Less than a week after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle the Dominion lawsuit, the network has abruptly fired Tucker Carlson — an anchor at the center of the case.
Jeremy W. Peters, who covers media and politics for The Times, explains why the network decided to cut ties with one of its biggest stars.
Guest: Jeremy W. Peters, a media and politics correspondent for The New York Times.
Background reading:
- Tucker Carlson was one of the network’s top-rated hosts for many years.
- Here is the latest on Mr. Carlson’s departure.
For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
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this is a daily? We have some nerves from within our foxfire weighing less than a week after five
News reached a historic settlement in a defamation losses, fox news, media and tougher car often have mutually agreed art wave. The network has abruptly fired, Tucker carlsson and ankara at the centre of that case. We want to thank commissioner patten for his service to the network of host and prior to that, if a long term contributor today, my colleague, Jeremy peters, on exactly why fox is cutting ties with it
biggest star and what box will be without its tuesday April. Twenty fifth.
wait you're back very soon, sooner sooner than perhaps you expected sooner than perhaps you wanted sooner than I think anyone might have expected. So it is six twenty six p m on Monday night and four
blocks away from here germany over at the headquarters of fox news? There is a mad scramble going on right now, because there
We'll be no tucker karlsson tonight at eight p m, as
It is always aired because talker karlsson has been fired,
just want to begin by having you put that piece of news enterprise
active for us, as somebody who covers fox covers the entire conservative
media world? How big a moment this is, if an earthquake.
Tucker carlson was one of these rare media figures whose power transcended what he could say to his audience, because he not only spoke to them. He could speak to the people in power in the highest places of american government and that included for a time the president of the united states, Donald trump. Quite they corresponded meanings,
And regularly and tucker could have an influence on the president when, when he wanted his ear, he could have it because Tucker karlsson spoke the language of trump support,
is more intuitively than almost any one in conservative media and that allowed him to become one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful host on television and now he's gone and we're gonna get to why he's gone in just a moment or why we think he is gone, but talk to us about how once he had this show. Tucker karlsson became this powerful force that you're describing, and that has made his departure. The earthquake that you just called it before Donald trump burst onto the political scene, tucker girls and is not a terror.
influential person in conservative politics I mean he's the weekend anchor at fox awhile, which is we should say for those who not upset about ratings and cable news, not at all for such as it's kind of oblivion role,
I believe there is a simpsons joke about this word Kent Brockman, though the anchor gets upset.
one day and storms often says I dont care call the weekend. Guy, ok, so he's not yet tucker cross and, as we know it right, but the trump presidency proved to be the biggest stroke of luck in his career. Yet his ability to see
to the trump voter to their grievances, their anxieties about the way they see their purchasing power in
african society slipping away. That is what his gift is, and that allows him to connect with the audience in a way that fox says: okay, while we're going to give you an eight p m slot, now the very prestigious it's the marquee slot, it was the slot the bill O'Riley used to hold when he was at fox news and was their number one house before he got fired cut and once Tucker carlson has this prestigious platform of eight p m fox news? What does he do with it and what
that formula works at well, it's one of displacement. The theme is- and this is especially resonant with a lot of the older white male parts of toxins-
since you are not wrong to feel agreed, demographic change is the key to the democratic parties, political ambition.
In order to win and maintain power democrats plan to change the population of the country. You are not wrong to think that there is an elite driven plot to replace you.
So every time they important new voter I become disenfranchised as current voter and replace your standing in society with p
who do not look like you. Immigration is a means to electoral advantage. It is about power.
Well, then, who are brown who are coming across the border? The democratic party cuddles the mob. You see on tv, our elites fund, the democratic party, that's how it works. People who are black, who are marching in the streets demanding social justice, racial justice reform, black lives matter movement, exactly it's very much rooted in a sense of loss. This
ass that many americans felt in their own prestige in american society. Why should I sit back and take that
the power that I have is an american guaranteed at birth. Is one man one vote at their deluding it? No there.
We'll have to do that. While we put a great this has a name, it's called the great replacement theory. Yes, and it's been around forever. Tucker carlson isn't the first to come up with it and to fan fears over it, but he
is the most prominent figure in american media to do so to the state. No one had had gone up to this line and crossed it though we took across it it now. I know that the last
in all the little gatekeepers on twitter become literally hysterical if he used the term replacement. If you suggest that the democratic party has tried to replace the current electorate,
voters now casting ballots with new people, more obedient voters from the third world, but they become hysterical because that's that's what's happening actually look just said, that's true.
