The polemicist Tucker Carlson is leaving the US Cable giant Fox News.
The move was announced by the cable network this afternoon. The anchor’s last show was on Friday just days the station’s parent company settled a defamation lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.
Once seen as untouchable, the popular US TV show host is at the forefront of a firestorm threatening to engulf Fox while angering presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump, of whom a conspiracy theory-laden political cause he championed and who his Fox audience loves.
“FOX News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” the network said, noting Carlson aired his final show last Friday.
The company gave no reason for Carlson’s departure. Last week, Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5mn to settle its lawsuit alleging the network defamed it by repeatedly promoting Donald Trump’s baseless lies about the 2020 election.
Court filings attached to the $1.6bn Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit accuse Fox News of allowing its stars to broadcast false accusations about rigged voting machines in the 2020 presidential election.
The documents contained numerous emails detailing the private views and concerns of senior Fox management and its stars, which often seemed at odds with what they were publicly broadcasting to their audience.
