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The big news today is that Tucker Carlson, hero to racist grandfathers everywhere, is out at Fox, reportedly canned on the orders of Rupert Murdoch himself.
The reason for the firing isn’t completely clear, but people are speculating that it has something to do with the discrimination lawsuit filed by former Fox producer Abby Grossberg, with Tucker’s coverage of Jan. 6, or with critical remarks he made in private messages about Fox management. Insiders are downplaying the role of the recently and expensively settled Dominion lawsuit in his firing. It’s probably some combination of some of these possible causes. Or maybe there’s an even bigger scandal brewing that we don’t know about yet. We can only hope.
But Tucker’s fans have their own theories, none of which make any logical sense whatsoever, given that they all seem to involve Fox News being some sort of “woke” puppet of the liberal elite.
Some blamed the “deep state,” which apparently private citizen Rupert Murdoch is a part of.
More than a few of Tucker’s fans pointed the finger at “Globalists,” which is the polite way of saying “Jews.”
Others were a bit blunter in their accusations.
Some thought the culprit was Big Pharma, angry over Tucker’s willingness to tell the truth–i.e. blatant lies–about the alleged evils of vaccines.
Others put the blame on, of all people, AOC, who in an interview yesterday called for Tucker to be censored for his regular incitement of violence.
Hey Mr. Draino, I thought it was Big Pharma’s fault? (See above.) At least try to be consistent with your conspiracy theories.
Meanwhile, the always slightly addled Mike Cernovich apparently blames … Satan?
Also, he seems to think that Tucker’s firing will lead to … literal genocide?
Cernovich, always the voice of reason.
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I hope he cries himself to death.
Russia Today have already made him an offer. And offhand, I think it’s in his best interests to take it — I’m guessing RT would keep him relevant in a way that OANN and those other US fringe outlets can’t.
Maybe, but I suspect RT would be less willing to tolerate somebody questioning the managerial decisions (even in the back-channel) than Fox was. Though RT is also less likely to prompt that response from Carlson, given that his complaint was that the news bureau reporters were actually reporting reality rather than the approved propaganda lines.
As others have been suggesting, on Fox’s side this appears to be a pure case of pour encourager les autres, a reminder to everybody working for them that they serve at Murdoch’s sufferance and there are always others waiting to take over their slots. That’s how Carlson got his job in the first place, after all: as a replacement for Bill O’Reilly.
@ jenora
You know, you’ve now got me thinking about Rollerball, the 1975 film. There seem to be a few parallels. Rather than go into full film analysis mode I’ll just stick a few quotes.
Germane to the board if not this topic: https://jezebel.com/incels-melt-down-after-one-of-them-gets-laid-this-is-t-1850377821
A new theory I heard about Carlson’s firing that no-one here has mentioned yet. Tucker gave a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night, after his last broadcast. Said speech was evidently very heavy on the spiritual warfare talk (I haven’t read the transcript, though it’s easy enough to find online). Murdoch was in the audience, and supposedly got very freaked out about the spiritual stuff (apparently he doesn’t like that stuff very much), and made the decision to fire him that night.
A related reason is that Murdoch’s former fiancé Ann Lesley Smith (widow of country singer Chester Smith) was radicalized in part by Carlson, who she considers a messenger of God. Tucker’s show was one of her favorite shows on Fox. You can probably guess the rest from there.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/tucker-carlson-fox-news-rupert-murdoch
I’d say publicly whining (has tuck ever NOT whined?) and agitating about the NOT-stolen election while dissing all his bosses out the other side of his mouth is quite enough. Ol’ Rupe himself personally pulled the plug, which indicates he had transgressed greatly. Probably some really juicy stuff in the unredacted transcripts. And if there is a Deep State, the Murdochs are way up there in the leadership. Add another impending lawsuit which would reveal even more dirt, and he’s more trouble than he’s worth. Plus FN is up for renewal contracts from cable and satellite operators, and he was dragging the value down for that as well.
These Twit losers also ignore the fact that Fox “news” often fires their top-rated talent to keep everyone in line, as @Jenora said. Where’s Bill O now? They’ll pick some other pasty White man for the time slot and pay him less. And of course all the losers whining about boycotting won’t.
Meanwhile tuck can boo-hoo into his trust fund, open a streaming channel, and start carrying Putin’s water openly from the comfort of one or more of his homes. Or join some lesser outlet, ditto.
@Yutolia: Exactly.
@RedSilk: I’ve heard those names too. Either they go, or tuck is enough to make them tow the party line, or both. Note that 75% of them are women.