But he's not just talking about how people of color are a threat to white man. He's obsessed with this threat that he sees coming from within this idea.
the american men in general are becoming weak and soft
So there is a huge health crisis in this country. Ongoing has been for decades is getting. No attention is affecting everything else and actual testosterone levels. He describes this quote total collapse.
seven testosterone levels and american men, so we looked into this- for
The documentary for Tucker cross original series called the end of men and he does an entire special on this supposed assault on masculinity in this country. Think the solutions are actually pretty simple. Expose yourself to red light therapy, there's a massive amount of as testicle tanning, even talks to an expert who recommended getting your testicles tan,
In order to boost testosterone levels, so obviously half the viewers are now like what that's catastrophe chain. That's crazy, but my view is ok, testosterone, levels of crime
and nobody says anything about it, that's crazy. So
why is it crazy to seek solutions to cheer me this framework as oddball and at times racist?
as it may seem, is powerfully resonating with fox viewers. Can you quantified just how powerfully its connecting with them? Soap karlsson quickly becomes the most watched host on the network, which is the most watched news network in a country. That's exactly right. At times, it's even the most watched cable network
period, so he gets an average of three million viewers and night, sometimes more sometimes less yokota, depending on the new cycle at the time now, when you compare them to the competition, this is leaps and bounds ahead over on cnn
Anderson cooper is getting maybe around a million viewers a night about a third of what tucker Carlson is getting yes, and this is why Tucker carlson starts to amass incredible power and influence not just with president trump, but with governors and state legislators all across the country. And what are some examples of that power? He basically uses his show to browbeat these elected officials into doing and enacting the policies that he wants to see hm greg abbott as a governor of one of our most important states. Maybe the most important state actually so take texas governor greg Abbott, for example,
Thank you very much for coming on. So just one night carlson goes on his show and grills Abbott. I have a military force. I command is called the national guard, we're going to block the border and save the country. Why,
you do that. Why are you doing that now? Why?
and you used the states national guard to stop all these migrants from crossing the border. While, LO and behold
texas, governor gregg, abbot, sending four hundred more national guard troops to the El Paso border in an attempt to block the flow of migrants into the. U s abbot later says: he'll do just that. He sends in the texas national guard to the border and he's gonna pause and we'll talk about that
sitting on the show we actually want to a member of the national guard taxes about what a big deal it is
A mobilise your national guard. I mean in this case mobilise your national guard to act as a kind of like border patrol, and that is being prompted not by an outcry from voters.
in order from the president, but by a cable news anchor suggesting it that's power. Indeed, it is a here's. Another florida governor ron de Santa says taking credit for flying two planes carrying dozens of migrants to Martha's vineyard florida. Governor ron de santa sends migrants to Martha's vineyard in this stunt to say: ok,
Blue states see this is what it's like you deal with these people. Many did not know where they were going and local officials on the island we're not given any advance notice of the flights arrival that was tucker carlson's idea. As a two thousand nineteen, only three percent of all people- all residents and egerton- were born outside of this country. They are begging for more diversity. Why not send migrants there in huge numbers burly,
here on his show, he said that residents of marthas vineyard, who are almost all democrats, are quote begging for more diversity. Why not send migrants their wealth? That's what disinterested so over and over again the words come out of tucker across his mouth and he's powerful governor
obediently do what he's asking for, which is, I suppose, a measure of their fear that if they don't his audience will come and punish them with balls
That's exactly right. They note to be on the wrong side of Tucker Carlson, and one of his issues is to risk incurring the wrath of the conservative voter. No one knows this better than Kevin Mccarthy, the speaker of the house, who almost wasn't the speaker of the house, because conservatives like Tucker carlson, told their followers that he was too cozy with the elite ruling class in business and politics so to play. Kate carlson mccarthy gives him forty thousand hours of previously.
Seen footage from the security tapes. There were running on january sixth right, a kind of unprecedented disclosure to a single journalist
and one that many democrats pointed out risked a real security breach by disclosing certain aspects of capital, security that were known to the public right and crossing. Takes this footage and edit sit down.
To a handful of incidents where you can see the people who had illegally broken into the capital walking around peacefully
He looking as if they might be on just a leisurely tour, and he says see they told you that this was a violent mob, but it's not, and in fact many of these people, just you know, kind of innocently ambled into the capital
in a trick that he has tried time and time again on his show. He says: I'm telling you the truth about what happened here. The mainstream live,
media are the ones who are lying to you and you can't believe them here see it for yourself right, which is not accurate in this case. But the scale of influence we're talking about here is the envy of the cable news, industry and other
posted other networks. They might not like what tucker Carlson is doing, but they no doubt wish they had that kind of influence they wish they had his readings and, by all accounts fox, had no problem with what tucker Carlson was doing for years and years and years, even when advertisers will get upset, which they sometimes did, they would boycott the show. It was all okay right, correct me if I'm wrong until now, yeah, that's
slowly right. They knew they had the number one prime time show in cable news
they had a reliable revenue stream, not just from advertisers. There was quickly put a lot of them boycott it, but from the enormous fees that fox news is able to generate from subscribers to cable. The breaking point seems to come this year, as fox news is defending itself against lawsuits.
