It’s the end of an era. Tucker Carlson, the king of cable news ratings and the most influential right-wing populist commentator in America, is out at Fox News.
And it was all a complete surprise. Fox News released a statement just a few sentences long on Monday noting that Fox News and Carlson “have agreed to part ways” and brusquely thanked him for his “service to the network and prior to that as a contributor.” Notably, the release said that Carlson’s last show was last week — meaning he isn’t getting a farewell episode or an opportunity to explain what happened on-air. The news was so abrupt that promos for his show were running on Fox News as of Monday morning.
American political life likely will be enriched by Carlson’s exit from his mega-influential perch.
The exact reason for Carlson’s departure remains unclear. It comes on the heels of Fox News’ massive $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems over Fox’s false claims about Dominion conducting voter fraud with its machines. But Carlson was just one of many hosts who trafficked in evidence-free conspiracy theories about Dominion, so that alone doesn’t explain it. But regardless of why this happened, American political life likely will be enriched by Carlson’s exit from his mega-influential perch.
Carlson has dominated primetime cable news for years — he’s held the 8 p.m. primetime slot at Fox News since 2017. His unrivaled viewership at Fox and among American cable news more broadly was due to a combination of content and style. Substantively speaking, his migration to hardline right-wing nationalism positioned him as the premier Trump-era talking head; he appeared to be a true believer in the shift in American conservatism ushered in by Trump’s rise, stoking fears about immigration, national identity and cultural purity. Some of this was sincere — Carlson was an early and rare critic on the right of the Iraq War, long before it became fashionable; some of it…
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