The day before Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News began in a Delaware court, Fox’s board and management made a startling discovery that the network and one of its members, Tucker Carlson, had broken up. I reached my breaking point. top star.
The personal message sent by Mr. Carlson, which was redacted in legal documents, indicated that he had made very offensive and crude remarks.
Despite the fact that Fox’s legal team had been receiving these messages for months, the board and some senior management learned the details for the first time, blaming a crisis at the highest levels of the company. said two people familiar with the matter. discussion.
The discovery put pressure on Fox’s leadership to avoid a trial where Mr. Carlson would be questioned about the content of private messages Mr. Carlson exchanged in the aftermath of the incident, not to mention many others in the network. Because I was trying to find a way to do the 2020 presidential election.
Two days after the board’s discovery, Fox settled for $787.5 million, believed to be the largest defamation lawsuit ever.
Some people familiar with the Fox debate said the edited message was the catalyst for one of the most important decisions Fox and its leaders — the father-son team of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch — have made in years. said. It’s the highest-rated, highest-grossing primetime show and the face of the network in the Trump era.
The company dismissed Fox News Media chief executive Suzanne Scott on Monday after a phone call.
Ultimately, according to one of the people familiar with the internal discussions, Lachlan Murdoch viewed the ousting of Mr. Carlson as a “business decision,” similar to the Dominion settlement.
Fox had no further comment beyond an initial brief statement announcing that “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to separate.”
Carlson and his attorney, Brian Friedman, did not respond to requests for comment.
Contents of message edited by Fox’s board of directors and other executives shortly before trial focused on whether Fox News deliberately broadcast false claims about the Dominion and its voting machines after the 2020 election Unredacted portions of the documents, including one in which Carlson mocked former President Donald J. Trump, were widely reported in the weeks before the trial.
Concerned that Mr. Carlson’s actions could cause harm beyond the Dominion case, the board considered using an outside law firm to investigate the top-rated host, it said. Two said.
By the time the board reviewed the redacted materials, Lachlan Murdoch was working to seek an out-of-court settlement with Dominion. He was briefed on the discussion.
After years of Fox’s endorsement of Mr. Carlson, the company’s executives said a variety of factors led to Mr. Carlson garnering protests and advertiser boycotts by trafficking conspiracy theories and tales of white dissatisfaction. led to the decision to fire Mr. Carlson. However, they admit that discovering the content of edited text messages was a key factor in his eventual dismissal.
The role that messages created in Dominion’s discovery process helped end Mr. Carlson’s career at Fox shows the seriousness of the damage the lawsuit has done to the company. Fox was repeatedly hit by undermining disclosure as it went to trial. There would have been no need to hand over other people’s messages, including
Over the past two years, the Murdochs’ patience has started to wane, according to a person familiar with the Murdochs’ complaints. Mr. Carlson has caused new headaches with his conspiracy theory program, including false portrayals that the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol building may have been orchestrated by the federal government. emerged as a non-existent person. Then, as the Dominion case headed for trial, he told audiences last month that the riots were actually a peaceful exercise, and that House Republican Speaker Kevin McCarthy provided Mr. Carlson with security footage exclusively. said using
Statements made on his show were only a small part of the Dominion lawsuit, but the disclosures related to his message played a huge part and added to the company’s public relations woes.
It’s worth noting that the publicly announced message had the ability to shock, even compared to the extreme rhetoric Mr. Carlson was allowed to use on air. In one of them, he mentioned attorney Sidney Powell. He was a vulgar, misogynistic slur, a major proponent of the debunked theory that the Dominion machine shuffled the votes. In a cache of redacted messages, he used similar vulgar language to describe senior Fox News executives. The Wall Street Journal reported on wednesday.
A person briefed on the content of the redacted material said one of the messages was particularly offensive, furthering the concerns of the company’s top executives.
Dominion’s attorneys planned to pressure the judge to use the content of the redacted message to question Mr. Carlson. Lawyers prepared dozens of potential questions for the host, along with hypothetical rebuttals that Carlson thought he might use to deflect the toughest questions. Both sides differed on whether much or part of Mr. Carlson’s unedited messages would be seen in court. Had a view – a difference that would have been sorted at trial by the presiding judge, Eric M. Davis of the Delaware Superior Court.
But the settlement of the Dominion case did not end the threat posed by the message. The New York Times, Associated Press, and National Public Radio have disputed the redaction, which means it may still be published.
And Mr. Carlson’s indiscretion exposed him. Given how polarized he’s been on and off Fox News, there’s likely even more evidence of embarrassing or inappropriate behavior. It is shown that he is talking outside the camera about whether he will accept his appearance during the broadcast. In another video, we hear him talking about a woman he finds “delicious.”
His text could also take into account the software company’s pending defamation lawsuit. smartmatic — often combined with Dominion in the wildest versions of stolen election conspiracy theories — hostile and discriminatory in a lawsuit brought against Fox and also by former Carlson producer Abby Grosberg We advocate a positive work environment.
All of this mixed in when the network finally cut Carlson’s show this week, according to multiple people familiar with the internal discussions.
His rude resignation made Mr. Carlson the latest on the list of notable hosts and executives.Fox decided to show the door after Murdoch concluded it was no longer worth looking after. Glenn Beck (2011), Sarah Palin (2013), Roger Ailes, Network co-founder (2016) and Bill O’Reilly (2017).
Despite the political clout he wielded and the money his top-rated show brought to the network, Mr. Carlson eventually found out that he served for Murdoch’s pleasure.
Their final decision wasn’t as quick and emotional as the two-paragraph statement the network sent in announcing his dismissal: “We thank him for his service.”
Katie Robertson, Nicholas Confessor and Michael M. Greenbaum contributed to the report.