Tucker Carlson's conduct off air is far more problematic for the network
what he said on the air and that's what we think pushed his boss.
to pull the trigger on his firing. So suddenly, this week will be right back.
I'm Diana win I may produce, or on the daily, and I worked on another
showed about how these really complicated global forces impact. This one ranching family, I'm just going to I'm recording now just going to record everything.
I have lived in one of the most rural pockets of taxes, and I always her
venture say its super hard to make a living, but I didn't really get the economics of it at all. In making this episode, I started to
Your stand: how decades of consolidation in this industry has made it tough for the people who produce our food? It's important to me that we were able to
hell this story about rural america on the daily
have this amazing curve producers from all over the map who were bringing their own life experiences to the stories that we tell every day. But it takes a lot of resources and we need your support to keep doing that work. You can help us make the daily by subscribing to the new york times. Thank you. So Jimmy described this off air conduct that revealed in these lawsuits that appears to have contributed to tucker crossings firing. So, as of six p m tonight, there's still a lot. We don't know about why he got fired. We do know that it was ordered from the highest levels of fox and that laughlin murdoch who's. The ceo of box corporation and suzanne Scott, the ceo of fox news, decided that they were going.
to do this on Friday night. They inform tucker of it. On Monday morning, telling him you're not on the air tonight right, no chance to say goodbye, it's over. In fact, in their news release announcing this fox fox's, his last show was friday. His last show was, in the past, it's pretty unsentimental, okay, so back to velocity any off air comments that have perhaps led us to this point
First, let's start with a dominion case. The biggest revelation about talk across him to come out of the dominion case is that he reveals himself to be something of a police,
performance artist, he's telling his audience one thing, but because of the emails and text that dominion is able to get as part of the case,
We know he doesn't believe some of this stuff that he's allowing on his air or telling his viewers that their right to believe about voter fraud, where much of it relating to
claims that there's election fraud or that dominions voting machines, played a role in election right
No, he didn't believe any of it. We often overman dominion suit that he loads former president trump. He calls him all sorts of names. Questions is judgment says
he can't wait for the day when they no longer have to talk about. Tromp can ignore him, and this is a president. Tucker karlsson has been,
years. Elevating promoting and cheering on.
for end the president, who, from what you're saying
sponsible for his success as a tv anger exactly so that I think can point to his disingenuousness season and he's going to tell his audience what he thinks they want to hear and it paid off because he's the most popular primetime host on all a fox news right. But these emails and text suddenly shake the foundation of that success, be shattered the premise for those who were paying attention and we're not sure many folks
words were that he is this pro working class champion of president trump right, but we can assume that the people who run fox news were paying attention to this lawsuit and to the emails they were, and I'm told that they were also paying attention to some of the text, messages between tucker and his producers, in which they make fun of their colleagues and they even question the judgment.
Of their bosses, what's example, and that from the dominion lawsuit where Tucker carlsson and as producers are challenging their superiors, they really take issue with the
arizona call. This is when the decision desk at fox news got out of the gates. Earlier than any,
other news organization, to say president Biden going to win arizona right, and that was huge moment, because after that it became very, very difficult to see how trump could win a second term. Karlsson says effectively. I can't believe these people, don't they understand the damage that they're doing to this brand.
we spent years build any accuse accuses some of them of being liberal sellouts. People who hate us
He says, even though they are his colleagues and asks that is correct.
Also from dominion also opens the window. It too
another aspect of his behaviour. That is alarming to many at fox, which has held his misogynistic splitting the vulgar way in which he uses,
massage mystic language. He said some words- I repeat here referring to city pow, when president trumps legal advisers that made people shudder once they saw them. That leads to a second lawsuit that unfolds as the dominion case.
