by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 24, 2023) — 11:53 AM EDT – Just minutes ago, major media reported that the Fox News Channel (FNC) and Tucker Carlson, its most popular show host, are parting ways.
Although FNC’s webpage dedicated to Carlson says his last show was Friday, April 21 and it aired Monday-Friday, a broadcast dated the following day depicts Carlson interviewing Indiana U.S. Senator Mike Braun.
At 10:52 CDT Monday, the Associated Press reported:
Fox News said Monday it has “agreed to part ways” with Tucker Carlson, its popular and controversial host, less than a week after settling a lawsuit over the network’s 2020 election reporting.
The network said in a press release that the last program of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” aired Friday.
The press release, which does not bear a time stamp but is dated April 24, 2023, consists of three paragraphs, the first of which expresses thanks to Carlson for “his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
Carlson’s departure follows by three days Dan Bongino’s announcement that he and the network failed to come to an agreement on a new contract, apparently impacting both his appearances as an on-air contributor and his popular “Unfiltered” show.
On November 23, 2020, Carlson opined that the November 3 presidential election “was not fair, and no honest person would claim that it was. The system was rigged against one candidate and in favor of another, and not in ways that were hidden from view.”
Without being specific as to a manufacturer, he said that “electronic voting is not as secure as traditional hand counting. It never will be as secure” and went on to enumerate a myriad of other ways he believed the election had been commandeered by “Democrats.”
His guest that evening was Dr. Robert Epstein, a historical Democrat highly critical of Google and its internet-policing capabilities. As a result of data analysis he performed, Epstein said, “Google’s search results were strongly biased in favor of liberals and Democrats. This was not true on Bing or Yahoo.”
Following the election, many Americans speculated that Carlson would leave FNC. His response at the time was to defend the cable network and report that his show would be expanding. In fact, a new iteration of the show, “Tucker Carlson Today,” was launched on Fox’s paying platform, Fox Nation consisting of high-profile, in-depth interviews.
As “Tucker Carlson” rose to the top Twitter trend early Monday afternoon, podcaster Benny Johnson tweeted video from the last segment of Carlson’s Friday night show in which he told his audience, “We’ll be back on Monday. In the meantime, have the best weekend with the ones you love.”
As of this writing, Carlson did not hint as to what his future plans might be on his personal website.
Update, 12:35 p.m. EDT: Business Insider reported that “Fox Corporation erased $930 million in market value on Monday after announcing Tucker Carlson would depart Fox News.”
The Wall Street Journal equated the loss to 4.7% of the company’s “class A shares.”
Update, 2:21 p.m. EDT: The Post & Email has learned that Carlson was the “keynote” speaker at The Heritage Foundation’s 50th anniversary celebration on Friday, April 21. His entire remarks are here.