Tucker Carlson’s fate is still a hot topic of conversation and speculation one week after his eponymous show was unceremoniously axed from Fox News. More and more speculation about why his show was terminated is swirling, too.
On December 13, 2018, Tucker Carlson did a segment on the effects of massive, uncontrolled, and often illegal immigration from poor countries. Tucker showed videos of caravans of illegal immigrants coming to our borders, and of the piles of garbage they left behind. Tucker explained how this was hurting America in many ways. He criticized political leaders of both parties and business elites for ignoring the problem.
Tucker agreed that most of the immigrants themselves were “nice people”. However, he concluded:
“But as an economic matter this is insane. It’s indefensible, so no one even tries to defend it. Instead, our leaders demand that you shut up and accept this. We have a moral obligation to admit the world’s poor, they tell us, even if it makes our country poorer and dirtier and more divided.”
Everything Tucker Carlson said was true, undisputed, and reasonable. It had all been said many times by many political leaders and economic experts. In 2016, candidate Donald Trump won widespread, mainstream support by promising to fix these problems. Trump promised a border wall and strict enforcement of immigration laws. Tucker Carlson was correct to remind his viewers of how the leaders of both parties were ignoring this critical issue.
However, the Left used Tucker’s December 13, 2018 program to begin an orchestrated campaign to eliminate Tucker Carlson’s program, and possibly the entire Fox News network, from cable television. [snip]
Within days, at least 26 mainstream corporate sponsors publicly announced that they would no longer sponsor the Tucker Carlson program.
The argument is that without first-tier corporate sponsorship, a primetime slot couldn’t be indefinitely sustained, and Carlson was doomed. If that’s true, then the Leftists got another scalp, even though it took them a while.
On the other hand, I have a hard time believing that it was just a money issue. You can’t tell me that a behemoth like Fox News Corp couldn’t sustain their top rated program? There were other ways to make up the budget, I’m sure. They could cut loose any number of other personalities like, say, Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham.
Surprisingly, Carlson is still employed by Fox News, according to Carlson himself.
Fox’s firing of the most-watched host on cable news, Tucker Carlson, is still roiling Leftists and patriots alike, but now Carlson himself has said that it didn’t actually happen at all. In a text message to the news analysis site 19FortyFive, Carlson said flatly: “I’m still employed by Fox.” This doesn’t mean, however, that all is forgiven and that his show will be back on the air Monday. On the contrary, it could hinder Carlson’s plans to take his truth-telling elsewhere. [snip]
… Fox could conceivably muzzle Carlson and prevent him from being able to go anywhere else. The network could simply pay him to do nothing.
That would depend, however, on Fox having any funds to pay him with, and if it continues to lose viewers at the rate it’s been losing them since it deep-sixed Carlson’s show, it might find it more profitable to release him from his contract rather than silence him, whether out of spite or out of a desire to please the Leftist establishment.
In spite of that, TMZ is reporting that Newsmax has made overtures to Carlson, and not just with money.
Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ … the news channel is doing everything it can to sweeten the deal for Tucker to come on board — including floating the idea of letting him program the whole channel, not just his own show.
That would be a pretty enticing deal point … in addition to having his own primetime show, Tucker would have a say over what shows lead into and out of his show, which can be key in achieving bigger TV ratings.
While our sources stress Newsmax hasn’t formally offered Tucker a job — he can’t have formal discussions due to his current Fox News contract — we’re told the network execs have made it clear to people around him, they would basically give him a big say in rebranding their channel.
I don’t know how much credibility to give what is essentially a gossip site, but if they say, “sources with direct knowledge …” it is probably credible. Newsmax’s ratings have risen since Carlson was shown the door over at Fox.
For example, the week before Carlson’s ouster, Eric Bolling’s 8 p.m. show on Newsmax drew 146,000 viewers while going head-to-head with Carlson. Last week, Bolling had 531,000 viewers and upped that on Tuesday to 562,000, putting his show at what the Times said was 80 percent of Anderson Cooper’s CNN audience that night.
With all of this still very much in play, I was impressed by Doug Wilson’s commentary as he listens to Carlson’s speech to the Heritage Foundation. Wilson suggests we all pray for Tucker Carlson. If you have the time, I highly recommend that you listen to the whole thing.
