Fox News Scheming to Silence Tucker Carlson and Sideline Him Through 2024 Election
Breitbart
Fox News is trying to sideline former Tucker Carlson Tonight host Tucker Carlson through the 2024 election, multiple sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News.
Carlson’s current contract runs through December 2024, and as of now three sources familiar with the matter told Breitbart News that executives at the network are trying to keep Carlson on contract and not release him until after the 2024 election. The shocking decision to cancel Carlson’s top-rated weeknight program came just days after the network shut down its top-rated weekend program with host Dan Bongino. What follows here is an insider account from people actually in the know after Breitbart News spent the past several days interviewing key players in the personnel matters at Fox News, asking what really happened.
Two things are clear from speaking to people who actually know what’s happening on the inside: First, the official narrative from the network is untrue. Second, and perhaps more importantly, many of the leaks and speculation that have poured out in the past couple days since the bombshell news of Carlson’s show getting canceled was announced are also simply untrue.
Nobody would speak on the record, for a number of reasons. First off, Fox News and the broader Murdoch empire are known for their ruthlessness against anyone who speaks the truth about what is actually happening there. Network spokeswoman Irena Briganti is believed to use outlets also owned by the Murdochs like the New York Post and Wall Street Journal to plant pieces that reflect poorly on foes of News Corporation.
Secondly, both Carlson and Bongino are technically still under contract by the network. Bongino’s contract runs through the end of April and Carlson’s through the 2024 general election. Both are, sources say, trying to negotiate exit packages—and even after they formally have those agreements in place, there will be non-disparagement clauses that prevent them from ever speaking the truth about this.
In response to requests for comment on this story, Fox News spokespersons just reissued to Breitbart News the same public statements that the network issued when announcing Carlson’s and Bongino’s departures.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways,” the Fox News statement on Carlson reads. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.”
“We thank Dan for his contributions and wish him success in his future endeavors,” the Fox News statement on Bongino reads.
The brazen power play by the Murdoch family—at the helm of which is elderly patriarch Rupert Murdoch, but rising in power are his sons Lachlan and James Murdoch—is like a scene out of the hit HBO show Succession.
They wiped out their biggest shows both on weekends and on weekdays to show the rest of the staff who’s the real boss, but in effect insiders say they have created a crisis that is quickly burgeoning out of control. In Succession, an aging media mogul, Logan Roy, navigates major business decisions for his sprawling empire while his children aggressively use whatever leverage they have to manipulate goings-on to advance their own positions. While Rupert Murdoch is said to hate the show, its plot is actually very close to what is happening in real life at Fox Corporation—Fox News’s parent company—as the adult children of Rupert Murdoch make moves in their bid to succeed their father.
“As of right now, the plan remains the same: pay out Carlson’s contract and keep him on the sidelines through the 2024 elections,” one source close to Fox News senior executives told Breitbart News. “They knew they would take a beating for this, but everyone — and I mean everyone — is pretty rattled. They weren’t expecting the blowback to be this bad. Hate to say it, but it’s clear that Rupert has lost a step or two.”
That is objectively true: The “blowback” has been severe this week, as evidenced by a steep drop in Fox News ratings in the 8:00 p.m. ET hour day over day:
In fact, replacement host Brian Kilmeade lost to MSNBC in all ratings–and lost to CNN and MSNBC in the key demographic–on Wednesday night.
Multiple other sources told Breitbart News this detail about Carlson’s contract. “He’s still not fired, you know that right?” another Fox News source said about Carlson. “His contract is still ongoing.”
A third source close to Carlson also said it, noting that the Murdochs may end up trying to hold Carlson in his contract through the next presidential election to effectively silence him and keep him from becoming serious competition to them, whatever he ends up doing.
Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly also reported that detail on her show on Thursday, saying that Carlson and Fox News are negotiating his exit and that while his show is canceled and he has been kicked out of his company email address, his contract is still in effect, which keeps him from doing something else.
Former Top Fox News host and insider Megyn Kelly reveals Tucker not actually FIRED from Fox yet— This is what's REALLY happening…
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) April 27, 2023
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