According to a report from CNN's Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy, Tucker Carlson is waging a behind-the-scenes war with his bosses at Fox News because he is under fire for his often inflammatory comments on his prime time show and they are remaining silent and not supporting him publicly.
Carlson, whose show is one of the networks most popular as viewership has declined in the post-Trump era, is already problematic for the conservative network as advertisers have fled over his increasingly extremist rhetoric.
In 2020, the network won a defamation lawsuit based on comments Carlson made about one of Donald Trump's mistresses because lawyers for Fox "persuasively" argued 'any reasonable viewer arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism about the statements' Carlson makes," reported CBS.
These days Carlson has taken to attacking efforts to get the US fully vaccinated which has led to some of his Fox News colleagues to attack him. Then last week he accused the NSA of spying on him without presenting any evidence.
Those controversies, along with condemnation by others outside of Fox News, has Carlson looking for a public vote of confidence from his superiors — but he is only hearing crickets.
According to CNN, "Tucker Carlson is furious with Fox News executives for not vigorously defending him amid his evidence-free claims that the National Security Agency spied on him in a conspiracy to destroy his TV show, according to people familiar with the matter."
One Fox insider stated the Fox late-night personality is "furious" and that "Tensions are sky high."
A second source told CNN that Carlson is "extra-pissed" while admitting there has always been tension between Carlson and his bosses.
"Ordinarily a TV network would be quick to denounce such a thing, if it actually happened. But Fox News executives have been noticeably silent during the back and forth," CNN reports before adding that the network did offer a "vague and terse statement" that asserted, "We support any of our hosts pursuing interviews and stories free of government interference," which Carlson reportedly found "wholly insufficient."
The CNN report goes on to note that other Fox News shows have also kept their distance from Carlson's show.
"Carlson's show operates almost like its own planet, removed from the vetting and oversight that applies to normal cable news shows. That may be why other Fox programs have largely avoided covering Carlson's allegations on air — a sign that management doesn't know if the claims are legitimate," the report states.
But Carlson described CNN's reporting as "absurd" in a text on Sunday night.
"I'm not mad at anyone at Fox," he told a CNN reporter. "If I was, I'd say so. I'm mad at you for lying relentlessly. What a loathsome person you are. Please print that."
Shares