Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson resurfaced Wednesday night and made his first comments since his surprising, abrupt dismissal from the network.
In a video posted on Twitter around the same time his former Fox News show aired for the past six years, Carlson did not directly address his former employer or give a reason for his ouster. Rather, in typical Carlson fashion, he delivered a monologue that took aim at media, U.S. political institutions and spoke of the power of “honest people.”
Carlson, ironically, decried that most of the debates that are seen on TV are “unbelievably stupid” and that these debates sidetrack the audience from talking about the important stuff, which he listed as “war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, (and) natural resources.
Carlson asserted that when the “people in charge” use aggressive steps to silence the will of people, they “shrink and they become weaker,” claiming that this is the way the universe works and that “true things prevail.”
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
His reappearance comes as additional details surrounding why Fox News took the extraordinary steps of letting go of one of its top-tier personalities come to the surface.
The latest account comes from the New York Times, which revealed that the Fox board of directors and top executives discovered private messages sent by Carlson which show him making highly offensive and crude remarks.
According to the NYT, these remarks, which had been redacted in court filings, “went beyond the inflammatory, often racist comments of his prime-time show and anything disclosed in the lead-up to the trial.”
The discovery of these messages added more pressure to the Fox Corp. leadership team of Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan Murdoch to quickly settle the $1.6 billion defamation case brought on by Dominion Voting System, as the release of such messages to the public would prove even more damaging to the organization.
A settlement amount of $787.5 million was reached just as the trial was about to start last week.
The NYT story also revealed that the senior Murdoch had gotten weary of Carlson’s antics and was of the view that keeping him at the network would have more downsides than upsides.
Lachlan Murdoch and Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott decided to let go of Carlson on Friday, with Scott calling Carlson Monday morning to inform him of the decision.
Lachlan Murdoch viewed the move to oust Carlson as a “business decision.”
Fox News, for its part, is providing no additional comments to the unfolding developments saying, sticking with its original statement, “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”