Succession Sunday to media purge Monday: Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon both out at their networks
FOX News announced that it had "parted ways" with Tucker Carlson, while Don Lemon claimed he learned of his CNN firing through his agent
Aux News Tucker Carlson
There’s something Succession-esque in the air at the major news conglomerates today as two major hosts have parted ways with their respective networks. Both Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon are departing from FOX News and CNN respectively, coming after both anchors took reputation hits for speaking negatively about conservative personalities (in very different contexts).
Following a scandal in which Lemon said “Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime,” the journalist has been “terminated by CNN,” in his own words. “I am stunned. After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly,” Lemon, who apparently learned of his firing though his agent, said in a statement posted to social media. “At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. It is clear that there are some larger issues at play.” He went on to thank his colleagues and “wish them all the best.” (CNN called Lemon’s statement “inaccurate,” and claimed he was “offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”)
Meanwhile, the unholy union of Carlson and FOX was dissolved in a brief statement from the network which reads: “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.”
While the text suggests a mutual breakup, the fact that Carlson is gone without so much as a goodbye does not suggest an amicable one. His “last program was Friday April 21st” and Fox News Tonight will heretofore be “helmed by rotating FOX News personalities until a new host is named.”
There is no bigger FOX News personality than Tucker Carlson, which is why his exit is major news. It is not, however, entirely out of the blue, as the recent lawsuit between Fox Corp. and Dominion Voting Systems exposed messages from Carlson in which the public Donald Trump supporter privately revealed he hated the ex-president “passionately” (per NPR). He also criticized the network, writing to colleagues that “We devote our lives to building an audience and they let [Fox News Sunday host] Chris Wallace and [correspondent and anchor] Leland fucking Vittert wreck it.”
Safe to say, at least in Carlson’s case, many out there are feeling the schadenfreude. “I am so loving this,” Joy Behar tweeted in response to the news. “Wait – did I miss some thing [sic] did the groveling fishsticks fascists get canned ?” John Cusack wrote on his own Twitter. “Just [goes] to show – blind pathological loyalty and groveling bootlicking ghoulish debasement to fascists – gets you on nothing.” The View led its audience in a rousing rendition of “Goodbye.”
Meanwhile, Daily Show correspondent Roy Wood Jr. took the opportunity to angle for a job. “Aye @FoxNews, while the Daily Show is figuring things out, happy to swing by and guest host for a week. Resume’ is attached,” he tweeted, before quickly adding, “Hold that thought @FoxNews …@CNN, hey big head.” Chrissy Teigen joked that the “correspondents dinner convo about to be *lit*” while MSNBC host Chris Hayes merely tweeted, “Wow,” followed by a Hunger Games salute gif. Meanwhile, over on Succession Twitter, fans have already picked a replacement.
118 Comments
I’ve seen some try to say that the fact Tucker was simply cosplaying as a white supremacist, mitigates his bullshit. To me it’s actually worse.
but but but wait…I was only PRETENDING to be a Nazi! It’s all good, right guys?
— Prince Harry
That’s why he was fired. Fox wants to be in the business of Donald Trump, so they spent extra billions so they wouldn’t have to admit to their audience The Big Steal narrative was a coordinated lie and they made the necessary fatted calf sacrifice to Lovecraft’s personal eldritch gods of fascism so the audience wouldn’t realize they were being played and they’re secretly despised.
well said.
“Fox wants to be in the business of Donald Trump”No they don’t. Rupert can’t stand Trump, and the only reason they still even give his narrative the time of day is because there is a necessary cult base that Trump has built on the right.In a network that depends on the right for all of their revenue, you can’t ostracize the Trump camp if you want (and Rupert definitely wants) the GOP to win the WH anytime soon, and keep high ratings as well.Murdoch desperately wants somebody else (like Ron DeSantis) to be the GOP candidate, but little Ronnie is hard at work self-torpedoing his candidacy
“No they don’t.”
Of course they do.
