In January 2021, Tucker Carlson told a Fox News affiliate that he hated Donald Trump “obsessively”. But less than 2 months ago he was singing a dramatically different tune, newly leaked texts reveal.
In exchange with your senior producer, Retrieved by The Daily Beast — yes, that’s yet more leaked evidence that emerged during discovery in the Dominion defamation lawsuit against Fox News — the recently fired host was so upset about the unusually negative coverage Fox was giving Trump that he said he was “happy to start threatening people” to stop it.
The text exchange took place on November 19, 2020, as Fox News was facing a sharp drop in ratings due to an exodus of viewers, angered by what it (accurately) called an election for Joe Biden and then – tentatively formally – refused to endorse Trump’s incessant lying. about the loss.
The day before, Fox published This story about Trump’s decision To hold the annual presidential “forgiveness” of Türkiye. The article’s opening paragraph said it was happening, “despite the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country and the ongoing turmoil over President Trump’s refusal to elect him.”
Carlson’s producer Justin Wells was apoplectic. “pop that open all the way. this is our network [sic] Official Instagram feed. Actually 4-5 different swipes on Trump to pardon Turkey. It’s really unbelievable. We are trying to provoke people unnecessarily. We can’t all fix Fox, but there is a ‘systemic’ issue here (to use an overused phrase in 2020.),” he wrote, according to the Daily Beast.
“If this continues we will not be successful. The brand will suffer a lot. Let us jump to some examples to send a clear message. Let’s start with this. Can we find out who did this?” Carlson replied “I’m happy to start bullying people personally. it’s too much. And once again, if we continue with this, it will do us a lot of harm.”
Wells, according to the Daily Beast, said he would “find someone to do it.” After further discussion of possible topics for that night’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and more complaints about how the network was covering Trump, Carlson vowed, “We have to get this under control. ” Wells then noted that if Carlson’s ratings remained high even though the rest of the network suffered, it would give him more leverage over the network in terms of programming and compensation.
And in fact, as the Daily Beast notes, in February 2021, Carlsen signed a new 4 year contract reportedly paid him the same as much as $20 million per year,
As became abundantly clear thanks to the leaked evidence during the Dominion trial, Fox soon had enough and its biggest stars began telling lies about the Trump election. He of course carlson was involvedWho still tried to express uncertainty about it.
Sure that content cost Fox News roughly $800 million, but the lawsuit also exposed a number of damning details about Carlson that gave the conservative network a number of justifications for cutting ties with him.
Carlson was arguably Fox News’ biggest star, a success fueled by fringe conspiracy theories and frankly hateful rhetoric. As The New York Times once put it, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was possibly “the most racist show in the history of cable news”.
Since Carlson was fired on April 24, Fox’s primetime ratings in his time slot have declined significantly.