While the number of brands to pull their advertisements from Tucker Carlson Tonight has now reached double digits, none of them are actually severing ties with Fox News Channel.
The network says that the brands which have pulled their ads from the network’s 8 p.m. show are just having them moved to other Fox News programming.
No revenue has been lost here.
Fox News has delivered a pretty intense statement concerning this matter:
“We cannot and will not allow voices like Tucker Carlson to be censored by agenda-driven intimidation efforts from the likes of Moveon.org, Media Matters and Sleeping Giants. Attempts were made last month to bully and terrorize Tucker and his family at their home. He is now once again being threatened via Twitter by far left activist groups with deeply political motives. While we do not advocate boycotts, these same groups never target other broadcasters and operate under a grossly hypocritical double standard given their intolerance to all opposing points of view.”
Angelo Carusone, president of the progressive activist group Media Matters responded:
“Don’t let Fox News distract, deflect, or deceive. This isn’t about Media Matters, Sleeping Giants, or activists. No one forced Tucker Carlson’s odious bigotry and fixation on white genocide conspiracy theories. And that’s what advertisers are rejecting. Rightfully so, too.”
It’s quite likely that the brands staging boycotts will eventually return to Carlson’s show. At least that’s what happened with Hannity in November 2017 after many of his advertisers staged a boycott in light of comments made during a radio interview with former Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, a man who had been accused of initiating a sexual encounter with a 14 year old when he was 32. The brands ended up returning.
However, it’s unclear whether the brands that boycotted Laura Ingraham‘s program back in March in light of her feud with Parkland High School school shooting survivor and gun control activist David Hogg ever returned.