I remember Keith Olbermann once made the observation that Rupert Murdoch’s networks overseas run the political gamut, left to right, depending on where the audience is. FOX Corporation is all about money, not politics. Murdoch will embrace any ideology that will make a buck.
I don’t see how he’d be able to rebrand Faux Noise into a left-friendly network, especially since in cable 24 hour news, the lucrative spot is for Right Wing propaganda, not left.
Of course he wouldn’t try to rebrand Fox News, it’s a cash cow.The point I’m making is that Murdoch himself couldn’t care less about ideology. He does, however, care a lot about ratings and making tons of money. He’s happy to let the circus continue as long as it creates revenue.I doubt Murdoch lost sleep over Carlson’s antisemitism and misogyny. His big sin wasn’t all the on-air antics, it was being at the center of a nearly $800 million loss in the Dominion settlement, with more to come in the Smartmatic lawsuit.
That and Rupes has been trying to move on from Trump (who even HE doesn’t like) and Carlson has been apparently unwilling to push the new narrative.
When you look at net worth, Murdoch is worth north of $21 billion. I can see how he’d consider Trump small potatoes. The only reason he supported him was to benefit from the clown show.
I mean there’s a huge white space for Fox News to occupy, while other networks battle one another for the left-leaning crowd. Good business.
Murdoch like the rest of the 1% is only in it for the tax breaks and couldn’t give a damn how much damage they do to get them.
The cynicism at play here is really something to behold. The timing of this strongly implies that they wanted to dump him after the communications were leaked but held onto him just long enough to make sure he couldn’t hurt them in the Dominion suit before immediately dropping him. I hope he realizes how badly they played him here.
But…he wasn’t dropped because some clever hacker got into his personal phone; he’s being fired for stuff he wrote down and sent to people who work for the network, most in highly ranked positions. There is no credible way they can act like they didn’t know his views on all this. It’s both hilarious and incontrovertible proof of the contempt they hold for their audience’s intelligence that they think this might work.
And they’re probably right. Carlson was still somewhere between the 1-3rd highest rated cable news host even after his “real” thoughts on Trump became public knowledge. I’m not convinced any significant percentage of his audience would trust any news source willing to them what he said, which means they probably didn’t even need to do this.
It’s definitely worse.Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, dude, at least it’s an ethos.
I’ve heard the same about Limbaugh, and feel the same way.
Damn right it’s worse. A lot of these right wingers actually believe their bullshit, but at least they believe in it. Knowing what you’re doing is wrong but doing it anyway, misleading millions of people, enabling hatred and violence for a paycheck is way worse. Anyway, fuck all those people to death.
“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Mother Night
Say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it’s an ethos.
My sister in law (not a fascist) once said “he can’t really believe all that crap” and I asked her if that made it better or worse. She agreed with you. If he is saying racist, stupid, shit just to increase his own position by kicking disadvantaged people, it’s a lot worse.
shut up idiot, you think everyone who disagrees with you is a white supremacists
It’s definitely worse…
I posted this on the Jezebel thread, but it can’t be posted enough.
“Comrades, we sail into history!”
I hope he gets to see Montana!
I hope the goddamn cook shoots him.
Even Montana doesn’t deserve his presence. Idaho does.
Where the sun is warm….and so is the….”comradeship”
*excitedly makes ‘lady’s body motion’*
“You arrogant ass, you’ve killed US!”
Look at that stupid fucking face. How more people in life haven’t punched him in his face is amazing to me!To quote footloose “hey everybody, lets dance!”
Rand Paul and Ted Cruz also have that kind of face.Rand’s neighbor already went for it, lol.
Ha! Yup Rand’s Neighbor is the hero we all needed!
That and the dude who beat up Subway Jared in prison.American heroes.
100%!
Actually, RT is a likely landing place for him if Newsmax doesn’t hire him.
I’m not sure Newsmax has enough money to pay him—he was getting like $10M/yr from Rupert.
Good point. RT has carloads of rubles to give him. Which, coincidentally, is probably how much Russian currency it would physically take to make that kind of paycheck.
