“He is the most trusted voice in conservative media”: What comes next for Tucker Carlson?

One week ago, Tucker Carlson was jettisoned by Fox “News” so quickly, and without warning, that Carlson was not even allowed to say goodbye to his many millions of viewers on a final show.

Rumors continue to circulate as to why Carlson was fired and the larger logic at work in why Fox’s leadership made such a decision. Informed speculation has focused in on 1) the recent Dominion lawsuit for defamation in connection with the Big Lie and the Jan. 6 coup attempt that will effectively cost Fox “News” several hundred million dollars and 2) a sexual harassment lawsuit where Carlson is directly implicated. New reporting from well-connected sources at Fox “News” and the larger right-wing hate media echo chamber suggests that the real reason that Carlson was fired was because the Murdochs view him as being a personality they could not sufficiently rein in as they reposition the network to be even more closely aligned with Donald Trump and the “conservative” movement.

Denied a platform on Fox “News,” Tucker Carlson instead went online to explain why he was fired and his future plans. In a two-minute-long video on Twitter, Carlson attempted to present himself as a reasonable person, an advocate for “real Americans” and a “truth-teller” who was punished by Fox “News” and “the elites” as part of some type of conspiracy because he dared to speak truth to power.

Not to be overlooked, Carlson was sure to mention “demographics,” which is an appeal to the white supremacist great replacement conspiracy theory and other hate-mongering about how “white people” are being “oppressed” in America and other parts of the West.

Such lies are lethal: the “great replacement” conspiracy theory and other related fictions have been cited as motives for the white supremacist terrorist attack in Buffalo and in other right-wing violence and hate crimes across the United States and the world.

Fox “News” is a type of political drug cartel that injects hatred, fascism, ignorance, white supremacy and other poison directly into the minds and hearts of its public. Tucker Carlson was their biggest and most influential dealer. To that point, his departure from the network has cost Fox “News” millions of viewers – not just for Carlson’s show but across the network. Moreover, Tucker’s online video was watched by many more people than the replacement programming that Fox “News” put in his former prime time slot.

The Fox “News” audience is still a group of hate addicts, but for now they are very loyal to Tucker Carlson. Because they are addicts, at some point, likely very soon, they will find another pusher if Tucker Carlson is no longer able to supply them. The question then becomes, will these hate addicts go back to Fox “News” or chase their high somewhere else – and potentially start using a political drug that is even more dangerous than the poison being sold by Fox “News” and Tucker Carlson?

In what is the second of a two-part series about the Fox “News” – Tucker Carlson saga, I asked a range of experts for their insights about what this means for American democracy, how Tucker Carlson still matters (or not), and what they believe happens next as we try to navigate our way of this fascist fever dream nightmare and the “Trumpocene.”

Brynn Tannehill is a journalist and author of “American Fascism: How the GOP is Subverting Democracy.” 

I think the main one is that discovery in the two lawsuits filed by Abby Grossberg alleging a hostile workplace environment are going to be really ugly for Fox. They have a long history with “the talent” sexually harassing, coercing, and abusing female staff, including Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, Bob Beckel, Sean Hannity (who was accused of trying to trade sexual favor for air time on his show), Ed Henry, and Eric Bolling. Management has long been accused of tolerating a “frat boy” atmosphere, and nothing screams obnoxious fratboy like Tucker Carlson. I also believe there were probably damaging things in discovery in the Dominion lawsuit, and more in the upcoming one with Smartmatic. 

In the short term, it shakes things up a bit: conservative networks are going to scramble to align themselves in a way that doesn’t hitch themselves to Trump or cross him. But, I’m sure Fox will find someone just as awful pretty quickly: hateful grifters are a dime a dozen. His replacement will look a lot like Matt Walsh or Ben Shapiro.

There’s a huge market for conservative media-induced hate and fear. The level of anti-trans craziness that Tucker was instrumental in creating is getting to “two-minute hate” territory. The mere existence of trans people sends his base demographic into a rage zombie frenzy. Look at the whole Dylan Mulvaney thing: it was a nothing-burger. A beer company threw a few bucks and a novelty can at a Gen Z influencer for an ad no one outside of her channel saw, and it exploded into an orgy of anger and hatred. Tucker created this. Someone else will pick up the torch on Fox because there’s clearly a market for it, and trans people pay the price by having to flee red states like it’s 1933 all over again.

