Samuel Case, FISM News
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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson released a video statement on Wednesday night, marking his comments since leaving the network on Monday.
“One of the first things you realize, when you step outside the noise for a few days, is how many genuinely nice people there are in this country. Kind and decent people, people who really care about what is true, and a bunch of hilarious people,” Carlson began. “It’s got to be the majority of the population, even now. So that’s heartening.”
Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023
“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he continued. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who has participated.”
Carlson lamented that the “undeniably big topics” are never discussed in the media.
War, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power, natural resources. When was the last time you heard a legitimate debate about any of those issues? It’s been a long time. Debates like that are not permitted in American media. Both political parties and their donors have reached a consensus on what benefits them and they actively collude to shut down any debate about it. Suddenly, the United States looks a lot like a one-party state.
However, Carlson says the current “orthodoxies” can’t last. “They’re brain-dead. Nobody actually believes them. Hardly anybody’s life is improved by them,” he said. “This moment is too inherently ridiculous to continue, and so it won’t.”
“When honest people say what is true, calmly and without embarrassment, they become powerful,” he continued. “At the same time, the liars who have been trying to silence them shrink, and they become weaker. That is the iron law of the universe. True things prevail.
“Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There are not many places left, but there are some and it is enough. As long as you can hear the words, there is hope,” he concluded.
Carlson signed off saying, “See you soon.”
THE MOTIVE
Carlson did not address his departure from Fox News and the official reason for his ouster remains unknown.
A new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests it might be the result of disparaging remarks he allegedly made about colleagues and higher-ups at the network, including allegedly referring to one senior female executive as the c-word.
Meanwhile, Vanity Fair reports that Carslon may have been shown the door for using overly religious language at Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary Gala, where he suggested United States politics are in a spiritual battle between “good” and “evil.”
A source told the outlet that Fox chairman Rupert Murdock, who also owns the Wall Street Journal, found Carlson’s language “too extreme,” saying “That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk.”
Separately, the Los Angeles Times suggested Carlson was let go for his recent controversial coverage of the Jan. 6 2021 capitol riot and that former news producer Abby Grossberg’s discrimination lawsuit against Carlson also reportedly played a role in his ouster.
MORE POPULAR THAN EVER?
In the most recent ratings quarter, Carlson averaged about three million viewers a night on Fox News. With more than twice as many viewers as any show on any other news network, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” was second in cable news only to Fox News’s 5 p.m. show “The Five.”
But social media and the internet offer Carlson a potential reach that makes even the most successful cable news show seem almost irrelevant.
As of this publication, Tucker’s video post on Twitter has 51.5 million views in just over 15 hours.
Journalist Benny Johnson and psychologist and popular author Jordan Peterson both pointed to Carlson’s removal as marking the end of cable news giants.
Tucker Carlson @TuckerCarlson just cancelled @FoxNews https://t.co/Ep6rQTODV0
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) April 27, 2023