I betcha its going to be Watters or Tulsi. She already filled in for Tucker before.
It’s gonna be Tulsi. They’ll love having her in primetime to attack Democrats from her position as a former member.
Who guessed Brown Haired Guy Who’s Not Steve Doocey?At least for tonight.
Now, kiss.
Lmao. Yes, yes! Inject this right into my veins.
On Don Lemon, this was a case of the fact that he has said so many things belittling women over the years, various female staff at CNN were not going to let this most recent one go without a fight (nor should they). It is telling that even though his most recent comment was about a GOP candidate, his colleagues were still sick of it. The fact that the network said he was going to take sensitivity training while he was actually on a beach just fanned the flames internally even more.Good riddance to them both.
Lemon acting like this is a surprise is either spin (it’s spin) or he’s the least self aware person on earth.
It can be two things.
idk maybe he thought he could get away with it because he’s black and gay
You really cannot compare the two in any good faith.
I don’t think there is a comparison there. I personally dislike them for very different reasons. I happen to be glad both are gone.
He said some blatant sexist crap live on air while sitting next to his two female co-hosts about a month ago, right? I’m surprised he lasted this long after that. Not that what he said was any less offensive because there were women there or not, but its just the added effect of wow, could you be any more of a dumbass
He did and screamed at Kaitlan Collins off air for which he was put in time out for a few days.
Nah, he would have survived. The problem with Lemon is that his ratings SUCKED. Like pornstar levels of sucking. If the morning show he was moved to had even moderately decent ratings, I bet he survives. Since it didn’t, they figured the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze (as one of my favorite sports shows host says)
Tucker’s gone? I always wanted this. I’ve been waiting for this moment. And yet… I feel nothing. Amicable? Mutual? I don’t like these words. I want ‘shocked!’ I want ‘blind-sided!’ I want ‘under investigation.’ This doesn’t feel like enough. He caused so much harm. So, so much harm…And it’s bittersweet because of losing Don Lemon too. I said his move to mornings would be a mistake. Poppy Harlow sucks, and he got to find out. After getting into tizzy after tizzy with her, now he lost his job. Way to go, Don. Maybe he can join his buddy Cuomo over on *checks notes* News Nation?
I feel the same way about Tucker, not only because he won’t be investigated, but that he’ll be quickly rehired by someone else on the internet or maybe even by his friend Putin, where without censors, he’ll be free to spew even uglier shit.
Lateral slide to Newsmax with the All Newer All Braver All Non-Censoreder Tuckety Carlo Show in 3… 2…
under investigation of what? Do you just want to see your political rivals thrown in the gulag?
Cry about it.
ok, so nothing and you have no opinion or thought in your head. Congrats you’re actually a retarded person.
Ditto. It’s…fine, I guess. The phrase “land on his feet” doesn’t even apply here, because he isn’t even momentarily disadvantaged. He never needed to work in the first place, he’s worth half a billion dollars, etc.I’m hoping that this means damage to the extremist brand overall. Still some pending lawsuits, still more heads to roll, etc. But yeah…this is still gonna be a major problem.
I don’t think it will impact current viewership much at all. It will be interesting to see if, as the years go on and older viewers die, if there will be enough viewers to replace them. Do young Republicans watch Fox, or the channels even farther to the right like Newsmax or News Nation? Or are they internet people only?
If you check tv ratings sites like showbuzz daily, you see that the Fox News still does well in the 18-49 demo. Granted this is tv ratings only and TV’s impact has been shrinking for some time now, but that would point to a lot people, young and old, go to Fox News for their “news” on the right.
Bullshit it was mutual. He signed off his Friday show saying “see you Monday,” and the network reportedly ran promo’s for tonight’s show this morning, prior to the announcement.This might be Fox lawyers trying to mollify people on the other side of the Smartmatic lawsuit.
You are looking for “hit by a bus and died slowly.”
