“I know that’s not very exciting, but it’s how these decisions get made at the highest level,” the executive added.
“There’s a lot of drama and intrigue, but this is always about managing risk vs reward,” the person said. One veteran television news executive told me that they believed the decision came down to a straightforward calculation by the Murdochs: Risk versus reward.
But we are unable to say definitively, for now, what led to the firing of one of the most powerful figures in modern American media and politics. We know the basic contours of how the decision was made (Lachlan Murdoch and Suzanne Scott came to agreement Friday evening about canceling Carlson’s show and informed him on Monday morning, just before publicly announcing the news). Which leaves us in a frustrating position. Carlson also offered no comment on Monday, ignoring my many texts and phone calls seeking information. “We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor,” Fox News said. For its part, Fox News did not offer an explanation for Carlson’s ouster in the short statement the network put out announcing the bombshell decision. It’s possible it was all of the above, given that each of the issues are intertwined. Perhaps it was related to ex-producer Abby Grossberg’s lawsuit against the network, which alleged rampant sexism and anti-Semitic behavior behind the scenes at Carlson’s show? Or perhaps it was profanity-laced remarks, some of which were redacted in the Dominion discovery documents, that Carlson privately made, disparaging his colleagues, including Fox brass? Or perhaps Rupert Murdoch, and his chief executive son Lachlan, wanted to send a message about who is ultimately in command at the company after having been embarrassed for months with the public airing of Fox’s dirty laundry?
But what specifically about that case prompted Carlson’s undoing remains murky. It goes without saying that it was no coincidence that the dismissal came just days after Fox’s historic settlement with Dominion Voting Systems. In the hours following Carlson’s abrupt dismissal from the right-wing channel, a number of explanations have emerged - all with plausibility. The news, which rocked both the media and political worlds, begs for an answer to that fundamental question.īut answering it is anything but easy. That is the question I have been asked - and expect to continue to be asked - more than any other after the seismic news that Fox News had fired its highest-rated host, Tucker Carlson.
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