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Fox Parts Ways With Extremist Host Tucker Carlson

Fox News in a press release Monday that they had parted ways with primetime host Tucker Carlson, effective immediately.

The announcement said that 鈥淢r. Carlson鈥檚 last program was Friday, April 21st,鈥 meaning that the host would not have the opportunity to say farewell to his 鈥淭ucker Carlson Tonight鈥 audience, which was the .

Whether or not Fox News bosses intended it, in firing Carlson they deplatformed 鈥渢he main conduit for the 鈥榞reat replacement鈥 conspiracy theory into the Republican Party,鈥 according to Madeline Peltz, Media Matters for America (MMFA) deputy director of rapid response, who spoke to Hatewatch by telephone on Monday afternoon.

The Los Angeles Times 聽that the instruction to terminate Carlson had come directly from Rupert Murdoch, CEO and chairman of News Corp, which owns Fox News.

The newspaper also reported that the dismissal was related to two concerns: a lawsuit filed by former Fox employee Abby Grossberg, which alleges that she faced sexism and a hostile work environment; and Carlson鈥檚 coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, which Carlson repeatedly alleged had been deliberately provoked by federal government agents.

Carlson鈥檚 false assertions that a rally attendee, Ray Epps, was a government provocateur were debunked in 聽on Sunday night. The program included an in-depth interview with Epps, who said that he had to sell his house and go into hiding due to death threats from supporters of former President Donald Trump.

Peltz said that she did not know why Carlson was fired, but that 鈥渉istory suggests that this kind of dismissal at Fox News has often been related to personal behavior鈥 arising from 鈥渢he culture of sexual harassment that started under founding CEO, Roger Ailes.鈥

Former Fox News anchor Bill O鈥橰eilly was 聽in the wake of a sexual harassment lawsuit.

The termination appeared to catch Carlson and the network by surprise. 聽Carlson was not informed until Monday morning, the day of his dismissal, that the show would no longer air. At the end of Friday night鈥檚 show, he told his viewers, 鈥淲e'll be back on Monday.鈥 Also on Monday morning, the network had been promoting a yet-to-be-aired interview with right-wing entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Semafor that Carlson's executive producer, Justin Wells, had also parted ways with Fox News. Wells was named along with Carlson and other members of his production team in Grossberg's civil complaint as contributing to the alleged "misogynistic environment that permeates Fox News."

Hatewatch emailed a Fox News media spokesperson for comment but received no response.

Since Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential race, Carlson had been one of several Fox hosts who promoted false narratives of a stolen election.

He was also one of several hosts who accused Dominion Voting Systems, a manufacturer of voting machines, of colluding in election-rigging. Those claims were the subject of a lawsuit from Dominion that Fox News settled out of court for a 聽$787.5 million last week.

Carlson began hosting 鈥淭ucker Carlson Tonight鈥 on Fox News on Nov. 14, 2016, a week after the election of Donald Trump. He immediately began promoting views that were even more extreme than those of other Fox commentators, especially on race and immigration.

Along with false election narratives, Carlson was influential in bringing narratives about a false 鈥 great replacement 鈥 conspiracy to replace white Americans and Europeans with non-white immigrants from the Global South.

This started almost as soon as he took over the show: In April 2017, he referred to immigration to Europe as an 鈥渋nvasion,鈥 and in December 2017, he told viewers that Democrats wanted to use a 鈥渇lood of illegals鈥 to bring about 鈥渄emographic replacement.鈥

Carlson repeatedly offered a platform to white nationalists including Scott Greer, former Daily Caller editor and ; former Rep. Steve King; and Andrew Torba, the founder of extremist-friendly social media platform Gab.

He also voiced fringe racial grievances in an apparent effort to give them greater cultural salience. In July 2017, he used the slur 鈥済ypsies鈥 in reference to Roma asylum seekers in Pennsylvania and said they had 鈥渓ittle regard for either the law or public decency.鈥

In August 2018, Carlson presented a segment on land reform in South Africa, adopting the South African far right鈥檚 characterization of the process as 鈥渞ace-based land seizures." After the Tucker segment, then-President Trump tweeted about the issue.

Fox News did not nominate a permanent successor to Carlson, saying Monday that his chair would be filled by 鈥渞otating Fox News personalities until a new host is named.鈥

Hatewatch attempted to contact Carlson for comment via email, but there was no immediate response.

Photo credit: ZUMA Press, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo

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