Lemon being sentenced to work with Harlow was already the warning shot. He didn’t heed it.
I think Lemon’s canning has been coming for a while. He has had a few fuck-ups here in the past couple years like getting way hammered on the NYE programming, the age thing, and he clashed with Kaitlan Collins where he screamed at her off camera and shocked everyone. He was off the air for a few days for that one too. He seems, like Tucker, that he was getting to big for his britches and thought he was above everyone else. By the sounds of it, off air, he was a handful, just like Tucker and his staff. Like someone said on SXM POTUS this morning “No one is larger than the network”…
Maybe he can join his buddy Cuomo over on *checks notes* News Nation?Had the same thought, though I don’t find his departure to be bittersweet, because I always felt he was dickish due to his high profile host status and thought the move to daytime was not of his choosing based off how he sounded disappointed when it went down, so his tizzies with his other hosts seemed like it was out of frustration from the forced move to me. As for Carlson, I’m a bit surprised, but won’t get my hopes up that he’ll fade into podcasting obscurity like other Fox castoffs. I think the mainstream media likes feeding off his negativity for shock value clicks…kind of like Trump was booted off Twitter, but the media still seems to love covering his “Truths” rants for the clicks.
According to the reporting today, from LAT and NYT (as well as a couple other outlets) Carlson was utter blindsided. His production team was working on tonight’s show this morning and they learned about his firing on Twitter. So we can feel good about that at least. According to the LAT the firing came straight from Murdoch and the impetus was the Grossberg harassment case. It doesn’t go into detail but the implication is that her evidence was already going to lead to Carlson’s firing and they’re getting ahead of what was already going to be an unwinnable case, along with the looming SmartMatic unwinnable case. Even then they would’ve probably parted with more warning, but apparently the Epps 60 Minutes episode last night, that made Carlson look like the psycho he is, was the final straw for Murdoch. There’s also reports that Carlson has hired a lawyer and is looking to fight his firing, but there not from outlets I have confidence in. That would be fucking delicious though. What an amazing lawsuit that would be. Liars fighting liars about who told them to lie and/or who lied the most. This also shows that Fox News is in an awesomely precarious position. You don’t fire the host of your top show unless you are doing some serious preemptive damage control. They can afford the Dominion settlement, but Dominion is also coming at their on air personalities individually. The SmartMatic suit is going to be a similar payout, which would actually be financially tough to swallow at that point. SmartMatic is also going after on air personalities individually. These cases against individuals open the doors to counter suits against Fox News, claiming they were forced to lie by Fox News execs, etc. To add to all Fox News is currently negotiating it’s carrier fees with the three biggest cable networks, which is where they make all their money. It’s turning into a massive shitshow and I’m loving it.
Thoughts and Prayers.
Is Brooke Alvarez available?
Now give me a Hannity or Ingraham hat trick!
Mark Levin is by far the most irritating personality left on Faux Noise.https://twitter.com/marklevinshow
Mark Levin is such a dunce. The dude wrote a whole book about “Cultural Marxism” (already a bad sign) and referred to the Frankfort School as the “Franklin School”. Every. Single. Time.But personally, of the remaining Fox News hosts, I find Jesse Watters to be far and away the most detestable.
Jesse is probably one of the top candidates to replace Tucker, sadly.Mark Levin is a guy you’d just love to put in a headlock.
What about Maria “NO INDOOR VOICE” Bartiromo?
She’s bad, but have you ever watched lil’ Baldy’s show or looked at his tweets?Just look at this picture and tell me you don’t want to stick his smirking head in the bowling ball polisher:
That’s a face that would be right at home on a Dreamworks Animation poster, all right.
May they all go the way of Rush Limbaugh sooner than later.
They canned Bongino last week.Does that count?
Maybe like a half…..still fine with it but want another biggie hitting the bricks….Lou Dobbs works too.
