ALDOUS J. PENNYFARTHING: What's the real reason Tucker Carlson was fired? Here are three scintillating new theories

 

 

They're coming for your guns.  Then they're coming for you.  They're going to take you away and make you into lampshades.  And the Jews will run the country.  And nobody will be safe.  But don't sweat it: you'll just be a lampshade.

 

 

Aldous J Pennyfarthing

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Wednesday April 26, 2023 · 5:44 PM MDT

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There are no doubt dozens of legitimate reasons Tucker Carlson should have been rousted from his lofty media perch—some we know about and some we likely never will. 

 

For instance, he frequently offered aid and comfort to both Vladimir Putin and COVID-19 while throwing up rhetorical roadblocks to immigrants, whose only sin was bolstering our economy with their hard work and hard-earned dollars. He also corrupted an entire generation of Americans, who will now be forced to leave their grandchildren foyers full of Trumpy Bears, Franklin Mint coins, and Pall Mall-redolent MyPillows in lieu of actual inheritances.

But what’s the real reason? Good question, intrepid truth-seeker! Indeed, the real mystery here is how a character as patently loathsome as Carlson could find a job squeegeeing peep show booths, much less swaying the hearts and minds of millions of slack-jawed yobs who’d have otherwise spent their evenings bobbing for deep-fried Oreo detritus.

RELATED STORY: Tucker Carlson doesn't have a First Amendment right to work at Fox

While competing theories have been flying fast and furious, so far the only explanation we can definitely rule out is that he wanted to spend more time with his family. In fact, the only theory that could be less credible than that is his family wanted to spend more time with him. 

That said, here are three new, tantalizing theories about Tucker’s sudden defenestration that have percolated up through the current media landscape.

Theory No. 1: Rupert Murdoch was turned off by Carlson’s religious extremism.

This one comes courtesy of the redoubtable Gabriel Sherman at Vanity Fair.

According to [a] source, Fox Corp. chair Rupert Murdoch removed Carlson over remarks Carlson made during a speech at the Heritage Foundation’s 50th Anniversary gala on Friday night. Carlson laced his speech with religious overtones that even Murdoch found too extreme, the source, who was briefed on Murdoch’s decision-making, said. Carlson told the Heritage audience that national politics has become a manichean battle between “good” and “evil.” Carlson said that people advocating for transgender rights and DEI programs want to destroy America and they could not be persuaded with facts. “We should say that and stop engaging in these totally fraudulent debates…I’ve tried. That doesn’t work,” he said. The answer, Carlson suggested, was prayer. “I have concluded it might be worth taking just 10 minutes out of your busy schedule to say a prayer for the future, and I hope you will,” he said. “That stuff freaks Rupert out. He doesn’t like all the spiritual talk,” the source said.

[...]

Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson’s messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch’s ex-fiancée Ann Lesley Smith, the source said. In my May cover story, I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was “a messenger from God.” Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. “Rupert just sat there and stared,” the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show.

Not to defend Murdoch, who is to journalism what 19th-century smallpox was to blankets, but I wouldn't marry someone who called Carlson a “messenger from God” either—unless she clarified that God’s message was “eat hot death, Grandma.”

Theory No. 2: Murdoch got fed up with Tucker’s more extreme views, including his stance toward Ukraine.

This one comes from reporters Sarah Ellison and Jeremy Barr at The Washington Post.

[A]ccording to people familiar with their conversation and Murdoch’s thinking, the 92-year-old billionaire founder of Fox News had grown weary of some of Carlson’s increasingly far-right commentary on his nightly prime-time show — as well as some of the swaggering host’s behind-the-scenes attitude.

At that particular moment, he was disturbed by Carlson’s stance on Ukraine. A graphic on Carlson’s show had referred to Volodymyr Zelensky, president of the besieged nation, as a “Ukrainian pimp,” and the host had repeatedly excoriated the U.S. government for providing aid to its defense against Russian attacks.

These stances had made Carlson a star on Russian state-controlled TV. But they had drawn furious blowback from powerful Republicans who see U.S. support for Ukraine as a bulwark in a fight for freedom and democracy — some of whom had Murdoch’s ear. After one such on-air segment in mid-March, Murdoch joined a Fox newsroom meeting to loudly challenge Carlson’s message, according to people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of newsroom confidentiality policies.

Wait, all it takes to get fired from an opinion show these days is to reflexively—and with increasing frequency—defend a bloodthirsty war criminal who indiscriminately bombs civilians and threatens the survival of liberal democracy around the globe? Weird.

Theory No. 3: Tucker called a top Fox executive the c-word.

This one seems the least likely, and not just because it comes from The Wall Street Journal, whose op-eds, at least, are what you might get if you suspended George Will from his bedroom ceiling by a pair of bespoke nipple rings and told him to fill 12 column inches on the history of the Laffer curve. Also, one might imagine Tucker used the c-word at least a half-dozen times before breakfast every day, so this feels a bit like ad hoc excuse-making.

Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Carlson, Fox News’s most-watched prime-time host, wasn’t impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message, the people said. Mr. Carlson said comments he made about former President Donald Trump—“I hate him passionately”—that were in the court documents were said during a momentary spasm of anger, while his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring.

Okay then! So to recap: Claiming one hates the worst man on the planet “passionately” is just something one says in anger, whereas an incident in which one refers to a superior as a “c-word” really needs to be part of the public record.

RELATED STORY: Calling Fox senior executive a c-word was apparently the last straw for Tucker Carlson

And so the mystery deepens. Why oh why would anyone ever give such an irreproachable human being a pink slip? Alas, the world may never know.

Carlson became a bigger Putey lapdog than even Trump.