Jennifer Mercieca, professor of communication at Texas A&M, and author of “Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump.”

Though we knew that Fox News had settled the Dominion lawsuit for hundreds of millions of dollars and had fired other high-profile on-air talent, the news that they fired Tucker Carlson was a surprise. Though there have been many protests against him and his show, Tucker has been untouchable; immune from pressure campaigns or boycott threats. He is the most trusted voice in conservative media. According to research on the conservative media ecosystem, he’s more trusted than any other source of information, even Fox News itself. It’s hard to predict what direction Fox News will take from here, but it’s easy to see that Carlson’s departure from the center of the conservative information system will have a large impact. Carlson is, unequivocally, bad for democracy.

Over the past six years the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show has laundered narratives from the extreme right white supremacist fringe, mainstreamed and normalized conspiracy theory, and disseminated Russian talking points so frequently that they regularly aired clips from his show on their propaganda shows.

Carlson has treated his audience with contempt, regularly attacking their minds–convincing them that politics is war and the enemy cheats and the whole world is out to get them. Every night on his show he told his audience that they should be afraid and trust no one but him. He told his audience who to fear, loath, and hate. His show made America less unified, less powerful, and, ultimately, less safe. Tucker Carlson has used his platform to communicate irresponsibly, now he’s facing the consequences.

Cheri Jacobus is a former media spokesperson at the Republican National Committee and founder and president of the political consulting and PR firm Capitol Strategies PR. 

Unfortunately, it appears Tucker Carlson wasn’t fired because he knowingly pushed the “Big Lie” for Trump that came out in the Dominion lawsuit.  Nor did Rupert Murdoch fire Tucker because of messages revealed in the Dominion lawsuit he sent that criticized and disparaged Murdoch and other FOX News management. Notably, Tucker Carlson was not fired from his top-rated show because of his virulent white supremacism. Nor was he fired for claims there was no January 6th insurrection — that the rioters were peaceful “sightseers,” not “insurrectionists.” 

The looming sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox by a former Carlson producer, Abby Grossman, also is not the reason for the firing. Tucker Carlson on audio expressing his desire to watch 14-year-old girls have sex with each other also was not the reason for his firing.

The reason for the firing of Tucker Carlson?

The audio tape of Tucker expressing his desire to watch 14-year-old girls have sex with each other was about to become public in the lawsuit by Abby Grossman. The firing offense was getting caught.  And it was going to cost Murdoch BIG.

What does this mean for the rumored “domino effect” at Fox with more firings?

Since the Tucker firing was not because of any of his previously-known “sins,” including Dominion, it does not foretell future firings of the most egregious offenders named in the lawsuit. Jeanine Pirro and Maria Bartimroma may be safe, after all. Other right-wing media still do their best to ape Fox News. White nationalism, fascism, lying about elections, supporting Putin, celebrating deadly insurrections, guns, corrupt right-wing Supreme Court Judges — as long as FOX can still get away with most or all of these and still turn a profit, Newsmax, OANN, Breitbart, and every podcast of that ilk will continue to follow suit.  It’s still a very lucrative business model as long as there is no meaningful accountability.   

Fox News will survive, as they always do. The platform is bigger than the personalities or even the executives, as evidenced by Fox not missing a beat after canning Bill O’Reilly, Eric Bolling, Kimberly Guifoyle, Roger Ailes, Bill Shine, and losing Megyn Kelly.  The monster cannot be killed. 

Mark Jacob is a journalist, media critic, and former metro editor at the Chicago Tribune.

We don’t yet know the story behind Tucker Carlson’s firing. There could be something not yet revealed that made Fox News’ decision unavoidable. But there’s no point in speculating about that. What we already know about Carlson includes multiple reasons for firing him, but Rupert Murdoch enabled him for a very long time.