I’m confident enough in MSNBC that they won’t gloat more than level 1 on a 5 scale. Joy Reid though… her reaction should be delicious.Overall, I could see a full-on clean slate at FOX at night. There’s plenty of young SS she-wolves ready to leap on Laura. Hannity is looking kinda hangdog-ish, back to AM Radio for him. FOX’s real shining star is that they’ve paid Spectrum, Roku, et al to put them at Channel #1 or #2 on the guide. When I got Roku a couple years ago, Fox was preset as the first channel to pop on. How many Boomers just leave it that way because they don’t know how to switch that in their settings? A = All of them. Watch Tucker get Matt Schlapp’s job.
My mother in law hasn’t changed the channel in the past 2 weeks. Thankfully, it’s stuck on a regional sports network and not Fox News.
If you’re going to have a TV stuck on a channel for two weeks or more, a regional sports network sounds like a better option than most, really.
I agree, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t very interested in watching US professional rugby.
It was only shockingly recently that Tucker got his slot because Bill O’Reilly got shitcanned. They could put literally anybody in that slot and just say that trans Mexicans are coming to turn your kids socialist before eating them, and that random person will be a star.
Abso-fucking-lutely
I have a bad feeling this is the end of Carlson’s TV career but only the beginning of his political career.Because now he can run as the “cancelled hero.”
OAN is going to back up a dump truck full of rubles for this fool.
OANN can’t afford Carlson. Newsmax could, but they’re next to be sued into oblivion by Dominion and then Smartmatic for their lies. Carlson himself is still to be sued by Dominion, SmartMatic and has the Grossberg case coming. The way it’s been going they all are heading towards financial ruin for their lies.
The Washington Post says Tucker’s been doing his show remotely from Maine for some time. Which means he’s got a ready-made studio to do NewsMax or the Blaze or his own thing…
or just youtube. cut out the middleman entirely.
Yean OAN or NewsMax will be fighting all over for him. Can’t see Blaze, probably couldn’t pay him, but maybe I am wrong though it would fight as he was the spiritual successor to Glenn Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories.
OANN and Newsmax are about to sued out of existence by Dominion and SmartMatic. Neilson estimates OANN’s viewership at about 14K. Newsmax is much larger, but still couldn’t survive two back to back nearly billion dollar losses. Not that Newsmax wouldn’t try to hire Carlson, but all they’d be doing is opening themselves to even more legal exposure.
He’ll start his own Blaze and make a billion, just like Beck.If he gets to take his FoxNation docs with him, he’s already got a good start. Fox can’t really show them now, so maybe they were part of the severance, if he wasn’t smart enough to own them in the first place.Like Beck, he won’t just land on his feet, he’ll land on an enormous pile of money.
Glenn Beck ain’t making any real money and has long fallen out of favor with the far-right. Blaze’s revenue was only at $2-10 million at last count and that’s way less than Tucker made at Fox.
Wow, didn’t know that. Mea culpa.
Haven’t heard anything about Beck for years, but last I heard, I was under the impression the Blaze had turned into a billion dollar empire. I assumed it was still out there in the underbelly of the internet, churning out money.Still think Carlsen’s followers and their money will flock to his new grift to buy gold, dehydrated food, and boner pills.
He can be even crazier now, and crazy sells.
Still think Carlsen’s followers and their money will flock to his new grift to buy gold, dehydrated food, and boner pills.Sure, that’ll happen. And without having to worry about network TV censors, he’ll go full Nazi as far as spewing awful bullshit. But the good news is, speaking of Beck, is that this is the beginning of the end for him. Like Beck and also Bill O’Reilly (remember him?), Mike Savage, Ann Coulter, Alex Jones, etc, etc, he’ll ultimately fade from the mainstream spotlight into obscurity as they move on to the next pundit, reduced to selling boner pills and dehydrated food ads instead of the tens of millions he was raking in on Fox and book deals. That, or like Steven Segal and Gérard Depardieu, become Putin’s PR poodles and general be a lame laughing stock, not nearly as big as he was.
