Tucker Carlson, an iconic Fox News presenter who hosted a much-watched evening show on America’s favorite conservative channel, is stepping down with immediate effect, the channel announced on Monday.
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The resounding departure comes amid turmoil for Fox News, which last week was forced to agree to pay nearly $800 million to avoid an embarrassing libel lawsuit over its coverage of the 2020 presidential election.
“Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” Fox News said in a terse statement. “We thank him for his services to the channel as a host and, before that, as a consultant”, adds the channel.
Fox Corporation shares fell nearly 5% on Wall Street in the wake of the announcement.
“Enemy of lies”
At the head of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” since 2016, the fifties had become one of the most influential voices in conservative America, accused of popularizing conspiracy and racist theses.
He appeared relaxed, eating pizza and telling viewers, “See you Monday!” during his Friday show, which will therefore be the last since he must be replaced on Monday on this strategic slot, at prime time, said the channel, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
Opposed to abortion, great defender of the right to bear arms, the presenter has never hesitated to expose his opinions in a program which claims, on its site, “the sworn enemy of lies”, promising to “pose the questions you would ask – and to demand answers”.
Tucker Carlon “served as a bridge between Fox News and the most extreme fringes of the conservative base”, lambasted the progressive NGO Media Matters.
Despite the challenges, he was supported at all costs by Fox News. Until Monday.
Salt addition
Fox News did not give a reason for Tucker Carlson’s departure.
But a week ago, the chain had to sign a $787.5 million agreement with the electronic voting machine company Dominion, to avoid a libel lawsuit over the 2020 presidential election.
The same evening, Tucker Carlson devoted his usual monologues to the Democrats, who would incite young people to violence, before carrying out an interview with the boss of Tesla and owner of Twitter, Elon Musk.
At the time of Donald Trump’s indictment, Tucker Carlson denounced “a political purge”, dropping this sentence: “It’s probably not the best time to part with your (assault rifle) AR-15”.
Interviewed Monday evening on Newsmax, another favorite channel of American conservatives, Donald Trump said he was “stunned” by the departure of the host.
“I think Tucker was great (…). He was great for me,” said the former US president.
Fox News, launched in 1996 to compete with CNN, remains solidly in first place in cable in terms of audience ratings.
Coincidence of the calendar? CNN also announced on Monday that it was parting ways with one of its star presenters, Don Lemon. The latter had sparked controversy by suggesting that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, 51, was “on the comeback”.