MEGHAN MCCAIN: Tucker had a death wish: He’s been fired three times now – and attacked his own colleagues live on-air. Here’s the truth behind his reckless fall from Fox News stardom
As the dust settles from one of the biggest media industry bombshells in years, I find myself asking: Did Tucker Carlson actually want to be fired from Fox News?
There’s a lot of head scratching going on just a few days after Monday’s Cable News Massacre. Carlson and CNN poster boy Don Lemon were let go on the same day, less than an hour apart, and it set tongues wagging.
At least Lemon’s firing made some sense. Known for his dramatic, empty progressivism and deeply unserious commentary, Don had been causing drama and embarrassment for his colleagues and company for years.
It was even recently reported that decades ago Lemon sent veteran journalist Kyra Phillips, a dear friend of mine, threatening text messages from an anonymous phone number in a fit of apparent jealously. CNN denied it happened.
I have other friends who have worked alongside Don and the nicest thing they have to say about him is that he’s a wildly egotistical misogynist. So, no huge surprise, right?
But Tucker is a different story. Say what you want about his politics and revisionist take on the January 6th riots, but he was well-liked inside the walls of 1211 6th Avenue, the headquarters of Fox News Channel.
That is – until recently.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Fox News lawyers were trying to avoid revealing Tucker’s private messages in legal filings related to that costly lawsuit with Dominion Voting Systems.
Tucker had reportedly called a senior Fox News executive ‘the c-word.’ Yet, when the Fox News host heard that his insult was being swept under the rug, he was upset about it.
As the dust settles from one of the biggest media industry bombshells in years, I find myself asking: Did Tucker Carlson actually want to be fired from Fox News?
Carlson and CNN poster boy Don Lemon were let go on the same day, less than an hour apart, and it set tongues wagging.
‘He wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive,’ the WSJ reported.
Ouch. Not exactly the behavior of Mr. Popular.
Then, there are the allegations of one of his former producers, Abby Grossberg. She claims everything from egregious misogyny to antisemitism to bullying.
The ex-booker says her workspace on the first day of her employment on Team Tucker was covered in pictures of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi wearing a plunging one-piece swimsuit.
Grossberg also alleged that she was once called into the office of Tucker’s executive producer and asked point blank if Fox News host Maria Bartiromo was having an affair with Congressman Kevin McCarthy.
Beside all that, she says the Carlson Crew made her life a living hell and drove her to mental collapse.
Now to be clear, these are allegations. And Grossberg may have her day in civil court. But, I know, for a fact, that Tucker was breaking the norms of Fox News company culture.
He went after my husband, who is a Fox News contributor, after Ben criticized Republicans for holding up McCarthy’s election to become House Speaker,
On his primetime show, Tucker played a clip of Ben’s appearance on a Fox Business show and then proceeded to call him a ‘buffoon’ and a ‘moron.’ That’s just clearly out of bounds.
The ex-booker says her workspace on the first day of her employment on Team Tucker was covered in pictures of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi wearing a plunging one-piece swimsuit. (Above) Abby Grossberg, ex- Tucker Carlson producer
From my time working at Fox News, I know that it is a company that deeply values loyalty and comradery among talent. When I began my time at 1211, I was told by then Fox News co-President Bill Shine that opinions of colleagues were to be respected. As they say, there’s ‘no shooting inside the tent.’
For Tucker that clearly went out the window. That was seriously reckless behavior.
It’s surely not a stretch to suggest that the ‘e-word’ had something to do with his epic fall from the perch of primetime stardom. And I mean ‘ego.’
He started his career at Fox News playing a conservative goofy dad while hosting the weekend edition of Fox and Friends and later moved to primetime to take over the 9PM hour after Megyn Kelly jumped ship for a short-lived stint at NBC News.
Then Tucker really took off after the giant of cable news, Bill O’Reilly, was fired over sexual harassment claims.
In the coveted 8PM timeslot, Tucker quickly became a populist icon and gained a reputation for saying – what many believed – to be the unsayable.
In that light, it’s understandable that he thought he was above the rules.
Sources are claiming that he ‘had come to believe himself bigger than the network—a cardinal sin in Fox Corp. Chair Rupert Murdoch’s empire—and was increasingly operating as his own island.’
I don’t doubt it. But still, it all doesn’t make sense. Tucker is no dummy. He must have been aware that those who think they fly higher than the Murdochs end up grounded.
This is the same old story whether at Fox News or elsewhere. Just ask Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann or Chris Cuomo. Cable news star gets big – their heads expand to gargantuan proportions – and then pop.
Then Tucker really took off after the giant of cable news, Bill O’Reilly, was fired over sexual harassment claims. (Above, Carlson on MSNBC)
Tucker is no dummy. He must have been aware that those who think they fly higher than the Murdochs end up grounded. (Above, Carlson on CNN)
So again, I ask: What was he thinking?
Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman, a long time and fairly reliable chronicler of all things Fox News, reports that Tucker was blindsided by his firing, and he very well might have been.
But possibly, whether he knew it consciously or not, Tucker wanted out.
Could Tucker have had a ‘career death wish’?
He’s now been fired by all three major cable news networks: Fox, CNN and MSNBC. That’s a pattern. And let’s be honest. It’s not a bad way to go.
He was making up to an estimated $20 million a year. He owns two beautiful homes in Maine and Florida, where he was recently caught by DailyMail.com photographers driving to dinner in a golf cart with his wife – a grin stretching ear to ear.
So, is this the end for Tucker? I doubt that.
A significant chunk of his massive audience will follow him and he’s the co-founder of the news website The Daily Caller. I suspect he’ll be back – somewhere.
Sure, he was fired by Fox News, but maybe – just maybe – he wanted it that way.
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