“FoxNation documentary” is the Fox News of documentaries…
Uh, Blaze Media doesn’t make billions. Their financials aren’t public but analysts estimate their revenue in the low millions. Their profits would be a small fraction of that.
Good riddance to Fucker Carlson.
HA!while MSNBC host Chris Hayes merely tweeted, “Wow,” followed by a Hunger Games salute gif.
I personally loved the response to that here:
Speaking of Chris Hayes, I just checked the YouTubeTV guide to see what they replaced TC with (it’s Fox News Tonight), and noticed Chis Hayes has been replaced by Joe Scarborough Presents.Wonder if that’s just a one off? Guide runs out before tomorrow.
Tucker Carlson is just going to move to Newsmax, right? Are we sure we should be celebrating him (presumably) moving to a more extreme network with less oversight that will likely pay him more?Is there any chance that there’s an enforceable non-compete clause in his contract that doesn’t result in a 9-figure golden parachute? I doubt it.
Is it too early for a belt of ‘the Good Shtuff’?
Was it the sheep f***ing?Maybe the goat udder fondling?Perhaps it was those baby gerbils that disappeared along with their knee-high Habitrail?Just asking questions …
Good. Long overdue.
I’m pretty sure Tucker resigned because *they* chickened out before he could testify in court with a barnstorming speech which would have torn the veil off the whole deception and culminating with him declaring that the court *itself* was out of order and his supporters carrying him shoulder-high direct to the Oval Office.Yes, my medication review is tomorrow, why do you ask?
Sir, this is an Arby’s.
Biggest loss for Putin since Kherson.
Someone at RT accidentally fell out an apartment window and there’s an opening.
The official RT Twitter account literally offered Carlson a job when the news broke, which is just, wow.
Even if he doesn’t get that gig, he’ll still be replacing Steven Seagal and Gerard Depardieu as Putin’s latest celebrity toady.
They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.
(CNN called Lemon’s statement “inaccurate,” and claimed he was “offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter.”)Yeah… I’ve been laid off enough times to know that “offered an opportunity to discuss/answer questions” is what HR tells you AFTER telling you you’ve been laid off. Sounds like it happened like Lemon said.
Fun Fact: Carlson and Hunter Biden were once neighbors and good friends.“Hunter Biden was my neighbor. Our wives were friends. I knew him well. I
talked to him many times about addiction, something I know a lot
about,” Carlson said. “And I’ve said that. I think that Hunter Biden is
an addict and that’s why his life is falling apart, and I feel bad for
him. I’ve said that many times, and I mean it.”
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/05/tucker-carlson-asked-hunter-biden-for-recommendation-letter.htmlI was surprised.
Was looking for something about Carlson creeping on Cathy Areu and wow, what a cesspool that place must’ve been for her to work at.
A second plaintiff, Cathy Areu — a former Fox contributor and “Liberal Sherpa” on Tucker Carlson Tonight — also alleges sexual harassment by Henry. Additionally, she claims that Hannity offered his staff and crew $100 to take her on a date during preparation for a taping, and that she was “hardly ever, if ever at all” brought back on his show afterward. During her final 2018 appearance on Carlson’s show, she alleges she was kept on set by tech crew, who refused to take off her earpiece, so that Carlson could invite her to a hotel room where he was staying that night without his family. She declined, and has only been featured on his show three times since. She also said she declined a meeting with Kurtz, whose Media Buzz show she had appeared on regularly, at a hotel room one night in 2019, instead suggesting he meet her with a friend for dinner. He did not agree to the meeting, and afterward wouldn’t talk with her about possible advancement opportunities, telling her, “in sum and in substance, ‘You’re the only woman here who won’t come to my hotel room.’”
https://www.vulture.com/2020/07/tucker-carlson-sean-hannity-sexual-misconduct-lawsuit.htmlArticle’s from 2020. All gone now, except for Hannity.
Who’s the girl in the replacement joke tweet?
Remember when Lemon stood up for Carlson after that video of him being confronted in an outdoor store surfaced?Fuck ‘em both.