Tucker out at FoxNews
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The Murdochs' Ukraine connection
THE SCOOP
Fox News Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch held a previously unreported call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this spring in which the two discussed the war and the anniversary of the deaths of Fox News journalists last March. The Ukrainian president had a similar conversation with Lachlan Murdoch on March 15, which Zelenskyy noted in a little-noticed aside during a national broadcast last month.
The conversations came weeks before the Murdochs fired their biggest star and most outspoken critic of American support for Ukraine, Tucker Carlson. Senior Ukrainian officials had made their objections to Carlson’s coverage known to Fox executives, but Zelenskyy did not raise it on the calls with the Murdochs, according to one person familiar with the details of the calls.
MAX'S VIEW
The Murdoch’s have not revealed which of Carlson’s many provocations triggered his firing, and there’s no particular suggestion that Zelenskyy — whom Carlson had called a “dictator” — delivered the final blow.
But Carlson’s firing will immediately relieve pressure on key Capitol Hill Ukraine supporters whom Carlson had criticized on air — and sometimes pressed behind the scenes to change their positions on the war.
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul has been one of the most outspoken Republican supporters of the US support for Ukraine, stepping out of line to occasionally reprimand figures in his own party who do not share his views on the subject.
In a segment last year, the Fox News host told viewers that the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee had privately called his show “Russian disinformation.”
“In other words, not only are we wrong — which is fine — we are disloyal Americans. We’re doing the bidding of a foreign power,” Carlson said. “That is not fine, that is slander.”
According to two people familiar with the conversation, the then-Fox News host also made his displeasure to McCaul known in a tense private conversation in which Carlson criticized the congressman’s comments, describing the congressman as having a low IQ. (Both Carlson and McCaul’s office declined to discuss the conversation).
The populist Republican right remains hostile to the war effort and at times openly sympathetic to Russia. But none of Fox’s other top figures seem to share Carlson’s zeal.
"Clearly, he spooked a lot of members into not being fully supportive of Ukraine," a senior Republican congressional aide told Semafor. Carlson's ouster, the aide added, "probably reduces the loudest voice out there against U.S. support."
Regardless of the reason for Carlson’s departure, more moderate pro-Ukraine members of the Republican caucus on the Hill are not hiding their relief.
“There have been some that have argued that he was setting foreign policy for the Republican Party, which I find to be bizarre. Certainly not for me,” Sen. Mitt Romney told the Hill. “To the primary [Republican] voter, the active participant, the grassroot voter, he’s a person they listen to and has a big influence.”
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I don't think that firing him because of his statements regarding Ukraine would be a bad thing at all.
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In a segment last year, the Fox News host told viewers that the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee had privately called his show “Russian disinformation.”
“In other words, not only are we wrong — which is fine — we are disloyal Americans. We’re doing the bidding of a foreign power,” Carlson said. “That is not fine, that is slander.”
He’s wrong. For something to be slander it has to be false.
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Rogan: "If I were in charge of Fox News, I'd make sure that we have him locked up with NDA's non-competes...etc."
4:40
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Well that would be stupid of him.
If Dominion got $770B from FOX without any actual clips of FOX actually saying Dominion did anything, then Newsmax (who actually did slander Dominion and reported the allegations as fact) is about to go bankrupt.
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$100,000,000
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@Jolly said in Tucker out at FoxNews:
Kelly has over 1M followers on YT and her podcast is a Top 10. Her show is also on Sirrius on the Triumph Channel.
She's doing quite well.
Not that she is not doing well compared to a lot of YouTubers and podcasters. How is the Megyn today compared to the Megyn just before she left Fox News?
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@Axtremus said in Tucker out at FoxNews:
How is the Megyn today compared to the Megyn just before she left Fox News?
Did she have a million viewers every night?
I get that "followers" doesn't translate into daily viewers, of course. But even if that number is only ⅓ of her followers, it's still bigger than anyone on CNN.
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@Axtremus said in Tucker out at FoxNews:
@Jolly said in Tucker out at FoxNews:
Kelly has over 1M followers on YT and her podcast is a Top 10. Her show is also on Sirrius on the Triumph Channel.
She's doing quite well.
Not that she is not doing well compared to a lot of YouTubers and podcasters.
Imbecilic. The vast, vast, vast majority of channels don't even come close to her following.
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FOX PRODUCER SEAN LANGILLE: They gave them [Dominion] money. They say it wasn’t part of it. But we’re learning that, Tucker getting fired was part of that.
UNDERCOVER REPORTER: Tucker getting fired was part of the Dominion lawsuit? Well, so did Tucker leave or did you guys part ways or Tucker was ousted?
LANGILLE: Yeah, he was ousted. Well, he brought up things that cost the company a lot of money…That, that was part of it. He was going to go after this whole thing about January 6 was… It was an inside job. He went after this guy Ray Epps, he said he was an FBI agent on the inside…. And basically encouraged it. He was going to go on the air and refute what that guy said on 60 Minutes.
LANGILLE: The other thing with Tucker that is interesting is everyone’s afraid we are losing so many viewers and money. I’m like well actually, there’s a bunch of advertisers that said we’re not going to advertise that 8 o’clock hour.
So now that he’s gone, they’re starting to come back…
It’s Big Pharma. Which is crazy because we would do all the stuff about COVID vaccines—and we’re getting money from Pfizer…
Big Pharma, Big Tech.
LANGILLE: When it’s corporate media, you’re beholden to advertisers.
Yeah, it’s across the board kind of like that, where you don’t want to piss off advertisers.