From: allin
Tucker Carlson, a prominent television host, was fired from Fox News on April 24th [01:15:00]. The specific reason for his dismissal has “never been pinned down” [01:18:00].
Lack of Official Explanation
Carlson himself stated, “I don’t know why I was fired” [02:19:00], describing it as an “Agatha Christie story” with “so many suspects” [02:21:00]. He was never explicitly told the reason [02:27:00]. From a business perspective, the firing was described as “self-destructive” and “so weird” given Carlson was the top performer, and occurred without any prior “notes” or explanation [06:30:00]. Following his departure, Fox News’s ratings “cratered” [07:04:00].
Carlson’s Speculations and Stance
Carlson offered his own thoughts on why his departure might have occurred:
- Unpopular Opinions He speculated that he “had a lot of opinions that were unpopular” with people who “might have influenced my show getting canceled” [02:30:00].
- Advertiser Pressure While acknowledging that advertiser influence “defines news coverage especially on Pharma” [04:00:00] due to pharmaceutical companies being the “biggest Advertiser in television” [04:04:00], Carlson personally “never had a single person say to me don’t say this that I recall” [04:22:00]. He maintained a clear policy with his supervisors: “as long as I’m on TV I’m going to say what I think is true” [04:53:00], and would not “tow a line” [05:24:00].
- Controversial Positions He noted that during his tenure, he took positions on:
- The Ukraine war [05:37:00]
- The COVID vaccine [05:38:00]
- COVID lockdowns [05:40:00]
- The origins of COVID [05:46:00]
- January 6th, which led to some on-air personnel resigning in protest over his suggestions that it was “more complicated than it looked” [05:50:00]. He characterized these positions as “super unpopular” and “truly hated by a lot of the people who worked there” [05:48:00]. Despite this, he acknowledged that Fox “let me keep saying them so it’s kind of hard to complain really at this point” [06:22:00].
- Corporate Dynamics Carlson was “not shocked” by the firing in a long-term sense, as he believed “you can’t kind of give the finger to everybody and persist in a corporate job” [03:05:00]. He understood he was “working at the pleasure of the family that runs the company who treated me very well” [03:34:00]. He also suggested that being “really disliked by a certain set of people” — “affluent people, highly educated people, people who work at NGOs, government, finance” who “hate a certain brand of politics” — could create pressure on his employer [09:37:00], even if Fox didn’t explicitly restrict him [10:41:00].
Ultimately, Carlson concluded that while he “wish[es] I could tell horror stories about Fox… forcing me to take some line or other but they really didn’t,” they simply “didn’t want the show anymore” [01:14:43].