‘See you soon’: Tucker Carlson breaks silence after exiting Fox

Former Fox host suggests a comeback in a Twitter video, criticising the level of debate on TV and saying there are few places where truth is told.

Tucker Carlson has spoken out after being fired from Fox. Picture: AFP.

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson spoke out Wednesday night, posting a video on Twitter where he criticised the level of debate on television shows and said there are few places where truth is told.

“Where can you still find Americans saying true things? There aren’t many places left. But there are some. And that’s enough,” he said in a two-minute video. “As long as you can hear the words, there is hope.”

“See you soon,” he said at the conclusion of the video, which was shot in his home studio.

Mr Carlson declined to comment.

Good evening pic.twitter.com/SPrsYKWKCE

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) April 27, 2023

The video marked Mr Carlson’s first public comments since his sudden departure from Fox News on Monday. The network said it was parting ways with him without giving a reason. The Wall Street Journal reported that the discovery of private messages in which Mr Carlson showed disregard for management and colleagues was a major factor in that decision.

Mr Carlson’s messages were part of a trove of emails and texts from Fox executives and hosts that came to light as a result of a defamation lawsuit against Fox filed by Dominion Voting Systems. The voting-machine company accused Fox’s news networks of airing false claims by hosts and guests that Dominion helped rig the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election in favour of Joe Biden. Fox News parent Fox Corp. last week agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle the dispute.

Fox Corp. and Wall Street Journal parent News Corp share common ownership. Mr Carlson, 53 years old, had been at the conservative news network for more than a decade. He emerged as an influential political voice during the Donald Trump era and became the highest-rated host in prime-time cable news averaging 3.2 million viewers in the first quarter of this year, according to Nielsen.

In Wednesday’s video on Twitter, Mr Carlson said major topics that will define the country’s future, such as war, civil liberties, emerging science, demographic change, corporate power and natural resources, don’t get talked about enough.

“Debates like that are not permitted in American media,” he said. “Both political parties and their donors have reached consensus on what benefits them, and they actively collude to shut down any conversation about it.”

“The other thing you notice when you take a little time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are,” he said. “They’re completely irrelevant. They mean nothing. In five years, we won’t even remember that we had them. Trust me, as someone who has participated.”

The ” Tucker Carlson Tonight” hour-long show aired weeknights at 8pm until last Friday. Fox News said a rotation of hosts would fill his seat until the network named a permanent anchor. Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade has hosted the temporarily renamed “Fox News Tonight” so far this week.

During his prime-time tenure at Fox News, Mr Carlson became a lightning rod for frequently making controversial remarks. That has led many blue-chip brands to back away from advertising during Fox News’s prime-time line-up – specifically Mr Carlson’s program – out of fear of being associated with controversial comments made by the host, according to ad buyers and former Fox News executives.

Mr Carlson recently drew criticism from both Democrats and Republicans for airing a segment that showed previously unaired footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Mr Carlson said that politicians had intentionally overstated the violence. “The footage does not show an insurrection or a riot in progress” in the Capitol, Mr Carlson said during an early March show.

Dow Jones