Following the cancellation of his program, it became evident that Fox News wanted to force its once top commentator-host Tucker Carlson to finish out his $8 million-per-year deal until it expired in 2025 than to buy him out and lose him to a rival network.
Now that Tucker has moved on and is doing better than ever, Fox is hitting Tucker’s old staffers.
As Fox reveals a new primetime roster, Daily Caller has reported that the network has terminated the remaining employees who served on Tucker’s program.
In a move dubbed “shockingly callous” by one former Fox News producer who spoke to the Daily Caller, the network got rid of at least nine of its remaining employees, including long-serving producers.
The producer informed the Daily Caller that “some of the fired producers have been at Fox for well over a decade.”
Another former Fox producer claimed to the Daily Caller that members of Carlson’s team were frequently assured that their positions would be secure once he departed the network, most recently last week when two of Carlson’s producers quit the station.
Fox did not keep their word.
Now, Tucker is looking to shake up the industry even more.
Carlson is raising funds to start a new media venture, Puck News reported.
“Carlson is reportedly fundraising for the venture with a “vast majority” of his former Fox News staff set to join him,” the Daily Caller added on Thursday.
“It’s increasingly possible that the Twitter show is a top-of-funnel play for other things Tucker may soon have cooking,” Puck News’ Dylan Byers wrote. “In fact, I am told he is raising capital to launch a new company that may yet prove more influential.”
“Tucker’s new media play might – if executed adroitly – serve as a paradigm for a generation of TV news personalities with huge followings and fandoms who remain marooned to their desks amid shrinking audiences,” Byers added.
In April, Tucker Carlson was informed by network executives that he was being fired as part of Fox News’ significant $787.5 million defamation deal with Dominion Voting Systems.
“In the latest development to come three weeks after Carlson was removed from his role at the network on April 24, it has been reported that one of Fox Corp.’s eight board members was the one to tell the fired host that his ‘recent benching’ was the result of the secret condition in the Dominion settlement,” leftwing Rolling Stone magazine reported.
“According to Variety, the conversation between Carlson and the board member took place on April 26 – two days after the network announced Carlson’s involuntary departure from the company. The board member also reportedly told Carlson that the secret condition ensuring Carlson’s canning would not be found in any of the $787.5 million defamation settlement documents because it was a verbal agreement,” the article added.
Dominion Voting Systems representatives denied that any covert agreements had been struck.
Tucker has since moved on and is reaching more people than ever.
In a video heralding his return, he said, “There aren’t many platforms left that allow free speech,” “The last big one remaining in the world, the only one is Twitter, where we are now.”
“Twitter’s not a partisan site. Everyone’s allowed here, and we think that’s a good thing.”
We’re back. pic.twitter.com/sG5t9gr60O
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 9, 2023
The former producer was informed by staff members that the firings were obviously a “anti-Tucker move to purge any of his remaining stamp he had on the network as Fox begins this new lineup change.”
The information was released shortly after Fox News declared that Jesse Watters will take Carlson’s position at 8:00 p.m.
Some very well-known conservative commentators chimed in.
EXCLUSIVE: Sources have told me Fox News has just terminated the rest of @TuckerCarlson‘s former staff. They want the nine remaining employees to continue working until mid-July.
— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) June 26, 2023
According to a press statement from Fox News, Watters, who launched his career hosting a Man on the Street segment during Bill O’Reilly’s program at 8:00 p.m., will take over the hour.
While Greg Gutfeld moves his show to the 10:00 p.m. time slot, Laura Ingraham will take over Watters’ 7:00 p.m. time slot. Sean Hannity will continue to air at 9:00 p.m.
Just days after the network said it was cutting ties with Dan Bongino, Fox announced in late April that it was cutting ties with Carlson. Since then, Carlson has started hosting his own show on Twitter, leading to a major legal spat between Fox News and the co-founder of the Daily Caller.
In the middle of June, Fox News sent a “cease and desist” letter to Carlson, claiming that he had broken his contract by posting the premiere of his show on Twitter in violation of the non-compete agreement.
Fox had a team gut Tucker’s old studio at his personal barn of their equipment.
Tucker converted an old barn into a studio (pictured) with the help of a local carpenter
In May, according to Patrick Feeney, the project manager in charge of renovating Tucker’s barn, “Fox came in last week and got all their s*** out of” Carlson’s home studio in Woodstock, Maine.
“They took the set and everything, all the equipment, the chairs, the desk, the fake walls, everything,” he added.
According to the Daily Mail, the change was made just as Carlson was about to begin webcasting on the platform which billionaire Elon Musk purchased last year.
There’s reason to believe why Fox is taking such a strong line against Carlson, even if it does seem a little bit vindictive on their part.
“He was the network’s most popular host, and his dismissal renewed criticism from conservatives who have become disenchanted with the network’s coverage during and after the 2020 election,” The Western Journal noted.
Source, Daily Caller.
The post Tucker’s Big New Plan Revealed appeared first on The Republic Brief.