It was largely believed that Carlson and other on-air hosts at the center of the case would emerge rather unscathed, and there were many reasons to believe this would be the case: Throughout the lawsuit, Carlson’s program helped keep Fox News on the top of the cable news ratings pile, and there was little indication that the settlement would change things. In a statement, a spokesperson for Fox News Media said the settlement “reflects Fox’s continued commitment to the highest journalistic standards,” and said that the court’s ruling in the matter found “certain claims about Dominion to be false.” The settlement did not require Fox to issue an on-air apology or retract any of the controversial statements its commentators or guests made. “Fox acknowledged what we needed it to acknowledge: spreading false claims comes with a huge price tag,” Poulos said. In a guest essay published by the New York Times last weekend, Dominion CEO John Poulos wrote that the settlement was about accountability, and charging Fox more than $787 million hit the network where it hurt. The mood inside Fox News has been “tense” over the last week, with the network’s parent company Fox Corporation and its board recently agreeing to pay more than $787 million to settle a defamation case brought by Dominion Voting Systems over election misinformation that was repeated on some Fox News opinion shows, including “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”įox has largely stood by the prime-time hosts who have come under fire by Dominion and media pundits alike over the last few months, particularly as salacious e-mails and text messages appeared to reveal a stark contrast between what its star on-air talent believed about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and what appeared on Fox News.ĭominion’s lawsuit last year alleged Carlson and others paraded conspiracy theories on Fox News related to the election - specifically, that there were voting irregularities with some of Dominion’s voting machines used by local governments. “He expected to come to work, have his meetings, just as he’s always done,” a source inside the Fox News newsroom familiar with the matter told The Desk on Monday. The news apparently came as quite a bit of a surprise to Carlson himself, who was “caught off-guard” and “totally unaware” that he was about to be dismissed from the cable news channel he’s called home for 14 years. (Photo by Gage Skidmore)įox News Media sent shockwaves through the media world on Monday when a spokesperson announced its Fox News Channel had parted ways with its highest-rated prime-time host, Tucker Carlson. Former Fox News Channel commentator Tucker Carlson attends an event in Phoenix, Arizona in 2014.
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