Carlson’s dismissal suggests that Fox doesn’t really want major celebrities – at least not celebrities who are bigger than Fox’s overall brand. Fox prefers an army of second-tier fascist propaganda warriors like Jesse Watters and Brian Kilmeade. Fox can pay them less and control them more. If Murdoch likes anything more than right-wing politics, it’s money. I think his takeaway from the Dominion lawsuit is that he had to take action to avoid future suits. He never wants to take another three-quarters-of-a million-dollars hit again.

---

Want a daily wrap-up of all the news and commentary Salon has to offer? Subscribe to our morning newsletter, Crash Course.

---

I think it’s possible that Carlson will run for president. Right-wing Republicans aren’t into policy wonks. They like show-biz types such as Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. They like white-identity firebrands who make them proud of their racism and sexism and entertain them at the same time. Trump’s 2024 campaign may be a fundraising effort more than a bid for the White House. He may cite his health (accurately or not) as a reason to bow out at some point, and Carlson’s behavior on Fox makes him the Trumpiest of all possible candidates.

Jared Yates Sexton is a journalist and author of the new book “The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis.”

Tucker Carlson and Fox were a match made in Hell. Tucker radicalized millions, mainstreamed the most disgusting white supremacist conspiracy theories, and prepared viewers to accept everything from coups to genocide. Fox was happy to reap the profits. What is especially awful here is that nothing good will come from this separation. Fox will find the next demagogue and Tucker will undoubtedly double and triple down on what brought him to the dance. That this ever happened, that this is only destined to get worse, is an indictment we can’t ignore.

Dave Neiwert is an investigative journalist and an expert on right-wing extremism and terrorism. He is also the author of several books including the forthcoming “The Age of Insurrection: The Ongoing War on American Democracy”.

I’m personally relieved that Tucker is gone from Fox, mainly because his frat-boy persona has always turned my stomach, and his presence spreading far-right propaganda on a massive network meant that I actually had to pay careful attention to him. So, his departure (and the accompanying loss of his mass audience) is a huge relief. That said, it’s only temporary relief, because Tucker played a role at Fox that others before him willingly indulged–namely, mainstreaming far-right extremism and conspiracism. Glenn Beck specialized in it, Bill O’Reilly participated, as have many others, including some still on the roster. And none of that is going away at Fox. It will still normalize extremist conspiracism, it will still traffic in reckless disinformation, and it will continue to demonize all liberal Democrats as existential threats to the nation who deserve elimination. This will just be a blip in the network’s long-running assault on pluralistic democracy, which clearly is not ending anytime soon.

Jason Van Tatenhove is a former member of the right-wing paramilitary group the Oath Keepers, where he served as their media spokesperson for two years. He also testified before the House Select Committee on Jan 6th. His new book is “The Perils of Extremism: How I Left the Oath Keepers and Why We Should be Concerned about a Future Civil War.”

My teenage daughters and I cheered from our living room couch as we learned that Tucker Carlson was removed from Fox News on Monday. However, I also feel conflicted because when a prominent figure in a radical movement, such as the leader of a militia or the most-watched prime-time host on cable news, is ousted, I wonder who will take their place and whether they will be even more extreme. Unfortunately, Fox’s audience still seems to crave the type of conspiracy-filled and racially charged content that Tucker Carlson frequently presented on his show. I believe that Tucker was fired solely due to financial reasons. The Dominion lawsuit and allegations of Tucker’s inappropriate behavior towards female coworkers would have led to numerous civil suits against the company. Murdoch did not want to deal with these potential cases, especially after the failure of their previous ‘golden goose’ success with Trump.

Tucker Carlson’s departure will not significantly affect Fox News, especially since they settled with Dominion for $787.5 million, which will not break the bank for Fox. In the past, the network has replaced hosts who’ve fallen out of favor, such as Glen Beck and Bill O’Reilly. Based on their track record, I expect the new host to continue the same type of content, perhaps even more divisive and racist. While I hope this could lead to a shift away from extremist media, it’s likely just a temporary blip in the ongoing culture wars.