In less than a week, Fox News has agreed to pay out $787.5m in a huge legal settlement and fired its most popular host, in an unprecedented crisis for the US’s most-watched cable news channel just as a critical presidential election cycle begins.
With the 2024 election essentially already under way, rightwing Fox News must now wrestle – quickly – with how to hold on to the audience that Tucker Carlson, the incendiary rightwing extremist who was fired on Monday, captured and cultivated during his murky seven-year tenure as a primetime host.