There has been ample speculation about what made Fox News decide to suddenly "part ways" with top-rated host Tucker Carlson last week, little or none of which has actually been officially confirmed.
Yet, a major mainstream media outlet thinks it has found the reason -- a 2021 text message from Carlson with observations about a video of an assault he'd watched that supposedly alarmed top executives at the network, the Conservative Brief reported.
The claim that the text was alarming to Fox executives is odd, however, given that the message ironically featured Carlson sharply criticizing the assailants, at least three "white men," while distinctly humanizing the victim of the assault, a member of the far-left "Antifa," who is clearly one of his avowed political enemies.
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the text message from Carlson "set off a panic at the highest levels of Fox" just prior to the scheduled start of the trial in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit that was avoided by a last-minute settlement of $787.5 million.
That message, sent to a producer of his show in the early hours of Jan. 7, 2021, shortly after the Capitol riot, was reportedly uncovered during the discovery process of the Dominion lawsuit and was only recently revealed to network executives even though it remains completely redacted in public filings.
The newspaper reported that the particular text message, in conjunction with other allegedly misogynistic and offensive messages sent by Carlson, was the purported final straw that "contributed to a chain of events that ultimately led to Mr. Carlson’s firing."
The first part of Carlson's Jan. 7, 2021 text message to an unnamed producer read: "A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living s--t out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight."
The Times keyed in on the remark about "how white men fight" and asserted that it "alarmed the Fox board" as it seemingly fueled the incessant assertions from Carlson's critics that he is an alleged advocate for "white nationalism" and believes in "racial superiority."
As such, the Fox board and executives were supposedly concerned that the otherwise publicly redacted message could be fully revealed during a trial if Carlson were called to the stand to testify and create more headaches for the network -- though The Times acknowledged that it was entirely unclear if Carlson would even take the stand, much less that Dominion's attorneys would be able or even have a reason to publicly reveal that particular message.
Nonetheless, an outside law firm was immediately brought in to conduct an independent message of Carlson and that message, in conjunction with other alleged sexist and offensive messages and prior controversial remarks on his show, led to the decision to "part ways" with the top-rated host who was now deemed to be "more of a problem than an asset and had to go."
Ironically, while focusing on and misconstruing Carlson's clear critique of the "dishonorable" manner in which the three assailants had jumped the lone "Antifa" victim -- who almost assuredly was the same race as his attackers -- the Fox News executives, along with The Times, apparently glossed over or ignored the remainder of Carlson's text message that humanized the victim and criticized himself for his reflexive partisanship while watching the video.
"Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it," Carlson wrote. "Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be."
"The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering," he added. "I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?"
As the full message makes clear, Carlson was not advocating for "racial superiority" or "white nationalism" or emphasizing partisan hatred for an individual who undoubtedly hated him right back, but rather was introspective and self-corrective -- which would presumably be something that the executives would want to highlight and encourage, not be alarmed by and punish.
