It was David against Goliath, but Dominion Voting Systems continues to add victories against the all-powerful Fox News. Just one week after the announcement of the million-dollar out-of-court agreement reached between the Canadian-based voting machine company and the business of tycoon Rupert Murdoch, Fox announced this Monday that Tucker Carlson -one of its star presenters- is leaving the news channel . “Fox News Media and Tucker Carlson have agreed to part ways. We appreciate his services to the network as a presenter and prior as a contributor,” the company said in a statement.
Carlson, 53, was one of the faces known throughout the country whose appearance was expected in the trial that the chain managed to avoid in extremis thanks to the rain of millions (787.5 million dollars, almost 720 million euros) that it agreed to pay Dominion to end a defamation suit the voting machine company had brought against it for spreading falsehoods about alleged fraud in the 2020 US election.
Dominion directly accused Carlson of hosting about twenty ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ shows in which he smeared the Canadian company. “Software shit is crazy,” wrote the presenter, referring to the voting systems that gave Joe Biden victory and about which former President Donald Trump sowed so much doubt (supported and amplified by Fox News) that he encouraged a mob of angry supporters to storm the US Capitol on January 6, causing the death of a police officer.
Carlson’s last show was broadcast on April 21, the company added in the statement. Waiting to find a replacement for one of the most popular faces in US news, the network said Fox News Tonight will now air as an interim show run by rotating company personalities.
Carlson is a big supporter of Trump, as well as other ultra-conservative leaders like Hungarian President Viktor Orban. In fact, last week the former Republican president gave the presenter his first interview since his appearance before a New York court in which he pleaded not guilty to the 34 charges against him. During the friendly talk, which Carlson called “historic”, Trump spoke mostly of geopolitics and warned that China could replace the US as the dominant superpower, which would be like “losing a World War”.
In his match with Fox to clear his name, Dominion can still win several rounds (and a few million more). The company, which five years ago was worth just 80 million dollars (73 million euros), has also sued Trump himself, in addition to the online news company Newsmax – for spreading, like Fox, lies about alleged electoral fraud – and former president’s lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell.
For the moment, Tucker Carlson has been the only victim of the Fox scandal, the largest agreement reached by an American media company, however there are other well-known personalities involved who could see his position in jeopardy. This is the case of Fox presenter Sean Hannity, whom Dominion also accuses of spreading false content during his shows.
Also on the tightrope would be Suzanne Scott, the CEO behind the conservative chain’s strategy and who would ultimately be responsible for the lies spread in Fox programs. Scott, the first woman in charge of the information chain, battered for two years by various sexual harassment and discrimination scandals, she was alerted by Dominion that she was broadcasting falsehoods.
Yesterday, in another American chain and for different reasons, another famous presenter stopped being one. CNN fired Don Lemon after 17 years on the air for controversial remarks earlier in which he claimed that a woman’s prime is in her 20s, 30s or “maybe 40s.” He did so in response to Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s claim that people over the age of 75 who want to serve in the White House must demonstrate their mental competence. He later apologized for the comments.
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