It’s been over a week since Tucker Carlson was suddenly and unexpectedly fired from Fox News, and it’s still not been revealed why. Did it have to do with his allegedly sexist work environment? Was it petty revenge by honcho Rupert Murdoch? Did they actually grow a conscience about him spreading Jan. 6 misinformation and white supremacist conspiracy theories? Well, now a new theory has entered the ring.
A new report by The New York Times makes public a particularly troubling text Carlson sent one of his producers in the hours after the Jan. 6 riot. He describes a video he had recently watched that found a group of Trump supporters violently assaulting an “Antifa kid.” The video actually troubled him, in ways both good and not so good.
“Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously,” he wrote, then added, “It’s not how white men fight.”
He went on, saying he found himself “rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it.”
But he caught himself. “Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be,” he wrote. “I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”
The text reportedly set off fire alarms at Fox News when it was discovered on the eve of their pricey defamation trial with Dominion Voting Systems. (It’s not clear how it evaded company brass until the 11th hour.) They were worried it would be produced in the courtroom and create a firestorm that would make Fox News look even worse. The text was also reportedly a part of the reason they decided to settle for “only” $787.5 million.
The white supremacist-y nature of the text probably won’t bug Tucker’s fanbase, nor ruin his chances to find a next step. Then again, nor is it surprising.
(Via NYT)