Is getting ready to go to trial. So what this other lawsuit, abbe gross bergs law suit, a producer fox news, sues fox and karlsson, alleging that he has created presided over this incredibly toxic workplace. Women were objective
I have female politicians who came on the show were marks. It was a game. It was a sport where discrimination, sexism, antisemitism, is all tolerated in a part of the everyday culture at tucker. Carlson tonight see where all the time she talks about a photo pinned up to wall in the tucker Carlson tonight, offices of Nancy Pelosi in this plunging bathing suit. This producer also alleges that right before tutor dixon,
Republican candidate for governor in Michigan is set to come on, Tucker Carson show they have a mock debate about whether they would prefer to have sex with her dixon or for democratic opponent, governor gretchen women. So with this
can lawsuit we're talking about some very serious allegation, some very detailed allegations of,
simply a sexist hostile workplace and the kind of claim that I have to imagine in a post roger
Ailes fox news right, one where the company has already
fired a senior executive for sexual harassment that this gets taken pretty seriously. It does and part of suzanne scots mission once she took the helm of fox news from roger rails, was to make it a more free,
lee place for women to work. Tat was not exactly a good look for her to have her star host and his staff behaving really horribly toward women right, so jimmy how
based on all your reporting. Does everything
scrapping her come together in the minds of fox leadership in their decision to get rid of tougher karlsson cause there's a lot here in the next. So how do you see it? If you look at the history of recent high profile firing a fox news, roger eels, as you just talked about, he was fired after being exposed as a serial predator of women, billow riley its number one host fire after multiple women accused him of the grievous sexual conduct, verify
rings didn't have anything to do with what was said on the air, what they allowed on their shows, and I think that's important in putting into context what happened to Tucker karlsson for four years during trumps presidency and for two years after Tucker karlsson said some outrageously, inflammatory racially insensitive,
right at times racist things and he still had a job. Even when the dominion lawsuit is unfolding,
and we see how he privately talked about president trump and insulted his colleagues at fox fox? Doesn't fire him? Then they fire him after we learn that the workplace he was in charge of was
when resources nightmare and had already spawn one lawsuit.
And very well could have led to more that we just don't know about interesting,
so. If I can summers what you're saying here, we'll get you in trouble at a place
fox, which is so fixated on its ratings and its audience
is always at the end of the day, not going too far with that pursuit of ratings and the pursuit of audience, but with plain old human resource violations of the most basic kind. That's exactly right, but the big question around firing tucker crossing is
Is it gonna hurt fox and maybe their rationale makes total sense? Maybe their lawyers
eyes them that they needed to do it, but his tucker or frozen said in one of the text messages
You talk to me about on the show when you're fox, you cannot alienate your viewers.
relationship is sacrosanct and is delicate in firing. Tucker is fox it all risking disrupting thou bond with it's yours. They are, but at the same time they're making a gamble that has paid off for them in the past to tucker girls. It is in the first high profile figure fox who's been fired right bill, a rally glenn back the tea party star in Glenn back sin along with surveillance, was also far by fox as a contributor right. Their sins were that they thought they were bigger than fox fox. Wants these hosts to know that no one has ever bigger than the network itself. Tucker karlsson thought he was bigger than the network sky. Remember was floated as a possible presidential contender he's quoted on the record, saying that no one tells him
to do he can put whatever he wants essentially into his scripts. Well, what fox news said on Monday is no you're, not bigger than fox hears the door and by the way you are only who you are because we gave you that eight p m timeslot, I'm pretty confident and history has shown that they can put
a relatively unknown untested person into that
very highly rated slot and it'll probably do well because there's just so many people who watch fox and foxes so good at giving its audience what it wants. It doesn't necessarily have to be Tucker.
in the anchor chair. Doing that right. The lesson here being from fox, weaken, make you and weaken breaking
and then we can replace you and do the whole thing all over again, and that is something that the murdoch's have always shown. They are not afraid of doing so. If we know that there's a fox without Tucker carlson guess the question becomes. Is there a tucker carlson without
fox or, as is usually the case with multi million dollar contracts like he has there's a non,
heat, so he will have restrictions on what he is able to do and it may preclude any type of television for quite some time. That doesn't mean that he's done
but in the case of glenn back and bill, o reilly
you don't really hear much about them anymore. I mean yes, they have shown
they have followings the loyal
hard to always tuned in when they were on fox, but that's a much smaller
It's not right! It's a good lesson for every journalist out there. I mean what are you without the platform of your news organization? That's the lesson here. It's very humbling, well, Jeremy, once again in a very short week. Thank you for your time. We appreciate it. Thank you for having me
all the way back.
Here's what else you need today on Monday, the republican governor of
Dakota signed a law that would ban almost all abortions after the states highest court blocked of previous?
and from going into effect there last month, the law
makes north Dakota the fourteenth state where abortion is currently banned or merely banned at,
and yet another major media firing scene
and has pushed out don lemon a store anchor, and
host of the network's flagship morning show following on air
Comments he made in February that were one
we criticised as sexist level.
Had claimed that women, like republican presidential, candidate, Nicky, hailed or no longer in their prime after their twenties and thirties. He later apologized
kinds. Reports, lemons standing fell with both cnn audience and potential guess leading to his ouster
today's episode was produced by Carlos Prieto, nina feldman rom, zip code stella
and alex stir. It was ended.
By m J Davis, lip michael band
endless. A town contains
original music by damn power and marion lozano
and was engineered by Chris? Would our theme? Music is binding
one borg and then transfer of wonder
The
thats it for today, I'm michel bar
Seed.
Transcript generated on 2023-04-27.