Dem
51
GOP
49
Quite a few outlets went with "Tuck Off!" Truth be told, if we had used that particular pun, we would have gone with: "Shut the Tuck Up!" However, that direction seems a bit obvious to us. On the other hand, when your shirttail is untucked, it indicates a state of disarray that was probably unplanned, and that will eventually be rectified. That seems to be a pretty good way to describe the situation at Fox right now, following their surprise termination of their marquee star, Tucker Carlson.
On Fridays, of course, we do schadenfreude of the week. It's probably a good thing we don't do schadenfreude of the year, because the award for 2023 would be already sewn up. Tuckkker (auto-correct seems to insist on that spelling, for some reason) is a terrible human being, regardless of your underlying politics. He spent the majority of his time on the air telling viewers whom to fear and/or hate, usually targeting various minority groups, including Black people, Jews, and trans folks. As he made his "case" for his agenda, the now-former Foxer used all sorts of dishonest persuasion techniques, including misrepresenting or outright inventing factual information. And like Rush Limbaugh, for whom Carlson served as spiritual heir, he didn't even believe most of the crap he was peddling, as revealed in the text messages made public courtesy of Dominion.
So, why was Carlson fired? That's the question everyone wants an answer to, even though a full and honest answer may never come. We've pondered the situation all day long, and decided we are going to present 10 theories. Note that by all indications, Carlson was caught by surprise, and did not instigate this in any way (in fact, when he found out, he was deep in preparations for the Monday edition of his bile). So, our list is going to focus only on motivations from the Fox side.
Also note that it is entirely possible, and even likely, that more than one theory is correct. And with that said:
Again, we don't know more than anyone else in the general public knows. But there is no way that the firing was completely unrelated to the Dominion case, so that has to be part of the solution to the mystery. At the same time, we suspect the Dominion settlement was a final straw, and this has been building for a while. If you insisted on us putting the pieces together, we would speculate that the Murdochs got tired of Carlson's salary and his bad behavior around the office, and that after the Dominion settlement, they had an opportunity to get rid of him while also creating a scapegoat for the whole mess and sending a message to every other Fox employee that a new era has arrived and nobody is safe if they don't keep their noses clean. Any one of these things might not have been enough to cause the network to push its biggest star out the door, but in aggregate, well, "Bye, Tucker!"
So, what is next for Fox? They are going to rotate hosts through the 8:00 p.m. slot until deciding on a permanent replacement for Carlson. In other words, though Fox isn't using this exact word, there are going to be a bunch of folks auditioning for Carlson's old job. If you asked us to guess who will be in that chair when the dust settles, we'd probably go with Greg Gutfeld. He seems to be able to deliver the ratings without nearly as much of the bile, and he's also a white guy, which we assume is a prerequisite for that slot on that network. Whoever succeeds Carlson will surely become a right-wing superstar; it's the network that's key, not the talent. After all, Bill O'Reilly was just as successful in that slot until he got canned.
And what is next for Carlson? We haven't seen his contract, of course, so we don't know what kind of noncompete verbiage he has, if any. He's not likely to show up on any other cable news network, even after his contract expires, as OAN/Newsmax/News Nation are too small potatoes, while CNN and MSNBC are too lefty (and, also, have both fired Carlson). Truth is, he's a prime candidate to start a podcast, either on his own or with one of the existing podcast networks, with him retaining partial ownership.
There's also been much talk, in the past, of Carlson going into politics. Certainly possible, as he lives in an era where experience is no longer required if one wants to be elected to high office, and he's a member of a party that is outright disdainful of experience and expertise. Still, the House of Representatives is surely "beneath" him and, as a resident of Florida, he's blocked for a long time from a U.S. Senate seat or from the governor's mansion. There's probably not a lane for him for a 2024 presidential run, and he's not going to be Trump's VP, since Trump does not forget the sort of insults Carlson lobbed his way. DeSantis/Carlson 2024, assuming Carlson establishes residence in some other state? Maybe, but we are increasingly doubtful that a flailing-in-the-polls DeSantis will take his shot this year. And if he doesn't, then there's no VP slot available to offer to Tucker.
There must have been something in the air yesterday, because Carlson wasn't the only high-profile a**hole to get booted out of his high-profile job; Aaron Rodgers was finally traded from the Packers, who have won a championship in this millennium, to the Jets, who haven't. And in addition, well, keep reading... (Z)