The terrible truth about the sacking of Tucker Carlson: someone just as odious will replace him

‘It was Tucker Carlson’s very blandness, the Tintin hair and look of perpetual confusion, that made him more objectionable than all of his predecessors.’ Photograph: Jason Koerner/Getty Images

It is a truism of the US news industry that no one is bigger than the network itself, an insight that Donald Trump – binned by Rupert Murdoch last year – may still be painfully processing, and which this week became suddenly clear to Tucker Carlson.

The former cable news host, who, it was announced on Monday, had “agreed to part ways” with the network, has hired an aggressive Hollywood lawyer – and in line with the preferred volume of the man generally, seems unlikely to go quietly. Even as the share price at Fox dropped in response to the news, wiping $500m (£400m) off its value in apparent flattery of Carlson, the question remains pertinent as to how much he, and those like him, matter as individuals.