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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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Remember, whenever the right wing says American people or the American people, they only mean white extreme right wing Christians. Because they don’t think of anyone else as American. Doesn’t matter where you’re born or what your citizenship is.
Also, it doesn’t seem like they will ever stop thinking they are the most downtrodden, under-attack group of all time. They don’t believe they’re supposed to have to face consequences like everyone else! And they will whine non-stop about this for the foreseeable future.
But thankfully Fucker is off the airwaves. For now, anyway!
Don Lemon and Dan Bongino are going too.
I’ve heard the rumor that Tucker is just the first one to be fired, to put the fear of God into the rest. The names I’ve heard include Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro, and Sean Hannity. However, a fast Google search reveals no one besides Carlson officially getting the axe, so…. *shrug*
Rupert Murdoch is as plausible a head for the Deep State as anybody, so.. fine, why not.
Redsilkphoenix: Jetpack Vixen, Intergalactic Meani
Remember, there are more lawsuits coming down the pipe as well, from another voting company like Dominion, and Fox’s shareholders probably, and the could’ve also been trying to get ahead of the more personal lawsuit being levied against Tucker that starts later this month by a former coworker.
I do have to say, I kinda saw this coming. I’m not at all surprised he got the axe. Somebody had to take the fall for an over half a billion dollar loss for the network and Tucker was one of their highest paid earners who had his mouth open so often that his recordings and emails cost them. If he had the brains gob gave a can of Spam he would’ve seen the writing on the wall too. I mean, Murdoch certainly wasn’t going to take the fall for any of it.
The Welsh word for unemployed is “diwaith.”
I love Duolingo.
It’s not like things are a whole lot better on our side of the political divide, though; there’s rampant speculation on the real reasons for his firing on the left as well. Biggest difference is that there’s far less moronic conspiracy theory thinking thrown in the mix.
In the end, unless it’s something involving one of the future lawsuits which FOX News is facing, something which makes his continued employment there so toxic that they had to throw him under the bus in a desperate attempt to minimize culpability, I doubt we’ll ever get a satisfactory answer. We might get a bland and partially true one, but not one which satisfies either the left or the right. But so long as Tucker becomes someone who is rarely mentioned anymore and mostly or entirely referred to in the past tense (I’m wishing obscurity on him, not death) that’s good enough for me.
Of course, far better if Fox News itself goes under sometime in the next several months and is not replaced to any meaningful degree, but that might be a bit much to hope for.
…Though I do wonder if maybe the reason why he was fired without warning was to keep him from badmouthing the upper management during his final episode. I mean, he’s done it off-air before, so what would be stopping him from giving them the finger on-air during his farewell address? I mean, what are they gonna do, fire him a second time? Depending on what he said it could range from being embarrassing to being an additional legal headache, even if whatever he said was false.
Tucker was on the chopping block for shit talking the higher-ups in conversations that were recorded and leaked. Fox News will be out half a billion dollars, even after tax breaks due to the Dominion Voting Systems settlement. The other voting machine company, of which I forget the name of, is looking to be even bigger. So yeah. Dissing his bosses and putting Fox News out as mucha s it made in net profit last year, that’s what got Tucker the fuck up fired.
Is it an “Armenian style genocide” or an “Ottoman style genocide”?
I think it’s really best described as the latter.
Can’t wait to see what Carlson does next to spread his hatred. Hope it gets somewhat suppressed like Trump losing his twitter account. I’d rather him be in chair for inciting right wing terrorism and hate speech.
Hello.
> Ooglyboggles
Oh, well, he will probably open a Twitch channel. If there are as many fans that it seems, he can make a lot of money with that.
Have a nice day.
Hey you know what’s to blame for Tucker’s ousting? Capitalism.
Tucker’s gone.
Too sad. So bad. I’m glad.
at this stage you have to wonder how the world keeps going, with so many unhinged & reality-disconnected people wandering around
interesting that Murdoch has dropped their defamation case against a small Aust media outlet, over reporting on the Jan 6 events. it was quite the surprise outcome.
edited to add: if Alan R is around: Al, I’m not sure if defo is within your area of legal expertise, but keen to hear any thoughts on the dropped case if you have them.
occasional reader, now I’m imagining Tucker playing Minecraft on Twitch. Or, dear God, in the “pools, hut tubs, and beaches” category.
People have suggested that Tucker might go to OANN or Newsmax. But I think OANN have a much reduced reach, compared to their height, thanks to losing cable contracts. I believe Newsmax still has comparatively healthy figures.
@ mish
Hey, great to see you around! How is life in academia?
Well, theoretically defamation is my primary practice area, although ‘expertise’ is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Is this the ‘Crikey’ case? (I just love that as a name btw). It is interesting. Murdoch Jr has used the Dominion settlement as an excuse to drop the case. I think though his argument that he would otherwise have won might be a tad optimistic.
Of course, as I always point out, the mere fact someone settles has no relationship to the merits of a case; it’s often done purely for pragmatic grounds. However by discontinuing, the usual rules are that he will now be liable for Crikey’s legal costs.
I think this might be worth a video.
In the interim, here’s another defamation video I just did. It will be going up on YouTube as soon as the algorithm says the best time to upload. But as we’re all friends, here’s a sneak preview.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ULThnDkOsAmitGTWd_qYXDkBwDo9aVwc/view
This gives me hope. The only thing better for the country than Tucker Carlson getting fired is Tucker Carlson getting fired and taking the network with him on the way out. Also, I don’t think that if Fox News collapses, Newsmaxx will just fill exactly the same niche. Fox News has respectability that Newsmaxx does not and probably never will. Fox News can be played in public spaces like doctors’ offices and barbershop without attracting too much opprobrium, and it comes packaged with basic cable. It’s propaganda that seems legitimate, that someone could accidentally get sucked into. Newsmaxx is only catering to those who are already true believers. It’s going to have less reach.
@ dave
Fox News no longer broadcasts in the UK. They claim they surrendered their licence voluntarily, because of low viewing figures.
The had had plenty of run-ins with OFCOM though; so a more cynical person than me might suggest they jumped before they were pushed.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/fox-news-stops-airing-uk-a-look-at-ofcom-rulings-1033789/
Na na na na
Na na na na
Hey heeeey
Goodbye!
\m/
@Dave: Apparently Fox is currently renegotiating carrier fees with cable providers and trying to get more money out of them. Let’s hope that goes badly for them.
@SpecialFFrog:
That’s pretty much what killed the attempt at starting up a Fox News-like station here in Canada: they never managed to convince anybody that there was a need for yet another 24-hour dedicated news channel in the ‘basic cable’ package (Canada already had two local ones as well as access to CNN) and as they could only be on premium packages that people had to pay extra for, they never got the audience numbers they wanted.
So instead they went purely website and podcasting since those were a lot less regulated, and now instead of ‘Sun News Network’ we have ‘Rebel Media’. But it’s most of the same people. Well, aside from some like the one that got let go because she’d given softball interviews to neo-Nazis at the Charlottesville rally while technically not supposed to be working as a reporter in the U.S….
To be “conservative” is to imagine yourself a “white” meat hand puppet with a Videodrome cassette playing away inside it.
How pitiful and absurd their every petty, bitter, envying, boring moment must be.
Yuck.
“The most popular voice for truth and conservatism in America has finally been silenced for good”
If only, but not likely.
He’ll be back, just like another tired old bucket of bolts (who shall remain nameless) or like the bad penny his hair so closely resembles.
(Proposed new name for Tucker: ‘The Smarminator’.)