When An Irresistible Force, Meets An Immovable Object

When a successful media personality is fired by a successful news outlet, people realize that there’s more to success than the numbers and bottom line.

On Monday, April 24, at approximately 12:00 PM Eastern time, the country, perhaps the world, was shocked by the report that Fox News had fired Tucker Carlson. Since this sudden and, for many of the American people, disturbing announcement, the reason for the occurrence has been the subject of much controversy and speculation. This is especially true since Carlson was the most-watched primetime host on cable news in the country, averaging over 3 million viewers each night.

Fox News issued a brief statement on Monday that read, in part, “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We thank him for his service to the network as a host and prior to that as a contributor.” Fox also mentioned that until a permanent host is found, the 8:00 PM weekday primetime hour will be handled by a rotating group of Fox personalities.

Although Carlson has since spoken out, he has not, as far as I know, elaborated on his termination. He has said that the separation was amicable and had nothing but good words for Fox News. There’s been no further comment from Fox, other than the statement I indicated above. But it does appear that something did happen that created a dilemma for Fox, which caused it to take the unprecedented action it did. 

Some believe that the defamation lawsuit filed against the Fox News parent company, and several of its hosts, by Dominion Voting Systems, and the $787.5 million settlement was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And the fact that Fox’s most successful hosts, like Carlson, are right of center, and it is no secret that the powerful Murdoch family are ideologically left of center, I believe has always been an issue of contention. Since the firing, Fox has lost a tremendous part of its viewing audience both on cable and online. 

As I stated previously, there has been much speculation as to the reason for this unexpected turn of events. I must concur with an “insider source,” the reason had to do with Carlson’s appearance before the Heritage Foundation on the Saturday before the separation. It was the conservative think tanks’ 50th Anniversary, and the Fox Host was the guest speaker. Carlson spoke for about 36 minutes, and if you had the opportunity to listen, or read the text of his speech, you might understand why this could be the most plausible explanation. 

In his speech, found here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N32UPXGChgo), Carlson placed great emphasis on traditional values, and that the struggle for the future of America will be a conflict between “good vs. evil.” Some of his most vociferous comments involved religion, abortion, the Ukraine, leadership, and transgenderism. When speaking on abortion, in particular, Carlson explained that “If you’re telling me that abortion is a positive good, what are you saying? Well, you are arguing for child sacrifice, obviously.” Carlson then added, “When the Treasury Secretary stands up and says, ‘You know what you can do to help the economy, get an abortion,’ well that’s an Aztec principle actually, of human sacrifice.”

Following an invocation by Father Paul Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court justice, Carlson thanked him and expressed his regret for not having prayed as often as he should have for the country. From this point on Carlson began discussing issues that can be considered his personal ethos. He explained why he was there. “There are two specific reasons. The first and most immediate is that during this fall’s midterm elections, I got almost every single call wrong. And the second reason is to pay homage and to give some measure of thanks to Ed Feulner, President of Heritage, for giving me my first job, which changed my life."

Carlson spoke of his misgivings and the collapse of leadership in America. “The people remain noble and decent. So far as I can tell, I still live here. I’m never leaving. We have good people. We have terrible people in charge. And not just of our government, but of the institutions that I grew up in, the Episcopal Church, my high school, I can just go on and on and on. They’re all run by weak people. And it’s the same in marriage. Weak husband causes angry wife. Weak leaders cause an angry country. That’s true."

When speaking on transgenderism and pronouns, Carlson must have hit a nerve with the woke crowd and the radical LGBTQ movement when he said, “Really, you’re putting your pronouns in your email. You’re ridiculous. But no one else thinks it’s ridiculous. Oh no, it’s the pronouns in the email.” And he goes on, “What does that even mean? What does that even mean? You’re saying things you can’t define LBGTQIA+, who’s the plus? The plus is invited to my show anytime. Find a plus, and I’ll interview them. What’s it like to be a plus? Am I a plus? I’m serious. I feel like I’m an addition. Does that make me a plus? No one even knows what it is. And the whole society, LBGTQIA+. All right, What’s the plus? Oh, shut up, racist.”

Tucker Carlson’s speech covered a wide spectrum of issues. There can be little doubt that the Murdochs and heads of Fox News were not pleased with the content of his speech, and to say the least. Carlson went too far, and they could not countenance such remarks from one of their hosts. These were antithetical to their secular beliefs, and run counter to current establishment cultural norms.