The Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson isn’t buying what CNN is selling about Jeff Zucker’s departure.
Breitbart reports Carlson as explaining the real reason why he believes that Zucker resigned, and it has nothing to do with an improper relationship with a co-worker.
Carlson’s skepticism
The official narrative, in case you missed it, is that Zucker resigned because he failed to disclose a relationship that he was having with Allison Gollust, CNN’s marketing chief.
Zucker explained the situation on Wednesday to staffers, writing:
As part of the investigation into Chris Cuomo’s tenure at CNN, I was asked about a consensual relationship with my closest colleague, someone I have worked with for more than 20 years. I acknowledged the relationship evolved in recent years. I was required to disclose it when it began but I didn’t. I was wrong. As a result, I am resigning today.
The problem with Zucker’s explanation, though, as Carlson pointed out Wednesday on Tucker Carlson Tonight, is that Zucker’s relationship with Gollust was already well-known.
Tucker explained:
Everyone in the TV business already knew about Zucker’s relationship with the head of CNN’s Marketing Department. Every executive in television has known about it for years, it was definitely not a secret. So Jeff Zucker did not get canned for his sex life.
If this is the case, though, then the big question is “why did Zucker get ‘canned?'”
The truth?
According to Carlson, Zucker’s departure had nothing to do with his relationship with Gollust and everything to do with the fact that CNN wanted to move on from Zucker.
“New management wanted him out of CNN for other reasons, including bad ratings, and maybe others that we’ll find out later,” Carlson said.
“So the relationship was just a pretext for what you saw,” Carlson added. “But as usual with CNN, you’ve got to wade through a lot of lies to get to what actually happened.”
Carlson, during the remainder of the segment, went on to speculate about “what happens next at CNN,” and he used the Zucker situation to speak about other contemporary issues.
Carlson, though, made it clear where he stands concerning both Zucker and CNN, the latter of which he called “poison.” As for Zucker, Carlson said, “we hated what he did,” adding, “we found it repugnant and destructive.”
