On Wednesday’s episode of “The View,” its hosts poked fun at Tucker Carlson’s career slide following his abrupt departure from Fox News earlier this year. The segment began with the panel discussing a preview excerpt from “Network of Lies,” the upcoming book by journalist Brian Stelter that will examine the messy aftermath of Fox’s historic $787 million Dominion settlement. Carlson was fired less than a week after Fox settled the defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems, an election technology company.
View co-host Sunny Hostin claimed Carlson got the boot because “he cost them [Fox] too much” in the wake of the settlement and in anticipation of the 2024 election. She added that Carlson was fired as “part of the deal” from the Dominion settlement, a claim that Carlson has also made and one that Fox News and Dominion have both denied. In his book, Stelter clarified that Carlson’s firing wasn’t a condition of the settlement. It was Lachlan Murdoch — the CEO of Fox Corporation and eldest son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch — who made the executive decision to fire Carlson, Stelter reported. Hostin’s fellow co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Carlson has the “unique privilege” of being the only cable news host who has been fired by three cable outlets — CNN, MSNBC and Fox.
“I’ve seen it happen to too many people. I’ve known him for a decade, and he used to be the future George Will,” Griffin said. “He wanted to elevate the discourse, he wanted the Republican Party to be the party of ideas. How the mighty have fallen.” Griffin continued, comparing Carlson to Bill O'Reilly, who left Fox in 2017 and launched his podcast “No Spin News” shortly after. “They end up in somebody’s basement with a podcast,” Joy Behar mocked.
