report, which analyzes television news, told CBS MoneyWatch.

    “He has already tried and failed at CNN & MSNBC & PBS … and that was in the days when he was a conventional conservative, before he became an unreconstructed white supremacist propagandist,” Tyndall said in an email. “If Shepard Smith and Megyn Kelly — much more mainstream figures — could not make the transition from [Fox News Channel] to NBC News successfully, there is no chance that a radical like Carlson can.”


    Fox News and Tucker Carlson part ways and Don Lemon says he was fired from CNN

    05:15

    Instead, Carlson is more likely to join a “fringe radical right media operation, such as NewsMax or OANN,” or create his own media brand similar to Glenn Beck, who created BlazeTV after leaving Fox News, Tyndall said. Meanwhile, Beck has offered a job to Carlson. 

    Tyndall said he believes creating a Tucker Carlson-branded company might be the best fit for the former host. “If he decided to set up his own brand, Carlson could attract the capital and the audience required without any help from a pre-existing media operation,” he said.

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