@Lakitha: I think everyone but tuck saw this coming. Murdoch’s purest evil, but he’s damn decisive and all people are expendable to him, whereas money isn’t. I gotta give the old guy credit for not letting on to Tuckie that the ax was falling until it was too late to do anything. If that call was recorded, I hope we get to hear it sometime.
@pdm: Live by, die by. As a great philosopher once almost said, “It’s a dog eat dog world, and tuck’s wearing Milkbone underwear.”
@Dave: I’m thankful more every day that I live in a super-blue area. The doctor’s offices here either run CNN or local news, with slots in the afternoon for the receptionist’s favorite soap operas, and a cartoon channel of some kind in pediatrics.
@Alan: Good quote, excellent movie. I’m old enough to remember when it was demonstrated in a segment of “Wild World of Sports”! My brother and I instantly resolved to see it.
“Crikey” indeed!
I imagine Jon Stewart hasn’t stopped doing a happy dance yet.
@Nequam: I love the smell of schadenfreude in the afternoon. Crabs in a bucket, all of ’em.
I desperately love how AOC lives in a mansion rent-free in their heads. She’s young, she’s attractive, she gives great soundbite, but she’s still a very junior Representative. If she really was running things, the country would be better off — but she’s not.
@Crip Dyke: I don’t know much about Armenian history, but the Ottomans/Turks were sure good at genocide at least since they burst into recorded history.
Murdoch and Carlson deserve each other. If only America was protected from the both of them.
@Red Silk: I read that article too! Rupe’s happy to prey on the religious, but he doesn’t want all that mumbo-jumbo around him.
So there are several ways tucker annoyed the big boss recently, which anyone with any brains (does not include tuckie) knows is the quickest way to end your career.
That speech was simply the last straw.
(Sorry about all the posts. Didn’t sleep much last night and am scattered.)
He’s released a short video. It manages to sound both perfectly reasonable and totally sinister at the same time.
But of note, he rejects the GOP as much as the Dems; on the ground they share the same agenda and are equally complicit in silencing truth. “We live in a one party state”
Of course, that doesn’t mean if someone dangles the 24 VP ticket in front of him he won’t change his mind. But I found it interesting.
Semi-OT for this thread:
Remember a few weeks ago when Disney pulled a ‘Game of Thrones’ move on Governor DeSantis to retain control of its little city-state? DeSantis’ handpicked board rejected that deal, claiming that Disney didn’t follow Florida law down to dotting the last ‘I’ when they did it. Disney is now suing DeSantis and the State of Florida for government retaliation over criticizing the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law.
https://www.npr.org/2023/04/26/1172231546/disney-florida-governor-ron-desantis-lawsuit
The Florida GOP vs. the Nazgul Legal Department. This will be…interesting to watch.
https://www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/2023/04/24/tucker-carlson-gets-canned-his-fans-blame-the-deep-state-big-pharma-aoc-and-or-the-jews/comment-page-2/#comment-3696026
Are you fucking insane?
This ain’t a funny comment.
Hi @Kieta, it looks like comments having an identifying number is a ‘behind the scenes’ thing, as they don’t show up as an identifier for readers; if you put @commenter’s name instead and a bit of a quote we’ll be able to see which comment you are referring to. Thanks!
I don’t think Florida has a case. Disney was very careful to do exactly what was required under law to announce the board meeting and changes to the covenant.
@Dave:
But the case isn’t just about undoing the contract. DeSantis is threatening all kinds of actions. The case is about winning an injunction to prevent retaliatory action of any type. Disney’s case here is about as strong as such a case can be, but the courts have a history of assuming a good motive for any action of the other branches unless overwhelmed with evidence to the contrary.
Now this burden can be met (see Romer v. Evans) but historically it’s very dicey. I felt the case for animus in RvE was less clear than in other cases where the court found for the government. One difference was that Amendment 1 was a referral to the ballot, and so maybe that was relevant to the court’s analysis? Another difference is the irrefutable existence of a pervasive, society-wide bias against queer people that existed in 1994. s there an irrefutable society-wide bias against Disney? I think not.
This isn’t to say that Disney won’t win the injunction that they want, but I don’t think the case is at all a slam dunk. We’ll see.
“Are you fucking insane?”
6 days have passed since this comment with no one badgering about “comments policy”. Def not the same place I had to move from in 2014.
FWIW it wasn’t a horrible idea…it just brought out the worst in mostly white privileged moral scolds who confused salty language with actual oppression (lack of wheelchair access, reduced job opportunities, targeted harassment, etc)
You’ll always keep more people with honey than vinegar.
I prefer Cernovich’s benign brother, Byelovich.